Happy 13th Madeline!

Exactly one week late, Madeline is finally going to have some celebration of her Sept. 20th birthday. On the actual day we were deep in the midst of the Head of the Year Conference, and so we weren't able to do anything much. The Petersen's have a policy of celebrating the kid's birthday on the exact day, no matter what day that is, and it's a great idea. That way you don't end up making multiple cakes, and dragging the whole thing out, and losing the specialness factor.

However, this year, poor Madeline was not given her rightful dues. A sign of her growing maturity, though, she really didn't feel bad about it. Except for the fact that the Petersen's bought some Ding Dongs and Zingers to take to lunch with us on the 20th, and we sang to her at the restaurant, and the waitress hurried over with a cup of tres leches cake with whipped cream and a cherry when she heard our 11 voices raised in enthusiastic song...at least it was something. And then I bought her some mint chocolates and lip gloss while at World Market a few days later. And she got birthday money from loving grandparent's and aunties. But you can see that from our end, this has been kind of pitiful.

Last night I made her the cake of choice-chocolate brownie cake with chocolate frosting, and then she got to decorate it herself....but still, not enough.

So this morning, Will and I had the brilliant idea (stolen from the Petersens) to get her a cell phone. It's only a little more a month on our plan, she gets to call us for free, and we can actually allocate the number of minutes that belong to her per month. And we're already set up with no texting, so we don't have to worry about that phenomenon. Until last night, I had felt like it was an unnecessary luxury for a child to have a cell phone, and I've always loudly said that they can have a cell phone when they can pay for it. So think of what a surprise she'll have when we unpredictably turn tail and change our minds. And, what a great rite of passage...Abby won't get one until she's 13, and that means that Madeline gets 22 months of having a privilege that Abby doesn't.

What usually happens in our family it that we say "no" until the bitter end, and then we change our minds and Abby gets IT at the same time that Madeline does. This summer there was much gnashing of teeth because Abby got to read the Harry Potter books at the same time Madeline did. And I told her the sad sad story of how I had to wait until I was 11 to get my ears pierced, and my parents caved at Sears and got everyone's ears pierced, so Erin and Gretchen only had to wait until they were 9 and 6. How unfair is that??? I remember complaining to mom and dad about it, just as Madeline complained to me.

Madeline is also going to have a party with friends, and that will be next weekend. So, this is a three weekend birthday, and that's OK.