Anyway, today was Daughter #2's actual birthday (story of the big birthday bash previously detailed), turning 4. The Wife was hoping to get a half day off today, but wasn't able to, but was able to work through lunch and get out a couple of hours early so that she was able to pick up #2 after her nap at daycare. I'd taken her in this morning, and she convinced me that she needed to bring in Dunkin Donuts' Munchkins for her class, so we stopped up there on the way in (a new D.D. has opened up in a gas station a block north of her school, which has been a godsend for me on these cold mornings after dropping her off!).
As is the habit around here, the birthday morning started well before dawn with The Girls getting up all excited to start ripping wrapping paper. #2 made it about 3/4 of the way through the stuff that we'd gotten her before 7am ... saving the rest for the afternoon. We had several boxes from relatives too, and she got into about 1/3 of those before we headed out to dinner. Of late, The Girls' birthday dinners have been predictably at The Rainforest Cafe ... a place my Mom really hated but would go to for The Girls. That this birthday comes only 1 month from her death has cast a bit of a pall over things, for me at least. While our local nephew joined us this evening, the absence of my Mother was painfully conspicuous.
After dinner The Wife convinced me that The Girls could have some toys from the Rainforest Cafe shop ... this is the part that I hate most about going there ... we can't seem to be able to just have an over-priced meal there, we have to have an over-priced meal and buy shit. Fortunately for The Girls, there were quite a few things on clearance, and #2 glommed onto two of them. #1 was dead set on getting this pink valentines bear ... but they had a "buy one plush, get one at half off" deal, so we got her two things as well ... with the member discount thing, the total came in at a level which I could stomach ... even though it wasn't like they needed any new critters!
Well, we loaded into a cab, buzzed back home, lit the big "4" candle on the cake, sang Happy Birthday, and let #2 tear into the rest of the presents. Most entertaining of the lot was one of those Pete The Parrot things that repeats what you say around it ... we'd seen these at Walgreens, etc., but had never seriously contemplated getting one, I guess my Sister-in-law decided that we needed to have a mechanical bird that would belch back at you or say "here, kitty, kitty" at the cat!
Everybody is off tomorrow, and I'm hoping that I'll be able to get a few hours to go over on work on things at my Mom's place. Although I have a lot done, it's feeling like I've only scratched the surface over there, which is very depressing. I realized that I haven't even looked at the storage lockers there, and I really don't have a CLUE what might be up there. Whatever is in there has been there for a long time, which means it will probably be stuff that has a LOT of emotional connection for me, which is another lovely thing to look forward to. The only thing I'm sure is up there are these photo things of me and my brother when I was 2 and he was a baby. So much loss ... so much pain.