birthday season.



To some people this particular time of year is known as "lent," "the start of daylight savings time," or "early spring," but for me, it's birthday season.

You see, today marks the twenty-second birthday of my baby sister, Beth. Saturday was our little brother Charlie's tenth birthday. In three weeks the third-born, Eric, will reach eighteen. And I, the lone summer birthday, will be twenty-five this year. Good to know the breeding years run long in this, our great family.  


Our parents have May and June covered, and most of our close non-immediate family is peppered in the next month or two to boot.

  

And yes, we have a ten year-old. He was a surprise! And my, what a surprise he has been. We taught him to say 'dystentery' before his second birthday and by three he was unsettlingly familiar with the use of sarcasm. He is a product of us, his three elder siblings. We've created a monster.

So, we're a little spread out. And, much to my chagrin, we've all pretty much been experimented on with different parentling styles and philosophies. It's mass confusion.

All these birthdays constitute a lot of birthday cake, and if my mother is a true expert on anything other than garage-sale-ing and re-upolstering, it's the creation of a fine, fine birthday cake. I'm literally drooling right now thinking of a little concoction I often request with chocolate, strawberries, whipped cream, and more drizzled-on chocolate. MMMMMMM. That and every year, no matter what, if it's your birthday and you're living at home, mother goes all-out with decorations so that when you walk downstairs and towards the kitchen, your route is littered with streamers, balloons, and celebratory signage. We don't take birthday's lightly around here.

So, I'm getting all of them out of the way now, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHARLIE/BETH/ERIC!!!! Thanks for always letting me boss you around and sometimes throw you around, insist upon calling you Natalie, make you swallow pennies as 'medicine' during childhood games of doctor, not protesting too much when I inevitably steal clothes from each of you,  always participating in my theatrical productions, and for being the sharers of the hammock.



here we are, in all our glory, over nine years ago.