My daughter, born in 1967 celebrates a birthday today. It feels odd to me to have a child so old that her children, my grandchildren have both given me great grandchildren, but that's the way it is. I still want to celebrate the day, though, and help Eva to have a Happy Birthday!
I remember some of her birthdays. I remember her first birthday. We were living in Norway, and all the little Norwegian girls came over in their national costumes when I invited them for cake and ice cream. They didn't understand all my English, but the did seem to understand that it was Eva's birthday and that they would be singing and dancing and eating cake. I think in Norway a first birthday is very special. I do know it was wonderful to take pictures and remember that day.
On her 2nd birthday Eva lived in England and since it was spring there we went to an animal park where she saw lots of mommies with their new babies. Her favorite was the goose mother, but I think that was because it made her laugh when the goose daddy ran at her spitting and hissing and her mom picked her up and swung her out of range! She petted a baby lamb and helped to feed a baby piggy with a bottle and we had a picnic at the park. After a whole day of running and playing and a three hour ride home, Eva slept all the way home and started jabbering full sentences telling everyone about the animals she had seen.
Eva celebrated her 3rd birthday with her Grandma Irene, going shopping and coming home with a bushel of new clothes and shoes. Always very picky about her wardrobe even when she was just a baby, Eva loved being able to pick out exactly what she wanted that day. She piled up a lot of loot and back home celebrated with the usual singing and blowing out of candles. She made her wish for a special dressup dress that she had seen but didn't ask her Grandma to buy for her that day and asked for sox and panties and shoes to match! More clothes!??!
Other birthdays passed in a blur. I remember one where her cousin Jana was there and we went to see a movie at the theater and another when she went over to Jo Faulk's house and ate homemade ice cream and one where we had a crawfish boil with the Graczyk family. Eva was old enough to peel her own crawfish, third grade, I think, probably eight. One birthday was a swimming party. Eva took to the water like a fish when she was just a toddler. I remember seeing a sign at the pool party she had that said a child her age should be accompanied by an adult. I rather think that if anything had gone wrong, Eva would be more likely to rescue me, the adult than I would have been to have rescued her!
When Eva was about 11 she wanted to go to the skating rink and to invite some of her friends. I think that was the day she got her very own roller skates. She has been a great skater ever since. I'll have to ask her if she ever gets a chance to skate now that she is an adult. I don't think she has any roller blades and she's always lived in a rural area, so I don't think skates or roller blades are very practical but I never really asked to find out for sure.
When she was about 12 Eva wanted to take ballet lessons in New Iberia with the girl who lived next door. It was expensive, but her parents were flush enough to afford the dance lessons and the ballet clothing. Eva decided that she'd had enough of that in only a few months though. A lot of practice goes with being in a dance class, and there's a lot of new things to learn. Eva was a newbie and the other girls had been in dance for years.
Eva always wanted a pony. Once on her birthday we took her to a place that offered horseback rides, but she wasn't satisfied because all the horse did was to walk slowly around and around in a circle. When she was in the 7th grade she decided that it was better to have a friend who had a horse than to have a horse of her own...and all she had to do then was tell her friend with the horse that she'd take care of the feeding and brushing and exercising for a day voluntarily. It was just about then that Eva decided that she didn't want surprises for birthdays any more and that she'd rather tell me what she wanted me to buy for her. And it was just about then that Eva wanted money instead of a present so that she could spend it herself. When she was a senior in high school we bought her a car and I think she might rather have had money then, too because the car was the only drivable one we could afford and I remember she needed to add a quart of oil every time she filled it up with gas.
Sometimes as an adult I have been able to be with Eva on her birthday and help to celebrate the occasion, but it hasn't been very often. After awhile a parent starts sending presents or cash to the grandkids and starts giving no more than a telephone call to say happy birthday. Speaking of that...I think I will call Eva and tell her "happy birthday!" today.
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