Two much

Our little Miss Sunshine turned two on October 28th. I had planned to take her and some of her friends to the Santa Barbara Zoo for a picnic but after having been evacuated, spending three nights in a hotel and then returning home to pack up the last of the house and move into the new rental, it all proved too much. I was psychically exhausted. I canceled her party and sort of left it at that. I didn't even have the energy to order her toy kitchen. Jack and I made a pilgrimage to Toys 'R Us but I couldn't manage to select one. Brain dead, I left the store with a glittery purse and accessories box that contained plastic keys, cell phones and glasses (pink girly stuff I never in a million years would have purchased for her before she came into our life). Jack chose a plush Barney toy (another banned character when he was a baby,) I grabbed a couple of puzzles and called it a day.

EM was concerned. He knew how much I relished birthday planning and there was nothing to plan because nothing was going to happen. He asked, "You're at least going to get her a cake, right?" I shook my head, "Too many carbs." He encouraged me to call a couple of our friends and invite them over for lunch (remember I have no kitchen) and sing "Happy Birthday" to Makena. Of course he was right, I couldn't let the day go by without celebrating it in some small fashion and so I went into psycho/nervous breakdown mom mode. I called 3 friends (less than 24 hours notice) attempted to drive 40 minutes to Los Angeles to pick up a store-bought cake from this amazing bakery and drive back but I forgot that I had agreed to let Jack go to a friend's house on a sleep-over -- thirty minutes away, in the opposite direction. By the time I retrieved him, the special cake the whole party was being built around, was nixed. The two Chinese restaurants I had planned on getting take-out from were closed for lunch! So I ended up at the supermarket purchasing an ice cream cake and a handful of Barney, Dora and Elmo balloons and then headed to KFC for some fried chicken. That was it.Can I just say that the look of pure glee that spread across Makena's face when she saw the balloons (of course, I don't have a picture of that,) made it all worth it (as did the look of horror on my friends' face when I served them the Colonel's secret recipe). That was the best gift of all. That was all she needed and she was overjoyed.She loved the cake even though it was half-melted by the time she blew out the candles and the "entertainment" part of the party was when Jack decided it would be amusing to do a face-plant into the cake and did. I was slightly horrified but then glad because he couldn't come up with an excuse not to shower. Ha!

It was a great day.


Happy Birthday Makena Rae Lihan. You are truly our beautiful gift of Sunshine.

We love you sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much!


Isa-Mama, 'dee and Jack.