The Birthdays
(This is a very belated post about the kids' birthdays. Better late than never. I wrote this but never posted it.) October is almost over, which means both of the girls’ birthdays have come and gone. They both had excellent birthdays this year. Lucia, as always, was beyond excited about her birthday, and the lead-up was almost unbearably thrilling. She gets excited several weeks in advance; she looks forward to October 15 so much. We have our birthday traditions: the day began with giant number balloons, flowers, and a birthday sign at the table in the morning, along with one present to unwrap before school. Mom and Dad came to Pittsburgh after school, and Lucia unwrapped her gifts first thing. Mom had made scrippelles for the birthday dinner (Lucia’s request--a sneaky way of getting scrippelles outside of the traditional Easter season), and Andrew made a chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling. It was all delicious. I put a few figurines on top of little girls who balance on