12th Birthday, Hugs and Kisses

Truth be told, I did not have the energy this year to plan a birthday party for Z.  The entire situation with the possible residential placement and the continual meetings that are just agency "hot potato" about who's not going to pay for it has me totally exhausted.  But then last year I didn't plan a party either but we did take her to Disneyland for her birthday and had an outrageously expensive birthday lunch with all the Disney Princesses.  The Disney birthday was fun and for the two days we had no behavior, it was almost like taking a normal child to Disneyland.  A great memory!

Another secret about having a special needs child is that you don't have to tell them that it's their birthday until you're ready.  Today we had two therapies and a skating lesson and I knew if the focus was birthday then we wouldn't make it through the day.  She had a great day, made it through therapy and toward the end of skating I told her today was June 21, her birthday and we were meeting Dad for dinner at her favorite Mexican restaurant for taco, beans and rice.  Much cheaper than the Disney, Princess lunch of last year.  She was so excited.  Every week after speech, if we had good behavior we get ice cream at a Baskin Robbins near the hospital.  Her favorite thing is to look at the ice cream cakes and every week she talks about getting one for her birthday.  Well today, I told her after dinner we would get an ice cream cake for her birthday and I got huge hugs and kisses.  There's such a genuine and child like quality when she grabs you around the neck with kisses that I always get teary.  Then I told her there were presents at home and got more hugs and kisses.  Then I said yes to candles and got more hugs and kisses.  Dad had a pink, birthday balloon when we met him at the restaurant and he got hugs and kisses.  After choosing a cake that was way too big for the three of us, there were more hug and kisses while waiting to pay for the cake.  We headed home and sang Happy Birthday, blew out candles, opened presents and ate ice cream cake.  Took lots of pictures and video and treasured the happy evening, another nice birthday memory.