Practically Perfect

My 27th birthday was practically perfect in every way, thanks to Ben and many others. But mostly Ben. His first gift to me was a full night's sleep on the night of the 10th. It's been about -- let's see -- 5 months since I have had a somewhat decent night's sleep. It felt SO good! Ben got up with Ellis at every waking and brought him to me in bed. I guess I had to wake up a little to get him situated for a feeding, but I didn't have to sit up or anything. It was heavenly.

By the time 6:45 rolled around, I felt so good I just popped out of bed. To my delight, it was 37 degrees outside (the warmest morning since winter hit), so I went out for a jog. All by myself. It's been a while. It felt amazing. When I got to the really hard uphill part at the end of the jog, I thought to myself, "Who am I kidding? It's my birthday. I don't have to do anything!" And I stopped and walked the rest of the way.

At 9:30, I went with Henry and Ellis to a Valentine party put on by the Watertown Family Network and one of our favorite children's musicians, David Polansky. We enjoyed singing, dancing, and being with friends. On the way home from that, I felt like eating a really good salad. My birthday mantra echoed in my head: "It's my birthday; I can do, say, have, and eat whatever I want." Hooray! I drove with the boys to Panera and got a fabulous appley salad that I brought home to eat with an amazing panini made by Ben.

Did I mention that on the way home, I turned the corner to the long hill leading up to our house, and there was Ben, just beginning his ascent? I have always dreamed of our schedules coordinating so beautifully. I was meant to buy that salad. And Ben was done with class for the day (at noon!) and ready to spend the rest of the day with ME! I graciously offered Ben a ride home, and we ate the aforementioned salad and panini.

I opened lots of presents (look at that stack -- Ben knows where to shop!), including, but not limited to an mp3 player, a mini food processor, a cd player, an electric sander, and a cocoa latte gourmet hot chocolate maker (thanks everyone!). Oh yes, and a very useful homemade cat, compliments of my sister Kati. We then ate cookies and "Take the Cake" ice cream. Mmmmm Hmmmmm!

After naptime, Brooke from church came over to babysit while Ben and I went out for a divinely authentic Italian dinner at Grappa. It felt very North End (Ben ordered veal parmesan because I wanted him to be like the guy on The Parent Trap). We got cannolis and a lemoncello tortufo for dessert. Wow. Let's not talk about how Ellis cried the whole time we were gone. And let's not admit that we came home and caught the end of Idol while I returned my hundreds of well-wishing phone calls. I think I got like 3 million facebook birthday greetings. Everyone loves me. They should, because it's my birthday! Or at least it was. And it was a good one, just like I knew it would be.