perfect birthday

When I was a baby and turned one year old, I was wearing a frilly dress--you can see me in a photo.  I had a piggy bank someone gave me and walked around to all the family members who were sitting on couches, asking for them to put coins into the piggy bank.

Sounds like fundraising, but of course I didn't know the meaning of those metal circles, just that people laughed when I asked for more, and the happiness I must have felt.

Yesterday, my birthday also, I wore my flower camo pants and had a lot of fun.  The dark chocolate pecan brownies that Ming and I baked and Mom frosted with cream cheese frosting tasted more delicious than possible, like someone slipped in caramel when I wasn't looking.

We forgot to buy ice cream, so we took Healthy Choice fudgesicles from the freezer and pretended they were ice cream.  I love our creativeness.

Here's me trying to think of a wish before I blow out my candles--something is glowing on Mom's hair as she tries to help.  Maybe some fireflies visited that we didn't notice.

Today Ming's made me tea.  I have an allergy attack or else caught a cold for my birthday.  An allergy attack isn't fun but is better than a panic attack, heart attack, or fart attack.

It was the best birthday ever because it was just the right amount.  Sometimes I feel there's scarcity and feel grabby for more fun.  And then other times, there's too much birthday.  Over-birthdaying to compensate for some lack.  Yesterday was just right.

At night, I thanked Ming for all he does for me and how he helps me.  One of the nicest things about this birthday is how it was great, but tons of my days are great.  He's spent only eight of my birthdays with me as my partner, but we've had countless days, scores of days, that have been as good as birthdays.  Even days when I said out loud, "It feels like my birthday!" when it wasn't.  I really hit the partner jackpot.

I was blessed with more energy than usual and a good mood.  Not sure how I managed to do all this stuff.  I feel honored with so much love.

And tomorrow we'll bring veggie kabobs and potato salad to a BBQ at my uncle's house in Lompoc.

what we did
*Park morning where I sat in the sun in my special camping chair, hearing blackbirds, working on a long letter to my bestie in a homemade yellow book while Ming went for a walk.
*Favorite cafe in San Luis Obispo where I had a decadent delicious coffee drink--large, extra chocolate, please. 
*I saw strange, beautiful beads at my favorite bead store in Morro Bay.
*Shared lunch with Catholic Worker friends and enjoyed an accordion birthday serenade from a masterful musician. 
*Apple tasting in See Canyon with Ming, Mom, and Mom's sister, where we got three pounds of organic Jonalicious and Ming took a picture of a birthday kiss. 
*Avila Beach pier where we watched seagulls eat discarded bait from a fishing boat, talked and laughed, and I watched regal pelicans. 
*Dinner at Cielito Lindo where we danced to energetic music and I ate a perfect burrito. 
*Ming and I baked dark chocolate pecan brownies for a birthday cake--Mom made delicious cream cheese frosting.  They sang to me, and my nephew was here.
*I got a card, two soft lovely dresses, cash, a poem, apples, music, postcards, envelopes.  
*I made myself a spoon necklace using a spoon milagro I bought at the bead store, a split ring, and the black elastic string that held together Ming's new shoes.
*Slept well and long afterward, with no bad dreams.