Happy Birthday!

Tomorrow is my birthday. To be honest, it's never been such a non event! In my 20's it was a BIG deal. I would take the whole week off, it became know as my birthday festival and I had something planned every day including dinners, shopping trips and theatre outings. I spend a lot of money, but then I still lived at home. It was also a chance to invite some uni friends to stay as to be honest they all waited for me to organise us to get together. I don't see them so much these days. Of course their lives have changed too, two of the four of them also have children, making weekend gatherings harder.

My mum is cooking lunch and DH and I are taking the girls round there. My sister and her family will also be joining us. I am just hoping that the babies will have a sleep when we put them down in my old bedroom. I hate social gatherings where babies won't settle and we have the dilema of leaving them crying and seeming mean or getting them up and seeming weak!

I don't know whether to be sad about my birthday festival or not. I've wanted to be a mother since as long as I can remember, more than I ever fancied any job. But right now it is quite tough. I guess the fact is that as I turn 33 tomorrow I will have to remember that I had a really good long run of birthday festivals.

Reasons to be cheerful

• We met one of my NCT (DD1) friends and her son today at the park near their house and the babies slept, parked up, not moving for nearly an hour while we chatted and the toddlers ran around. It was fab.


• The babies slept well (again) at lunchtime and I read my book


• There's a substantial pile of presents on DH's office chair


• The babies are really smiling and trying to talk to us now