Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Thirty-wonderful

Last year I uneventfully turned 30 and forgot to blog about it. I was busy being pregnant and I hadn't been dreading it, so it kind of slid by without much fanfare. Besides, anyone who has had a child on their birthday knows that their birthday is effectively lost to them.

This year, I was not pregnant, but there still wasn't much fanfare to celebrate my big 3-1 and Carmen's big 3. It was a nice, happy day.

I am happy to share the celebration with my best birthday present ever:
(Carmen picks out the best outfits.)


Carmen's favorite presents were dress-up clothes from Grandma. (Olivia was pretty excited about them too.)




Steven bought me cookware and a fan duster. We're such romantics.
cleaning the fan
Dusting the fan!

Being "in my thirties" feels very normal to me. I have 3 kids, so 31 seems a decent age to be. In a way, I feel like being thirty-something gives me license to be an adult. I'm too old to be precocious, too young to be washed up. My smile lines are getting a little deeper and the backs of my hands are starting to look like my mom's, but it's not unpleasant. On the contrary, there's a certain charm in discovering more gray hair on Steven's temples or seeing my skin lose some elasticity and realizing that my husband and I are growing old together. It is hard to get used to how young college students look, and I sometimes sigh when I realize that nobody mistakes me for the babysitter when I'm out with my three kids. But I never really cherished youth, so adulthood has been great.




4 comments:

joyous said...

You look beautiful!!! I agree with you about being in my thirties. It really doesn't bother me too much. It's just right for what I'm doing in life and where I want to be. Carmen is adorable and even though she is a big three year old, she still has her sweet little girl cheeks and smile. Happy Belated Birthday to both of you! :)

Rachel Elaine said...

Happy Birthday! Such and interesting post after our conversation last week. I couldn't agree more with your assessment of adulthood and growing old together. I was just noticing my hands looking like my mom's too. I had to laugh that it was your birthday already because you so nonchalantly mentioned "I'll be turning 31 this year" not as if it was in a few days. It was great to see you again.

The Looney Writer said...

Happy birthday! I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it. Is the mystery story the type you had in mind?

maugers said...

I love how you said you sigh when people don't think you're the babysitter anymore... I sigh at that too! Happy birthday, happy thirties!