PARTY X 2 = AR

Gentle Readers,

I have just returned from a very special young lady's second birthday party. What a joyous event. Little AR marveled at every gift she received. How wonderful to watch an intelligent little girl grow up and learn about the world.

She opened packages with clothes and toys and then, it was time for the big gift. She received a helmet, purple and sparkly, and  Daddy wheeled out her little pink trike/bike, with a handle in the back for Mommy or Daddy to hold. The handle even controls the steering. I wish such a thing had been available when my children were young.

So many people were there to enjoy the big day, including plenty of children milling around and helping Little AR open her gifts. How lovely to see these children, bright and loved and well-cared for. A darling little boy named Jamie made a very carefully study of all the tiny sticks and bits of dry grass on the steps to the house and then chose one gift for me, and then another. What made those little sticks so special? I wish I could see my surroundings from the perspective of a two year old and be as fascinated by a stick as that little boy and then share my fascination. And this little boy didn't know me - had never seen me before, but he was willing to share his precious gift with me: the gift of wonder.

A diamond and a ruby couldn't have been better gifts than those sticks.

But if anyone wants to send me jewels, then please feel free.

HEY, MY KIDS - Yes, you two.

GET MARRIED AND GIVE ME GRANDCHILDREN. Don't forget to achieve your own goals. I will help raise the children, no problem. But give me the gift of grandchildren. When I had you I was so busy I didn't take enough time to watch you wonder. Grandchildren are a parent's opportunity to do better.

Thank you so much, LL and RL, for inviting me today. I had such a good time.

Infinities of love,

Lola

THE BEST BIRTHDAY CAKE EVER

Gentle Readers,

Last night I had the pleasure of watching my now 30-year-old son blow out the candles on his birthday cake, and it was the most creative cake I've ever seen.

Because 30 makes my son an old man, the young woman who made the cake, Lindsey, decorated it to demonstrate how ancient he now is.

The cake wore prunes laid out in the shape of Florida because that's where old people go to live. There were two old golf balls, a double entendre if ever I've seen one. The front of the cake sported one of those plastic pill holders that old people use so they remember to take their medicine and it was filled with blue M&Ms to represent a certain little blue pill. An old creature, was it a dinosaur? can't remember, donned an adult diaper.

I can't even remember everything that was on that cake. I just know I couldn't stop laughing when I saw it and neither could anyone else. What a creative young woman our Lindsey is. And how loved my son must be that people wanted to celebrate his birthday with him. His girlfriend said she'd never had a birthday like that.

The closest I ever came was one year when a nurse I assisted at a nursing home made brownies with peanut butter and chocolate chips for my birthday. They were homemade although she, like me, worked 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. three or four nights per week - and it was hard, physically demanding labor - and she, unlike me, had three small children. I don't know how she did it all, and I never saw her lose her patience at work. Once when her husband called her at work and criticized her because the house was dirty, she just got very quiet.

I know how she felt. We never do enough. We're never good enough.

But last night at that birthday celebration, everything was more than good enough.

Love,

Dumped First Wife.