In April of 1989, I was seven. I knew it was my birthday because it was around Easter. So I remember asking my mom, “Mami, what date is my birthday?” My mom started mumbling dates as if trying to remember my actual birthdate. Because she WAS trying to remember my actual birthdate. So she replies, “It’s April 20 or April 24. I forgot. How about you pick one. Which one do you want?” And of course, thinking this is normal behavior, I yell out “April 20!” (I wanted that pink Huffy bike with the poms hanging out the handles 4 days sooner) And ever since that day, for a very long time, I actually believed I chose my own birthday. It was in High School, after some potheads asked me if that was my real birthdate, that I actually checked my birth certificate and it was in fact April 20. My mother, God bless her heart, STILL to this day forgets what dates our birthdays fall on. In the end she’s always on time but if you ask her randomly “mom, when’s my birthday?”, she’ll get it right 30% percent of the time. All this to say…..
We celebrated Genevieve’s birthday last night at our favorite Mexican Restaurant. Last night, which was April 29th. It was a heck of a lotta’ fun being with the family. Today, I check my Facebook and someone asks “(I thought) she was more April 30th?…..I thought sometime in May?” With me being so sure of her birthdate, I was going to make some funny sarcastic response along the lines of “You know let me check…Yeah no, I’m pretty sure it’s April 29.” And then I am suddenly reminded of that childhood memory when my mom forgot my birthdate and the many MANY times my husband tells me “you are so like your mother”. I walked over to my file cabinet with my personal family files, looked up “Birth Certificates”, pulled out Genevieve’s and then wham! There it was. April 27th. Not the 29th. The 27th. Man did I feel like a total sucker. I forgot my own daughter’s 1st birthday. But then I thought, there are things worst than forgetting your daughter’s first birthday. Like leading your daughter into believing that she chose her own birthday.
Here are some pics from last night. Happy 1st Birthday, my little Pumpkin.
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