November 13, 2000
DOWN HOME:
Birthday Week comes and goes--too quickly
___Birthday Week comes and goes a lot easier now than it once did.
___We celebrate Birthday Week at our house, because our daughters' births arrived three years and three days apart. Too often, I had to be gone from home on the actual birthday ofone or the other of the girls, due to the annual meeting of the Baptist state convention, which almost inevitably falls in mid-November. This year, Texas Baptists convened in late October, so I got to be home the entire Birthday Week.
MARV KNOX
Editor
___Some of their birthdays were more memorable than others.
___I recall Lindsay's third birthday party, to which she invited every child in her Sunday School class. We waded up to our hips in little people, and I learned two important lessons: (1) You can't wash red cake coloring off a kid's face, and (2) other people's children are a lot grosser than your own.
___And then there was Molly's ninth birthday, when I became an ice-skating mule. Molly wanted a skating party, and I pulled approximately 873 third-grade girls around an ice rink for a couple of hours. I learned two important lessons: (1) You can work up a good sweat in a cold, cold room, and (2) some things that are fun for five minutes are just plain work after that.
___When the girls were young, their birthday cakes were a big deal. I remember the "Teddy bear" Joanna baked for Lindsay. Or was it Molly, or both? Anyway, labor and delivery of an actual child came easier than baking, carving and decorating some of the cakes a band of elementary-school party-girls can devour in, oh, 25 seconds.
___In those days, I often wished I had an engineering degree and owned stock in a battery company. Seems like "some assembly required" and "batteries not included" applied to anything worth getting for a birthday.
___The worst I ever felt was at Lindsay's second birthday, when I put her swingset together. And I wound up with an entire bag filled with leftover nuts, bolts and screws. I just knew my child would start swinging and fly into space.
___By comparison, teenage birthdays are quiet and boring. But much easier to pull off.
___Lindsay turned 17 last week, and Molly hit the big 14 on Sunday. Now, I'd probably enjoy giving them something I had to stay up late assembling, with lots of batteries to operate bells and whistles and flashing lights. But they want clothes and watches and books. Ho-hum.
___To tell you the truth, I sort of dread their birthdays, because they remind me how rapidly these "good ol' days" are advancing. I try not to belabor the point, because they already think I'm a sentimental sap. But I'm a sentimental sap who's grateful to God for the blessing of raising darling daughters.
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