33

I had no problem turning 30.  Or 31.  Or 32.  I don't have a problem turning 33, but it does feel really old.  Much older than the first 3 years of my 30's.  33 is not yet the mid-thirties, but it's definitely early to mid- thirties.

 

My day started at 3:30 am.  Maybe Elliott thought it was funny, waking up when there was a 3-3 in the time.  I didn't find it amusing.  At all.  I rocked and rocked and rocked him.  He would settle down and I would think he was asleep, but the second I stopped rocking he would arch his back and scream. He finally dosed off at about 4:45.  I put him down and he woke up about 49 seconds later.  OK, maybe it was more like 7 minutes.  I nursed him and then tried again until 5:30 to get him to go to sleep.  At 5:30 I gave up.  Michael had decided at 5:00 to take the day off, so I passed Elliott to him and went to go sleep with Spencer.

 

If somebody had told me, 4.5 years ago, that sleeping with Spencer would be preferable to sleeping with ANYBODY else, I would have laughed in their face.  But Spencer is an awesome person to sleep with now.  Mostly because he'll fall asleep and sleep for 11 hours straight.  We cuddled and slept until 8:15 when Michael came to get me because Elliott was hungry and tired (I wonder why).   Spencer climbed into our bed and cuddled with Michael when I started nursing.  Elliott fell asleep, I put him in the co-sleeper and climbed back into bed where Spencer and I cuddled some more.  After a few minutes Spencer and Michael got up.  And then......Elliott and I slept until 10:45.  It was FANTASTIC.

 

While I was having my delightful birthday nap Michael went to Dunkin Donuts and got me an iced coffee.  It was extra delicious today.  I nursed Elliott again and then got ready to take Spencer to school.  I hadn't planned on Michael being home today so I actually had a chance to volunteer in Spencer's class.  There was already a volunteer for the first half, so I went home and went back at snack time.  We brought popsicles to share with everyone for Spencer's birthday.

 

It was nice to be back in his classroom.  I haven't volunteered since November.

 

The classroom aid

 

Spencer's wonderful teacher.

 

Once we got home from school Elliott went down for a nap and I made Spencer's 5 shirt.  And by "made" I mean I ironed on a patch.

He gave it a test run before he wears it tomorrow.  I have no idea how he is about to be 5.  Seriously.  I was JUST barely at my 28th birthday dinner when my water broke.

We hadn't planned on going out to dinner for my birthday because we're going to go out tomorrow night for Spencer's birthday.  But, I needed something more exciting to blog about (seriously, I can't believe you're still reading.  The first part of my day was b-o-r-i-n-g) and I needed a reason to actually look semi-decent for some pictures.  Spencer wanted to wear his 4 shirt since today is the last day he will ever be 4.

We still had a gift card for The Cheesecake Factory left over from Christmas, so we thought that was as good a reason as any to head on over.  The last time we were there was the day I found out I was pregnant with Elliott.  That was Mother's Day 2011.  We sat one booth away from where we sat last time.  How can I remember that, but not what I wore to work yesterday?

Spencer mentioned to the waitress that it was my birthday and that his was tomorrow.  We were *hoping* that would score us a free dessert, but no.  We paid SEVEN DOLLARS for this slice.  And it was worth EVERY. DAMN. PENNY. 

 

We had promised Spencer that he could open one present when we got home.  His presents have been sitting out since Sunday and it has been driving him crazy. 

 

I love this sequence of pictures, so I'm including all of them.

 

Look at that face!

 

You would think that he would get bored of Thomas stuff since he owns just about everything Thomas that Matel makes, but he was delighted with this new Thomas game.

Then it was time to change the block calendar to tomorrow's date.  Spencer and Michael do this together every night.  Michael had been doing it since we got the calendar (about 6 months after we got married), but Spencer asked if he could start doing it.  It's a job Michael was glad to share. 

I couldn't resist doing a comparison of Spencer the day he turned 4 and his last day of being 4.  I couldn't actually figure out if he was 4 years 364 days or 4 years 365 days old today.  Anybody?  Anybody?

 

All in all it was a great birthday.  The 3:30 wake-up call was pretty sucky, but without it Michael would have gone to work, I wouldn't have gotten all my morning sleep and I wouldn't have been able to volunteer in Spencer's class.  So maybe Elliott knew what he was doing afterall!

 

Up next:  Spencer's birthday tomorrow

A special picture post on Friday (you'll see)

and

Spencer's Candy Land Birthday party on Saturday