Birthday Bash

Baby Two's birthday today, she's five. Because she was naughty I said she would have to wait till her birthday party on Sunday before she could get a cake and presents. So this morning all she got was a birthday wish and kiss before she was packed off to school. After we checked out a housing showroom and had ice cream i sent them home before dropping at the office, where i got a phone call from my mum berating me for being so cruel to my little girl and to immediately go buy a little cake and surprise her NOW.

Remembering that my mother was often the cause of much sorry heartache when i was a child, and seeing the parallels beween herself and me as mothers, i left the office, went to get a cake and did a preliminary search for an outrageous fairy outfit, which alas, i could not find. i got home, and stood outside the front door trying to quietly light the cake to surprise baby two with. suddenly the door opens and our maid starts talking to me. "shhhhh!" i say. "it's a surprise for baby two!" she starts to speak again. "shhhhhhhh!"

Then I finally find out that she has been rushed to hospital by Panini because she was cracked on the head by baby one with the remote control. they couldn't call me because i had left my phone at the office. we couldn't call Panini because her phone died. Luckily earlier she was nearby and was contactable and had turned back to take baby two to emergency. before i left, baby one, who was hysterical and in tears, asked me if she would be sent to jail and could i please not tell her teacher? very sternly i sent her to bed. i could feel that little guilty heart crying for solace, but i had to get to hospital quick.

upon arrival at the hospital, i find Panini holding the hand of a whimpering baby two as she was being attended to by the nurse. her red little face with its even redder birthmark had pools of tears collecting in the hollows of her eye sockets, and her little chest heaved like the chest of the heroine in an italian b-grade romance movie. her eyes were shut, and when she finally opened them to look at me, were pools of need and love for me, and her round cheeks were hot. we examined the wound, a tiny little half-inch-long gash. because it's on the scalp it bled profusely. after being cleaned up, the doctor came in and recommended treatment, then ordered that the wound be bound for the night just so that it wouldn't bleed onto the pillow.

"it's a bit dramatic, but cheaper than new sheets," he stated. the same doctor whose advice culminated in the booting out of our cat Lila into Panini's house, but that's another story. then the nurse began to wrap stretchy bandage around her head. but because of her hair, the thing kept riding up higher and higher. then the nurse bound her eyes by mistake. well, she was standing behind baby two. gently the doctor reminded her that the child needed to see. it was suddenly very funny and Panini and I began to giggle. ayo, they must think we're an uncaring bunch or something. it's always a joke when we go to that hospital. laughing at our kids' misfortune. but then baby two smiled when the nurse finished and pulled at the tuft of hair that still showed at the top.

so we get home with baby two smelling faintly of rust, and i re-bandage the slipping bandana into a more stylish turban before we finally light the maligned cake and have a rather tearstained reunion with baby one whose guilt has so overcome her she is holding an icepack to her chest "because of the pain".

What a family of drama queens we are. we took pictures and baby two got to eat a quarter of the cake. happily, they are asleep in cake heaven.

lovey, c