How We Celebrate Half-Birthdays

We celebrate half-birthdays chez chicks, and last night was Ninna's. I decided to celebrate half-birthdays over a year ago for no particular reason other than this one: why not celebrate half-birthdays? That's only two personal special days a year per chick, which means 363 days a year are still just normal days for them. And we do it as a minor special day--not a ton of fanfare, but still chick-focused.

A half-birthday in our house is NOT:

*a day for presents
*a day for cards
*a day for huge decorations, outings, guests, etc.

A half-birthday in our house IS:

*a day for which the chick chooses the entire dinner and cake/dessert
*a day on which we sing "Happy Half-Birthday" and blow out candles
*a big love-fest for the chick who is six months older

For dinner, Ninna chose sausage in hot dog buns with ketchup and rice with nutritional yeast. I know I often name-drop healthy food, like whole wheat this, organic that, CSA, blah blah blah, but I have a confession to make: the chicks love sausage. I don't know how this happened. I probably went about fifteen years without eating sausage myself (twelve of which I was vegetarian), and I'm pretty sure I had never cooked it in my life until two years ago or so, but somehow sausage has become a part of our lives. We don't eat it often, but we do it eat it sometimes, and the chicks love it. From talking to other moms, I've learned that this is a common beloved food among kids. Weird.

And since sausage-filled hot dog buns next to a pile of rice covered in nutritional yeast does not make a blog-worthy photo, or a photo for the faint of heart, I'll spare you the imagery. Instead, what you see above is the cake: our favorite chocolate sour cream cake from Cook Something: Simple Recipes and Sound Advice to Bring Good Food into Your Fabulous Lifestyle (you did know I have a fabulous lifestyle, right?), homemade whipped cream, and raspberries. It's a little more photogenic than our dinner.

After the dinner, the cake, and a little more talk about how we love Ninna, that was that. A very simple way to add an extra special day into your year.

And this is where this post should end--with an explanation of our little tradition. But instead, this is where things get weird. My friend downstairs has a little boy whose birthday is two days after Ninna's. I reminded her on Wednesday that their half-birthdays were coming up. Last night, after the chicks went to bed, I delivered some cake to her, and we discussed her plans for their son's half-birthday. A few minutes later I got a phone call that went something like this:

**Friend: "I'm pretty sure their half-birthdays are in November."

**Me: "What? No."

**Friend: "Yeah, I just counted three times. I got November."

**Me: "Really? June, July, August, September, October, Noooooooovemmmmber. Oh. Crap."

Before you think I have the math skills of a three-year old, I promise you it's not that bad. I made it through calculus in high school; I taught basic algebra in the GRE and GMAT test prep classes I taught many years ago; I've even looked for math games as an adult (and, not really enjoying Sudoku, have come up short in that realm). Really, I can do basic math. I will blame this on exhaustion. I'm a tired mama, and I was worried about forgetting her half-birthday since it's not an obvious holiday.

And now there's no turning back. She is so certain that she's 4 1/2 that she's brought it up at least ten times in the last two days, once going so far as to tell me that she can tell that she feels a little taller. No need to confuse her at this point.

And it could be worse, right? What if I miscounted and told her she was turning six on her next birthday instead of five? When I put it in that context, this isn't all that bad. So on November 7th, I'll just have a little laugh with myself. And as for tonight, I think I'll try to get some sleep! I'll see you tomorrow for Self-Portrait Saturday if you're not totally freaked out by my insanity.