Guess what today is...

MY THIRTIETH BIRTHDAY!!

I don't feel thirty. I certainly don't act thirty.
Do I look thirty? Gee, I hope not.

Anyway, the downward spiral begins. :) Just kidding.
Actually, today hasn't been all that bad, considering...

It didn't start out great. Elijah woke us up at 1:00 a.m. SCREAMING AT THE TOP OF HIS LUNGS with a fever of at least 102 (which could have been higher, but I don't know because he wiggled too much to let the thermometer finish reading). I think he's teething again - the bottom molars maybe. I gave him some Motrin, stripped his clothes off, put a cool washcloth on his "area" (they say it's the quickest way to lower body temp). Of course he loudly protested. But when he wasn't settled by 1:30, Manny took over rocking him back to sleep. Finally we were all back to bed a little after 2:00.

Unfortunately the peace didn't last too long. He woke up again at 5:00 crying. This time no fever, thankfully. But since he was still stripped down to his diaper, his bedroom windows were open, and the ceiling fan was on, he was freezing. In pitch dark, I hurriedly located some warm sleeper pj's from a box of winter clothes in the corner of the room which I have been meaning to put away for days (if only there were room for them). After dressing him, he was able to settle down a bit, but kept getting himself so worked up he couldn't fall back to sleep. It turns out, he was in full-on tantrum mode! Screeching, raring his body back, throwing his passy and blanket, pushing against me. He would not nurse. He didn't want me to hold him. He didn't want me to sing to him. He didn't want to lay in his bed. So for a while I forced him to sit on my lap while I patted and shushed him. After an hour I decided he needed to "cry it out" on his own. So I laid him down, shut his door, turned off his monitor and waited. It took him until 7:30 to go back to sleep.

Thankfully I didn't have to go in to the office early today. We both slept later than normal, given the night we had. I was even able to get a shower in before he woke up at 9:00. But after that he was sweet as usual, with the addition of a little crankiness from time to time.

Now, about my BIRTHDAY...

It turns out my dear husband does love me. This morning he was on our side of town, so he stopped by home and surprised me with some gifts (I'll get to that in a bit), a yummy key lime pie, cards, and cute b-day decorations. He told me to wait upstairs for a few minutes and not peek. When I came downstairs he had decorated the dining room with banners, balloons, ribbons, the pie with candles, and the gifts. I guess I underestimated his thoughtfulness. Elijah's card to me has a mommy dog and a puppy on it. When I showed it to him to thank him he replied, "bah bah", of course. Cute! So Manny gave me a pretty candle, a cookbook by Sandra Lee (Semi-Homemade) with lots of yummy looking pictures, and the book I've been wanting by Kay Arthur called A Marriage Without Regrets. love Kay Arthur, and I'm really looking forward to starting it. I had hoped for tickets to the Derek Webb concert on October 12th, but maybe I can still manage to get Manny to take me.

Also, my Mom and Dad are taking me to Lowe's to pick out a screen door and Dad will install it!! I'm super excited about this, because it means a better breeze through the house and Elijah will be able to look outside now. Yay!

Tonight we're having Mom's delicious lasagna for supper with the family. My Grandma (who's also celebrating her Birthday today - her 75th) and Grandpa will be there too. Hopefully it will be nice.