Happy Birthday Charis, or, 2 For 1 Sale on Cake
Six years ago, around this time (actually it was quite a bit earlier in the morning) I was waking up after sleeping on a barely sleepable hospital window seat, with a daughter. She was laying in something not unlike half an aquarium, with a blanket on the bottom, next to the real bed that my wife was sleeping in. After some business with the hospital, we got to take her home.
Charis turned 6 yesterday. We had a fun little party. There was amazing cake. It both looked and tasted amazing thanks to my wife's friend Jeanna, who bakes cakes for a living. It was bluish outer space colored, with an edible space shuttle and variously sized cake pops representing the planets on sticks on the top. The cake pops were so realistic that when Charis corrected me for saying that she had eaten Earth when she had really eaten Neptune, I had to concede. Earth had green continents on it, while Neptune was just blue and cloudy.
Charis' grandparents and great-grandmother came over for dinner. I BBQ'd shish kabobs. They were nice. Then there were presents. She got a kindle, a sweet new doll, and a set of 7 harmonicas in a carrying case. Jo and I bought her the harmonicas because she has one in the key of C, but when I am playing the piano or guitar in a different key, it sounds awful. Her playing is actually pretty good, but if the song isn't in C, it doesn't work. Now she has a harmonica for every common key. That's the kind of thing that makes us good parents.
Joanna spent the night before Charis' birthday at the hospital. Her sister was in labor. As it turns out, Charis' "best" present is that now her new cousin Evie will share a birthday with her. I'm giving that two years before she decides it was a lame gift. Of course, it will take Evie a couple extra years to realize that sharing a birthday with her close cousin is also almost as bad as being born on Christmas, but she will figure it out eventually. Fortunately, all us parents will be able to save money on cake.