Two Saturdays ago I celebrated my 34th birthday. I am generally not a big birthday person - my kind of birthday is just being able to sleep in, eat some of my favorite food, and hang out with my loved ones. As a matter of fact, Z is more of a romantic and event-planning person in this relationship than I am.
The one thing I gifted to myself is a day off from work to spend time with Zoe. Since my birthday landed on a Saturday this year, taking the Friday off was a perfect excuse for me. I also don't have nanny help on Fridays so why not make it a mommy-daughter date! We went to every young mom's favorite store that is Target because I wanted to get her some new pajamas. I can't fathom how fast my little Zoe is growing, especially in these last 3-4 weeks. She's starting to look like a big girl to me! Oh my goodness, I don't know if I can't handle her growing so fast.
The whole weekend was full of pleasant surprises that Z came up with despite his preparation for the board exam, being a surgery fellow, and the ongoing list. On Saturday, we ordered chicken and waffles from The Breakfast Klub and had a picnic with some of my favorite people, Covid style. Z surprised me with my favorite cake (Whole Food's chantilly cake) and mimosa. Though the birthday picnic is a lot of different kids in the picture (i.e., a looooot of supervision), I loved catching up with friends.
On Sunday morning, he sent me off to a 2 hour (!!!) deep-tissue massage, which was my first massage this year. Both the massage therapist and I had a mask on during the whole time, which I felt relatively safe. I was a little wary of getting a massage during a pandemic, but it resulted in a much-needed relaxation that I didn't know I needed.
That night, he pulled off one last surprise by bringing back our nanny for 3 hours in order to take me on a fancy sushi dinner date. After digging through my Google Photos, I realized that our last "date night" without Zoe was November 1st...LAST YEAR when we had a wedding to attend. It's funny how before Zoe was born, we would always say that going on a date once a month needs to happen...except it took almost a year to do so. Going on a date without the child (or children) is actually really hard work, even harder when there is no family nearby and living through a pandemic. I never know how much time spent on ourselves re-energized our relationship.
So, as I'm finishing up typing this post on October 28th, also made me realize that today marks 13 years of our relationship. Who knows after getting friendly (lol) at a Halloween party during our college years would lead to us becoming parents to a 16 month-old kid, two dogs, moving countless times, and earning 4 degrees between us?
If you ask me, year 34 is off to a good start even if the world around me seems a bit stressful and depressing. Thank you for all the kind texts, emails, and posts on social media. And most of all, my hubby Z! What a wonderful weekend this man has planned for me when it could have just been "another year." This mama is feeling very blessed.
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