Birthday with Baby

I wasn't sure how my birthday was going to go this year with Felicity here. I've gotten into somewhat of a tradition of less presents/more experience, but a day of 'experience' with an infant can be tricky. And then there's the annoying around the clock pumping. I'll say my birthday got off to a bit of a rocky start, but it actually turned out to be one of my favorites ever... except that I think it gave us food poisoning which meant 2 days later we left our baby in the hands of our neighbor, oru first time leaving her, for a super expensive date at the ER lol. Boo. But back to the happy parts :).

I sent Steven an email a month or so before my birthday with general guidelines of what I'd like. I'm no dummy; I have learned that he can't read my mind and I have to let him know what I want. I find it way less fun if we have to have a whole conversation about it, so I email him, we never talk about it, and it happens. It still feels exciting to me that way ;). I said I wanted breakfast made without me having to wake him up (lol), I wanted to shop for scrapbook supplies, go out to eat somewhere, get my eyebrows waxed, buy a new shirt or two, and get cake or cupcakes. He got up at 6am to make cinnamon rolls and bacon, egg, and cheese biscuits. I don't know why we never thought to make those at home before but oh my word they were YUMMY! We were up very early but that meant we could have breakfast together since the baby was asleep. We had a Creighton follow up at 10am so I opened a present from a family member and then we got going to that. On the way, I suggested Steven get gas because my car had been on E since the day before. He didn't. You might see where this is going :P. On the way to lunch, I asked him to get gas before lunch and he said he would right after. I insisted on getting it before and he agreed. About 3 minutes later, my car died on the side of the highway. So we waited about an hour or more for his friend to come bring us gas and another 30 minutes for them to rig a mountain dew bottle as a spout since the one on the can was broken. All the while I was paranoid we'd be sideswiped and also prayed Felicity would stay asleep. She took her longest day time nap since her newborn days.... 5 hours! I normally wouldn't let her sleep through 2 bottles since she's still tiny (little miss 5th percentile) but you better believe I let her sleep that day! So then my birthday lunch included his friend since of course we needed to express our gratitude. Annnd then instead of going to this awesome downtown art walk Steven had planned, we needed to go home so I could pump. I was SO bummed. He had planned that part of the day with no input from me and it was beyond sweet because it's right up my alley. But by that time I knew we couldn't do everything we had planned. Steven is a smart boy and suggested that the shirts and scrapbook supplies would always be there, but the art walk wouldn't.

Daddy and baby at the art walk

So we went home and pumped, and then to downtown Raleigh. It was called the front porch art walk and front porches of all these big, old homes in downtown were set up with various wares.... pottery, paintings, jewlery, clothing. It was fantastic! The weather was beautiful and Felicity was happy. I was totally in my element. We walked around for an hour or so and then walked to Krispy Kreme for an afternoon treat.

We went back to the house so I could pump again and then to this shopping center that I've wanted to hang out at for forever. This is where I was impressed again. Steven knew I wanted eyebrows done, dinner, and cupcakes, and he knew how much I keep talking about this shopping center, so he checked to make sure I could get it all done there and I could. It is really unique in the way it's built/designed, has outdoor gardens and fountains, a huge playpad, cornhole, torch and decorative lighting at night, a 'creek' running through... it's just so cool! So we got there and I had my eyebrows done (oh the relief! it'd been too long!), and I chose to eat at Barberito's which was kind of like Moe's. I'd say it was better than Moe's except we ate the same thing there and both got violently ill the next day so.... but I'm not focusing on that! We walked around a little and then went to Gigi's where we each picked out a cupcake. It was getting near Felicity's bed time (8:30) so we came home and got her to bed before devouring our cupcakes in front of the tv and I opened a gift from Steven and a few others from family. It was just such an amazing day! I love my husband so much for trying so hard. He really pays attention to what I like and has learned how to make me feel really special on my birthday. Felicity was such a love all day and was happy because we spent most of it outside. She either napped or silently observed her world most of the day. So birthday with baby was a huge success :).