Half Birthdays

I take a certain amount of abuse because of my insistance on marking the kids' half birthdays. I know I have a certain (large) amount of disdain for the way holidays (Valentine's Day, Halloween) have become over-celebrated. And that may make one think that I am anti-celebration in general. But I am not.

I did not come from a half-birthday celebrating family, though for some odd reason, I always knew that my half birthday was October 8th.
Once I had kids, I became slightly (massively) neurotic about keeping track of their age. I gave it far too much thought. I had a whole system.

I counted in days until they were 2 weeks old. So for example on December 4, 2001 if you had met my bleary-eyed self and asked me how old my charming baby was, and I was alert enough to understand your question, I would have said "11 days."

I then counted in weeks and half week until 18 weeks. J was born on a Friday, so until Monday I would call him "9 weeks" and starting Tuesday "9 1/2 weeks".

I made the huge transition to counting in months at 4 months. It did seem a little imprecise to me, so I may have said "4 1/2 months" on occasion. I counted in months until the kid were 24 months and then I changed over into years, with my own twist.

For the first month they were any given age, I would say when asked my kids' age "She just turned two". For months two, three and four I would say "He is just over two". For month 5, 6 and 7 I would say "two-and-a-half". Months 8, 9 and 10 I would say "just over 2 1/2". Months 11 and 12 I would say "almost three". Like I said, way too much thought!

So with this micro age awareness and with perhaps had too much time on my hands when J was little as we celebrated his half birthdays at 6 mos. and 18 mos. And once you start, you just can't quit because a) you have to keep this equivalent for the younger child and b) the kids won't let you stop once you start.

I should perhaps add that by "celebrated", we either have a cake, cupcakes or the traditional family cinnamon buns. And the birthday child gets a modest gift and a couple other gifts, either re-gifted, free stuff I came across or something from the dollar store. This year, S got the "disco" dress pictured at left. It doesn't photograph very well due to reflective nature of mirror sequins. She was pleased as punch with it. [note, party hat and balloons are for her cousin's 4th birthday not her half birthday. I'm not yet that out of control.]

Most importantly, half birthdays bring the right to add to their age " ... and a half". The kids are quite strict about this. If I am asked their ages, I will say, for example "seven-and-a-half and five-and-a-half". If the 1/2 birthdays have not been yet celebrated I will get a stern "Mommy, J isn't 7 1/2 yet".

So today our J Boy turned 7 1/2. I forgot to buy the cinnamon buns, as he had requested. He granted me a pardon from my sin and promised to accept Dairy Queen as a substitute (it's a warm weekend, so why not?). This parallels S's half birthday when I remembered to buy the Pillsbury product but Husband forgot to make them for breakfast and toast had been consumed by the time I was awake enough to notice (I should add that Husband said not one word to me on my forgetting to purchase cinnamon buns, but I was MUCH less gracious with him on his forgetstration - new word I just made up).

J requested the book Mythology as his gift. It's one in a series of "Ology" books (Spyology, Pirateology, Wizardology, Dragonology...) that are interactive, interesting and engaging. Perfect for our insatiably curious 7.5 yr old.

One may wonder why I would have chosen to add this insanity to my already busy life, where days are spent finding activities for the kids? Well, the kids will not, in a couple decades, remember just how hard I tried to find the right set of swimming lesson, or how we bought groceries for them every week. Or made sure they had semi-clean clothes to wear to school each day. But they may just remember that we took the celebrations of milestones very seriously, and made those days special. At least, that's what I'm hoping for.

Only one month until S turns 5.75 -- though this has so far not become a gift-giving occasion.