Reflection.

I'm 36 years old today.

Is it time for my mid-life crisis?

Probably not. These last twelve months have been pretty amazing. Sure, there's been some bumps (craters?) in the road, but all in all, I've got a lot to be happy about.

Unfortunately for me, little miss fussypants hit the tired wall earlier than usual, so my plans to go out to get something tasty for dinner got tanked by my crying child. Tigger is to blame. You will understand when you see the video. So, it looks like I will be doing the pregnant lady kitchen forage. So far, I've had a Special-K bar, a handfull of cheesits and a can of V-8.

Big Man should be rolling in around midnight; he's currently at the Detroit airport. Can't wait to see him, but probably won't be able to stay up that late!

Lots of flowers today--my day started with Dani, of course. At 7am, mom and dad called to sing "Happy Birthday" to me. My co-worker Heather came in with flowers for me, which was super-thoughtful, and then Big Man sent some, as did my dad--roses just like every year, this year 3 red and 6 white for 36. Here's a shot of the flowers from Big Man and dad; the others are still at the office to cheer me up tomorrow.

Holy distracting wallpaper Batman!

And, in the spirit of birthday silliness, and probably a little bit of payback, as I typically send Chang the most ridiculous of gag gifts, Chang sent me this:

It's an egg separator. You crack the egg into the head, and tilt the head and the egg white comes out the nose. Didn't try it out yet--can't guarantee that I actually will. Realized tonight that the baby may be born on Chang's birthday. Since it's a c-section we will get to pick the day, and if Chang's is one of them, I'm picking it! I will also (again) be raising the topic, if it's a boy, of Thomas Chang, because, honestly, I think it would be hella fun to have a little "Tommy Chang" running around (I promise to refrain from a Cheech and Chong themed nursery, and yes, I know it was Tommy Chong and not Tommy Chang, but it is close enough so bite me.). Somehow, I don't think Big Man will let me though, he's pretty unreasonable like that.

Dani and I had a little fun in the yard today. She's no longer afraid of grass, and was tearing across the lawn tonight.

Unfortunately, Dani is still afraid of Tigger, but in an almost angry way. Tigger makes her cry, yet she is oddly fascinated by him, and continues to touch him, but hits him too. This was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back tonight--after Tigger, we needed some quiet baby time--she was ready for bed. I think she fell asleep in about .8 seconds. Hopefully she won't have bad dreams about Tigger. She actually cries in her sleep, and writhes/rolls around in her crib, fast asleep on fairly regular basis. It really makes me wonder what kind of dreams babies have? Is there no milk in the bottle? Stale puffs?

One cool thing that Dani did tonight--a first for me, although when I tell Big Man, he will probably inform me she's been doing it for weeks. I was giving her a bottle before bed, and midway through, she pulled it out of her mouth, took it from me and began to feed herself! It was pretty awesome, like Dani's birthday present to me.