thanks be to hubs, good friends and family!

Thanks to Leighton, good friends and family, I've been treated to quite the birthday celebration this year! It started Friday a week ago when I found a little gift bag by the coffee pot with six tickets to see a theater performance of Sunday on the Rocks that same night. Leighton had been emailing with a group of my closest girlfriends in town to meet me up for dinner at my favorite restaurant in town, Chapati, serving yummy Indian food, before going out to see the play. We all had such a good time. One had brought a chocolate cake for dessert and I got many nice gifts (on top of their treating me to dinner and drinks), including a journal for all my thoughts and a gift card to work one morning in a coffee shop while Lilly would be at my friend's house.

The festivities continued on Saturday when we had friends over for dinner and then Sunday night we finished my birthday cake. First thing Lilly said to me Monday morning, on my actual birthday:

Lilly er så glad i mamma. Og sjokoladekake.
Lilly loves mama so much. And chocolate cake.

We all went out for lunch for the free birthday sandwich Hogan Brothers Acoustic Cafe offers. Lilly was sick with a cold, so other than our lunch outing, I was home with her all day, but it was a good day still.

And then, get this, on Tuesday morning we drove up to the cities to pick up a new car that our dear friends Nancy and Stephanie offered to us as a gift! A super nice blue Subaru Outback station wagon from 2000. WOW! So now we have two cars, which is so nice for us, especially since Leighton's been working from 4-6 p.m. lately, leaving Lilly and I fairly house bound. And this car is such an improvement to the old Volvo that has all sorts of problems, which we haven't had checked because it would have left us carless while being fixed.

I got the cold Lilly and Leighton have been having later in the week, but I also got a couple of writing gigs. With that on top of all the rest, I can't really complain, now can I. Thank you all dear friends and family for thinking of me with sweet wishes, cards, and gifts. I am so grateful!

Lilly "almost" three

Conversation in the car on our way to the gym this morning:

Lilly: "Lilly er stor jente."                         
Mamma: "Ja, det er du, jenta mi."                    
Lilly: "Snart seks! -- Eller kanskje tre."           

Lilly: Lilly's a big girl.
Mama: Yes, you are, sweetie.
Lilly: Soon six! -- Or maybe three.

Strolling her cart around the house after lunch, dressed up with her pajamas, Lilly looks down on the floor:

"Unnskyld, Maria fly-fly."
"Excuse me lady bug."

Lilly makes movies

Last Saturday, Lilly and I spent the day in the city while mama got some time to work. It was the frist Saturday of the month, which is the Walker Art Center's "Free First Saturday" with family programs geared toward kids: the theme this time happened to be "Going to the Movies." The main activity was in two parts, 1) make a clay figure and 2) have it animated in stop motion. Lilly was a bit too young to participate in this without help from papa. When asked if she'd like to make "Frosty" out of clay she said yes, so I made with a version from the materials we were given; and when after waiting for quite a long while in line it came time to animate, I tried to get her to help as much as possible by having her stick letters to the backdrop and push the car along. Unfortunately the art center didn't think of offering to send these animations via email so kids and parents could enjoy later. But I took a video with our digital camera, which I've cut and looped on iMovie!



Lilly and I will be spending more time together now that Anne is working more mornings. Today, along with other arts and crafty things, we made another movie! First we made a drawing of "Old MacDonald" and his animals, which we then took a video of while singing the song. And finally I've imported it onto iMovie to cut a few clips together, but haven't got it finished to upload onto YouTube. It's silly, really, but it was something to do.

when not reading to my daughter

A couple weeks ago I was washing dishes in the kitchen when I overheard Anne reading books to Lilly in the living room, out of sight. One was a book (Roar of a Snore) I enjoy reading to Lilly, which I read often enough that to hear it read by someone other than me was a bit strange at first. I suppose this would be the case, usually, because no two people read a book aloud in the same manner, with the same tone and inflection, etc. But to hear it being read to Lilly by someone other than me was the strange part; or rather to hear Anne interacting with Lilly, through the medium of this particular book, and creating a totally different experience out of it was what made me pause for a moment and really listen to Lilly in her lived experience, practically out of my control as she was learning and growing.

To be sure I can expect more moments like this, but it was, as far as I can recollect, the first time it hit me so strongly; that Lilly is out there on her own, no matter if she is with Anne or me; that Lilly is and will continue to be always just out of reach.

Now for the living-in-the-moment experience: it wasn't any jealously or loss that I felt at that moment, when I listened to this from the other room, as Anne took on the role which I felt was reserved for me, between Lilly and me; but instead it was one of those moments that makes being a father--I mean one of those moments that has been for me as a father--the very elusive essence of fatherhood, that indescribable something about fatherhood. In that moment as in others I was opened to the "whole new kind of love" which I had been warned of.

Anne and Lilly read a number of books that evening as I washed and dried the dishes. Perhaps it's nothing special, really, given the routine-ness of it all; but it will, for me, always be a part of my fatherhood, and stand out as a night to remember.