Terah's 6th Birthday!

This morning as she was getting up, I overheard her say that her birthday had worn her out. She certainly filled the day with just as much fun and attention as she could squeeze into a day. And I believe she is going through a bit of "attention-withdrawal" today - based on the declaration in the background as a type that "someone needs to pay attention to me!" We had to make sure there was at least one family member (ideally all four) that could give her undivided attention at any given moment. Sometimes we had to take shifts to get food made and dishes done! It's a good thing that she is so very much fun to be with. We kicked off the birthday fun with the aforementioned family sleepover in the right room. We watched the movie Wonder and then sacked out. Partway through the night, Jason had to move his sleeping bags out of reach of Alida who was nearly sitting on his head at one point in the night.

As promised, the grape leather I got rolling the day before was done by the time Terah woke in the morning. And it's delicious!! So Terah started her day munching on grape leather and getting to have an early morning video chat with Tala. I took advantage of her being otherwise occupied to scurry around getting some early morning household chores done and starting in on her birthday brunch. Since there was a full container of persimmons ready to process, I added an appetizer of chocolate persimmon muffins to the already full menu! We are all fans of "chocolate persimmon muffin season" which we are smack dab in the middle of right now. Jason did all the animal chores so that both sisters were available to be at the beck and call of their little sister! One of the first games of the day that she chose was hide and seek. It entertained me just to hear the excitement in her voice as I scurried around executing her birthday menu.

I did take a break at one point to hoist Terah into a good hiding spot in our closet. Can you find her?

Some SkipBo and muffins tied her over until brunch (near lunchtime) was ready!

We all enjoyed the potato crusted ricotta spinach quiches, bacon, fruits and veggies, washed down with liquid gold (i.e. grape juice).

She liked the brunch but was getting pretty eager to open a present. To add to the entertainment value, we hid her presents this year so she could have the fun of finding them AND opening them AND enjoying them. It also gave Alida an enjoyable way to contribute to the fun of the day - she was the "present hider!" Terah was pretty excited about an Elephant and Piggie activity book (she's actually working on it right now). She was cute kissing most of her presents - a sign that she liked them. And she expressed thanks many times for the gifts. I still think her very favorite presents received were the coupons for spending time doing things with her. We're glad she likes to be with us!

Some book reading and house playing got us through brunch clean up and then she was ready for a raucous game of "kidney beans" (what she named the game sardines where one person hides and then as others find them you join them). I was the last to find the family in the laundry room, but the first to find Terah hiding in the stuffed animal bin. It it definitely a spiced up version of hide-and-seek, and one I enjoy more. Though I don't mind regular hide-and-seek if I can find a comfy hiding places and sneak in a few moments of quiet solitude. :) Kidney beans is much more active and less comfy depending on where you have squeeze in to join the hider. Once this game lost it's thrill she was ready for the next thing.

One of the things I was most eager to give to Terah was her own copy of The Rabbit Listened, a book Tala had that quickly became a favorite. 

She decided we should play Save the Whales but she lost interest before we saved them all. It's so funny how I have to do a little internal talking to myself to not get uptight about not finishing what we started. She was ready to move on and there was absolutely no reason that we needed to get to the end of the game. We played long enough to enjoy a macaroni and cheese snack and/or a funny cake pie snack and/or a pumpkin pie and pumpkin pie ice cream snack.

Then some birthday card sharing, where it was pointed out that I had not yet made her a card. Oh dear! I still haven't!!!

I was then very grateful that she was pretty easily convinced to take a little hike up the woods' trail behind our house so we could a) get some fresh air and b) take clippers to the overgrown sections due to our lack of utilizing it over the summer gardening/food processing months. Even if she was doing ok without much fresh air, both Jason and I were showing signs of afternoon drowsiness (which often hits us hard on days when we aren't as active). Once we got out there she was super into it. She was finding hickory nut shells and when we got to the top, we hid a few presents for her to find (strategically snacks that could be enjoyed up there under the tree canopy). I got to grab a few snuggles on the blanket while the others hid them.

The fun was paused temporarily when she turned her ankle and needed some comfort and assurance that it would heal and she would feel better soon. The conversation then turned to needing to process out loud how she was taking care of her ankle and a blow by blow status report of how she was able to move it and what still hurt. By the time we got home she was showing me how she could do little, not too enthusiastic, hops. She has reported that she is back to normal today.

We concluded the fun day by making homemade pizzas, playing Golf and Mexican Train, and opening the last present. She was so excited about her new sun hats that she didn't take the one off for more or less the rest of the night. By this time Terah had more or less glazed over and was starting answering "what do you want to do next" with very lackadaisical response. So we snuggled up together to start a new PBS series, Native America. It had nothing to do with how interesting it was and everything to do with how tired we were, that Terah, Alida and I were all sacked out before it was done. What a fun day we all had celebrating our now favorite 6 year old in the whole world!

One of my most memorable moments of the day was when we were up on the hill and I was snuggled up by Jason and commented how I was loving being there with my favorite person. I was corrected that I had some other favorite people with me and I was happy to modify it to say how much I was loving being with my four favorite people. Terah quickly corrected me and said, "it's five." When I asked how she figured, she quickly noted that I should be included in my favorite people. She seemed genuinely perplexed by my "I'm working on that one" response! As I've reflected back on that moment, I find myself thinking about how babies do come into this world so endlessly fascinated by and curious about themselves. I love that moment when a baby discovers her hand and turns it over slowly just taking it all in with intense interest. And they normally start out quite ready to state their needs with a sense that their needs are worthy of attention and of being met. I'm really grateful that to date Terah is still very into who she is and curious about all the ways she is growing and changing and loves to be with herself. May that never change!