Birthday Snuggles

I turned 35 today.  Hard to believe.  I don't know where the time went.  I remember waiting to be 16 so I could drive.  I remember waiting to be 21 so I could drink legally.  I remember turning 25 because that was halfway through the decade to 30.  I remember turning 30 because I refused to get out of bed except to go to yoga, and I commenced a year of mourning.  Then I remember turning 31 because I decided I had to accept that I was definitely a 30 something.  I know a lot of my friends say "I don't feel my age."  Well, that's the thing, I think I do.  Sadly, my knees hurt more than they used to.  I'm not as flexible as I used to be.  The collagen in my face has definitely taken a turn for the worse.  However, when all is said and done, I cannot roll back time and I cannot stop time.  So today, I decided 35 isn't so bad.  I still can't believe I'm 35 but I'm going to accept it and move on.  These days, it really is "young" by most accounts, so I'm going to appreciate my two beautiful kids and my wonderful husband and embrace being halfway through the decade to my 40s.

This morning we walked to breakfast.  We finally broke down and bought a double stroller just for this reason.  And as we strolled along, we agreed that it was definitely worth the splurge.  We used to love walking up to breakfast with Cole Reynolds before Gemma came along and now we can do it with both kids.  On the way home, Gemma fell asleep.  We are not big fans of her sleeping places other than her crib, but from time to time I guess you have to be flexible and since it was a treat to have breakfast together, we made the best of it.  Since she feel asleep about 10 minutes before we got home, I kept walking with her for another 30 or 40 minutes until she woke up.  In the meantime, Joel, Cole and Geoff went to get Cole a haircut.  I'm told Cole was less than cooperative--a theme of his these days is that he doesn't want to do ANYTHING you want him to do.  While we waited for the boys to get home, Gemma and I had some birthday snuggles.  It is so much fun to snuggle with Gemma.  She is such a happy little gal and she welcomes snuggles.

Later in the afternoon, we had a mini birthday celebration with a Nothing Bunt Cake....one of my recent favs--chocolate, chocolate chip bunt cake--yummy!!

Here's a few pics of Gemma from this morning.

(Cole would not be happy if he knew that Gemma was playing with his "friends".)