Decades

Ten years ago I became mother to a daughter. I swear Marissa was beautiful from the second she was born. Now I look at her and marvel that she is a decade old. I think she's still beautiful. But we've also discovered that she is funny and kind and athletic and creative and gentle and smart and a little kooky.

Somehow we unwittingly established a tradition for the decade milestone that the birthday kid receives a Nintendo DS. That basically caps off the birthday gifts, but Marissa was so excited she didn't really care. We decided to upgrade to a DSi because of the camera feature, which is well tailored to Marissa's creative personality. Ten is also an off year for friend parties, so we had a family celebration which included her choice of dinner [crepes] and cake [teddy bear] and ice cream. We kept everything fairly low key, but there were smiles all around.

I remember thinking it was kind of cool to say I was a decade. [I'm also kind of a nerd, but you already knew that.] Unfortunately, I can now say I'm 3 1/2 decades old. My family made my birthday a happy day. I got just what I wanted -- a new potato peeler! That might not sound very exciting, but have you ever tried peeling potatoes or carrots or cucumbers or etc., with a defunct kitchen tool? It's unpleasant. My other request was to take a family trip to the zoo. So we headed up, along with the entire population of Utah [may I suggest avoiding the zoo on a major holiday weekend?]. We had fun despite the crowds.

In honor of both of our birthdays, and to document Marissa's kookiness, here is a sampling of her birthday card to me. She'll probably hate me for this someday, but I choose to exercise my motherly prerogative.

Dear Motha, We bring to you a happy day that is not a girl. A ha ha ha a berba dito mano fergivity gerb. Dear mom, I hope you have a great birthday and a bob. I am going to clean something. It is ...... something. Love, Marissa

It's a puzzle, I know. But I firmly believe I should add "fergivity gerb" to my permanent vocabulary. Try feeling grumpy when you say it. I dare you. And for the record, she did clean something. It was ....... the bathrooms. What a gem. Looks like the last decade was good for something.