Rebecca's 5th Birthday

Rebecca has known that her birthday was coming up and she knew that she would have a cake and some presents, but today she seemed a bit unsure about everything.

It began with our tradition of draping our kids' doorways with crêpe paper and balloons. Becca fell asleep in the bed in our office, so I draped the paper from the window to the wall right along the side of the bed. On the morning of someone's birthday, it's a big deal for the birthday boy or girl  to be woken up and then have to rip through the paper or figure out a way to crawl through without disturbing the paper or balloons.

When I woke up this morning, Becca was in bed with me. When she woke up, she showed me the crêpe paper and showed me how she crawled under it in the middle of the night, but it all seemed to have been done with some trepidation.

When a Kindergartener has a birthday, he is greeted immediately with a special birthday song. This morning, Becca's teacher saw her coming down the hall, gathered all the kids in the doorway and they sang the little song. Becca looked a little sad and needed a hug when the song was done.

Even when she was given her special crown her teacher made for her, Becca didn't seem happy.

Some of the classmates who sang to her.  They all look a lot happier than Bex.  By the time I picked her up in the afternoon, she was doing better.

One of the highlights of Rebecca's day was talking to her daddy on Skype. She began asking me last week, "So, Mom,....where's Dad?" Yesterday, I reminded her that Daddy was in America, to which Becca replied, "Oh, yeah. America. That's in Germany." I explained, once again, that to get to America, you travel on an airplane as it is very far away from Germany.

This morning Becca said, "Mom, where is Daddy?" with some annoyance in her voice.

I don't know what we would do without Skype and the internet. Talking to Daddy helped put Becca in a better mood.

The word on Becca's new shirt means "Little Angel" or "Cherub."  I snatched up a few of these shirts when I saw them.  When you come upon kids' shirts in stores with writing on them, chances are the writing is in English. 

Littlest Pet Shop and Playmobil are awesome gifts.  Becca and Emilie will disappear up to their room and play Playmobil or Littlest Pet Shop, or a combination of the two, for hours and hours.

Time for cake and ice cream.  We ate birthday cake while we watched home videos of when we brought Becca home from the hospital in 2005.  Even our dog, Guinness, looked younger.

Becca's cake was decorated with crushed Oreos.  Just over the past two weeks, she has become enamored with Oreo cookies.  She take after her Daddy.

Birthdays are a big deal in Germany.  David always says that you don't get a lot of work done at the office on your birthday because you spend the whole day fielding phone calls from friends and colleagues wishing you a happy birthday.

I feel guilty that none of our kids have had a birthday party this year. The girls' birthdays all fall within a month of each other and with us starting the moving home business, it just didn't work out. I've promised all of them that next year, they will all have a party. I could have sworn I could read their minds: I've heard that before, Mom.