"I don't look any bigger!"

That's what my little brother, Adam, said while standing in front of the mirror on the morning of his fourth birthday. Thankfully, I can say the same thing today, on my twenty-seventh ;). I have high hopes for today. Eric's planning on having some friends over and grilling tonight. We both know that this is a re-do of my disastrous first birthday of our marriage. I was already sad about turning twenty, because I wouldn't be a teenager anymore. Then Eric decided to plan a suprise party for me, and to enhance my joy and surprise by pretending to forget my birthday altogether. It ended with me having a big crying fit and him laughing hysterically and telling me about the party. I had to fake being surprised and I think my eyes were still puffy. So today, no surprises and no pretending to forget my birthday- a healing experience all around:). And I got a toy! It's a Garmin GPS watch to wear while I'm running and biking- so I won't get lost and I'll know how far I've gone and how fast. It's fun:). I'm determined to be really careful with it- I have a bad track record with small, expensive electonics that includes the unfortunate disappearance of a palm pilot and the inexplicable deaths of two ipods. Not this time!

The best part is how I found out about it. I came home from running errands on Saturday and Eric and little Eric left right away to go to a birthday party. When I walked into the kitchen and said hello to Brigham the first words out of his mouth were, "Mama, there's a watch and it's a surprise for you!" Then, a few minutes later, while we were reading a story, he looked up at me and said, "Do you want to see where we hid it?" Of couse I said yes (I may be 27, but I'm still a kid at heart), so he showed it to me. When Eric gave it to me I told him the whole story and he said that Brigham had sworn up and down that he wouldn't tell me about my present! He's a cute little liar though.

All in all, this last year of my life has been a big one for growth and change...maybe one of the biggest. So I'm adding an item to my list of things I'll never do (which includes things like, I'll never by anti-aging cream and, I'll never cry over a haircut): I'll never lament my birthday, no matter how old I get.