Birthdays On The Road

Yesterday my son celebrated another teenage birthday. Now, I know because he is a teenager, I’m not allowed to put up balloons, hide candy, and play pin the tail on the donkey. However, it’s still an amazingly special day that I refuse to miss.

You see we have some traditions that cannot be left out. In the morning, the birthday-ee is honoured with breakfast in bed, is allowed to open one gift, and then waits impatiently through the entire day of school before opening more gifts and having supper with cake.
I also make sure that I videotape the birthday recipient in the morning in bed, at supper having some cake, and at the end of the day when tucked into bed. I have official birthday tapes that I build on each year. It’s fun to go back and see how much they’ve changed from year to year. And with boys, it is especially strange to hear their voice change from a boy to a man in a matter of a second.

Anyway, the morning of his birthday I had to leave early to go to a school event, but fortunately, I did not have to be on the road at my usual 5am. He asked me to wake him before I left at 6:30, so I came in the video camera and recorded a sleepy boy. I wished him well and then hit the road.

Little did he know, that I had secretly hidden sticky notes throughout the house to wish him more congratulatory messages! I put one in his shoe, the mirror, on the inside of the toilet seat,… you get the picture. I even put one in his lunch with a $2 coin instructing him to treat himself to something at lunch. Now that he’s in high school, it’s fun to buy food some times! I thought this would keep him entertained until I arrived home after school.

Because I was away all day, I was unable to make him a cake, or even prepare his favourite supper. So, he picked his restaurant of choice – Chinese – and I bought a Dairy Queen cake. Somehow buying a cake from DQ reduces the guilt. They say it’s a special treat, ok?

He opened his gifts, had a yummy dinner, ate the cake, (did some homework – how dare those teachers plan a test for the next day. Don’t they know??), and got tucked into bed for the official taping of bedtime.

All in all, I would say it was a successful birthday even if I was on the road.