Thirty

Today is my thirtieth birthday. So far it has been pleasant; Delphine let us sleep in until 6:40 (forty minutes extra), and we've been pootling around the house ever since. I did some chores, Blake played with Delphine, we all had showers, I had cake and ice cream and read the newspaper. Delphine is napping right now, and after she's up I will open my presents. She seems more excited about them than I am. Presents aren't really as much fun as they used to be when I was a little kid. This year will be different than usual, though, because I got presents from friends as well as family and I have no idea what they might be.

I'm happy to finally be in my thirties. My life is more that of someone in their thirties than someone in their twenties; I have kids, I have a mortgage, I cook and clean and own furniture made out of actual wood, I don't drink or go out clubbing, I spend my money on diapers and organic fruit, not shoes and manicures. I am more Heather Mallick than Leah McLaren. It's good to finally be in a decade that suits me. (But I still think I've always been forty on the inside, and I think that will be a very good decade for me.)

We had a party yesterday; since this is likely our last summer in the condo I thought we should have a barbeque up on the roof, and my birthday was the perfect excuse. It was a fantastic party; very low-budget and low-effort, with paper plates and burgers and hot dogs and a cake from Loblaws and ice cream in cones for the toddlers. And balloons! I think it was just perfect.

Jeff, Janet, Kathryn, Douglas and Tanya and Ursa, Ellen and Peter and Dexter and Maxine, Baba and Zaida, and Morgan and Erik all came and we just sat and talked and watched the little ones play. Morgan and Erik were in charge of the meat and they did a fine job. They also lent us their Cadillac of coolers which happily held dozens of bottles of beer and pop, and then ice cream and leftover meat later on. It's living in our hallway now. I wonder if they want it back?

Almost everyone got to hold Maxine -- she is around six weeks old now. Delphine was especially taken with her; when I got my turn to hold Maxine, Delphine came and sat next to me and touched her: "There's baby's foot. There's baby's ankle. There's baby's other ankle. There's baby's knee. Baby's crying." Yeah, she cried for me; she didn't cry for anyone else. Possibly because I was the only one who let a toddler fondle her legs. Anyway, Delphine did not seem upset or perturbed by Maxine at all this time, just very interested. I am quite looking forward to seeing how she is with our baby. I expect she will be pretty happy with it until she figures out that it's staying.

Another friend of mine just had a baby (nine days early! Whoo!). She lives just a block or two from here so I hope Delphine and I can go over and visit a time or two before our baby comes.

Delphine and I both got sunburned yesterday. I swore I wouldn't let her get sunburned under my watch, and already I have failed. She's, what, just two years and three months old? That's pretty lousy. I even brought the sunblock upstairs but then I was too stupid to put it on either me or Delphine. I think I figured it's late enough in the summer that we have enough tan to protect us from sunburn. Except Delphine hasn't any tan at all because I've been so careful up until now, and I was wearing a different style of shirt than usual so I had fresh virgin skin exposed to the afternoon sun. Fortunately Delphine's burn has already faded to very faint pinkness, and mine doesn't look bad enough to blister. Still, though. Stupid.

Delphine's sleeping, incidentally, has gone from awful to sublime. The very day after I posted about the problems and my intended plan of action, she went to bed (about twenty minutes earlier than usual) with barely a whimper, and slept longer in the morning. Last night was even better; at around 6:30 she announced to Kathryn that she was tired and wanted to go to bed, so Blake put her down and she did not cry, not one bit. Then, like I said above, she slept an extra forty minutes this morning. And furthermore, at 11:00 this morning she told Blake she wanted to lie down for a nap, and she was down and sleeping by 11:06. It's not 12:53, so she will probably be up soon.

But man, that Weissbluth is a genius. You only have to read his book for your kid to sleep better. I need to buy a copy of it for myself. Since it covers sleep problems right up to adolescence, I'm sure I will need it again.

The new baby is doing great. For the last few days he's -- I just realized I'm using "he" far too often; I think I am getting really stuck on the idea of it being a boy because everyone I know who has had their second baby this summer has had one of the other gender than their first, and also because all the superstitious types are saying it's a boy because of how I'm carrying, and also because I would really kind of like it to be a boy -- so for the last few days she's been kicking and moving around a lot, which is very cool if occasionally uncomfortable. I have another midwife appointment tomorrow, and I hope they will be more certain about her position. Two appointments ago my primary midwife said she was head up, but at the last appointment my secondary said she was head down. I don't think it matters at this point, but we are rapidly approaching the point where it does.