24 Aug 2008

Today's my actual birthday. I woke up as usual to find that Louis has left for his weekly badminton session. Checking that Faith was still fast asleep, I tiptoed out of the room to prepare and start Faith's porridge in the slow cooker.

There sitting on the kitchen counter top -- where Louis knows it would be the first place I head to every morning -- was an envelope with a card.

A birthday card from him and Faith.

Its been such a long time since I've received a card from Louis. So long that I don't even remember when was the last time. Then again, Louis and I are fairly down-to-earth people, not given to romantic gestures. Still, its nice to receive a card. Especially when he has managed to get Faith to scrawl her "signature" too :)

Having turned on the slow cooker and read the card, I headed back to bed with a nice, warm fuzzy feeling.

The plan for the night was for the three of us to go for a semi-buffet dinner at Cafe 2000 @ M Hotel.

In the end, dinner was packed noodles (for Louis) and vermicelli (for me) from the coffeeshop downstairs :)

Hahaha... don't feel sorry for me. It was what I wanted.

Let me explain why...

After our usual routine of feeding Faith her lunch, we brought Faith over to my MIL's place, intending to leave her there for a few hours while Louis and I go have our lunch and perhaps catch a show. However, Faith didn't want to let go of the either of us when we reached my MIL's place. She insisted on holding either Louis' or my hand at all times.

My FIL suggested that they (my MIL, Faith and him) head to AMK hub along with us. While they bring Faith to the NTUC and distract her, Louis and I can then head off for lunch and movie. Louis and I decided against watching the show when we reached the Hub as was only half an hour left for us to queue for the tickets and eat our lunch. We rather have a leisurely lunch.

After lunch, my PIL called us to inform us that they were heading to Queensway Shopping Centre. My FIL wanted to buy a badminton racket to replace the one that he lost recently. We decided to go along too as it was near to Ikea and I had been meaning to buy some stuff from there but haven't had the time.

We spent quite a bit of time at Ikea. My MIL bought some kids' plastic bowls and utensils -- I believe some of them will end up being Faith's toys, stored in a section of the TV console that my MIL emptied just for her playthings.

I bought a plastic high chair for her, even though I already have one at home. I've been wanting to get Faith to learn to self-feed for the longest time but have always procrastinated becos I wasn't looking forward to getting the floor and her clothe-lined high chair smeared with whatever food that falls off her spoon or mouth. With the plastic high chair, I could simply line the surroundings with plastic and haul it to the toilet and spray with water when it gets dirty.

I also ended up buying an assortment of stuff that I didn't particular need but thought they would be useful for the home :)

By the time we were ready to head back home, it was past 5.30 pm.

Like the previous day, the sky kept up with a steady stream of rain since the early afternoon and I knew it was the kind of rain that wouldn't let up but would just pour non-stop till the night.

I didn't fancy rushing home to change, dress up and get drenched in the rain from our house to the open-air carpark. Hence, I had suggested to Louis on the trip to Ikea that we should just have something simple for dinner.

By the time we reached home, prepared and fed Faith her dinner, the prospect of buying up our dinner from the coffeeshop downstairs sounded most appealing.

So, while I didn't do anything that was "wow" worthy on my birthday, I actually enjoyed the simple and mundane things that I did today, especially when it was spent with my loved ones.

It is interesting to note that my perspective on what makes my birthday a good day changes with age.

It used to be that when I was younger, birthdays were a big thing that I would always look forward to. It was a day that I get to do what I want with the adults closing both their eyes to indulge me on this special day. It was a day where I get my birthday cake, red eggs, sweets and presents. It also signifies that I'm one year older and can thus get to do the things that I've been prohibited from doing the year before becos I was "still too young".

As one age, birthdays are not something that I look forward to as eagerly as I did in my youth. It hasn't yet come to the stage that its a day that I dread for fear of the creeping digits signalling that I'm way over my prime.

For the last few years, I deem my birthday to be a good one if I spent it doing simple things or even nothing as long as nothing bad happened to put me in a bad or lousy mood.

Who knows? Maybe in another 20-30 years from now, I might deem my birthday to be a good one if it was done with a big bang -- elaborate dinner, birthday cake, presents and having all my children (and maybe grandchildren) to pay homage to me on my special day ;)