Happy Birthday Daddy

2 boys playing Guitar Hero and some Rainforest Chimes. Guess who is who? :) Below are some pictures of Iggy's accomplishments this year, with their friends. :)


And, finally, here is a pic of Elijah and I on our morning booze run for the party. The HOA is going to come after us, I just know it. :)
It was so great to see our friends, the guest of honor was surprised and super overjoyed, and Elijah got to stay up late.

We have now spent 10 years celebrating each other's birthdays together. But doesn't feel like that much time has passed. Even though we now have real jobs, and can get expensive gifts, the best presents still seem to be the same as in college - little, cheap things special only to us and being with friends. I suppose I could write a sappy note about what 10 years of celebrating my beloved's birthday mean to me. But I'll spare you. Instead! As a special treat to our readers (although still at the risk of being sappy!) is my favorite passage about getting older and love. :)

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

The Velveteen Rabbit

Happy Birthday Iggy.