Today Keera turned eight, eight years ago today we were supposed to go for breakfast at my mother-in-laws place. My grandparents were visiting, so I said I would sleep on the couch. I woke up because I remember feeling like I had to go to the washroom, as soon as I got into the bathroom my water broke. I will spare you the unappealing details that lead up to the moment, but Keera was finally born at 6:13pm.
Keera and I spent our first night together alone in a hospital room, the nurses kept telling me I had to rest. No one tells you it’s impossible, between the nurses coming in to check on you and Keera vomiting. As a first time mom at the time, I didn’t know anything about newborns. They don’t tell you in prenatal class, that your baby might be coughing/puking up stuff all night. The nurses were pretty good at calming me down, and explaining that it was normal they said it meant she wasn’t suctioned properly.
If you are a Christmas baby, or you have a Christmas baby you’ll know it’s hard not to lump together their birthday with Christmas festivities. Every year I’ve tried hard to make Keera’s birthday feel important, even though we celebrate Christmas too. I make sure that we wrap her birthday presents in birthday paper, and NOT Christmas paper. We always buy her a cake, and make sure it’s not Christmas themed. Except last year, last year we bought her Diary Queen ice cream cupcakes instead of cake. CLICK HERE if you’d like to see them. Before we do Christmas presents, we get Keera to open up her birthday gifts.
Since Keera’s eight now, it’s hard for me to think of age appropriate things we can buy her. Most of her wants are for things that are not age appropriate, such as make-up or a cellphone. You don’t realize how hard it is to shop for someone until they are in between. I don’t like just buying movies, and video games.. not to mention the fact that after the birthday gifts, we also have the Christmas gifts which don’t count towards birthday gifts. 
Keera’s been bugging me for an Iphone (ha not going to happen honey), an Ipod, and an Ipad. Most of it is because she sees me, and even some of her friends with all of these things. I’ve already decided that she won’t be getting a phone until she starts to drive, and the only reason for that is for the obvious reasons of being able to keep in touch.
Right now that’s my stance, who knows what I’ll think in a couple of years. However for now the cellphone is a no go, and the Internet with my kids involved terrifies me. It’s not that I don’t trust Keera, I do it’s just I don’t trust others. There’s just so much stuff out there, you never really know.
So I decided that I wanted to get her an Ipod, my first thought was to get her an Ipod touch. With an Ipod touch though, you have access to the internet and pictures. That opens up a whole world of stuff, and the Ipod shuffle doesn’t allow you to select the song you want to play.
I wanted a happy medium, so I ended up getting her an off brand Ipod. It’s just as good quality, without the internet access and touch screen. In time I might upgrade her to a name-brand one, with a touchscreen but for now she was happy with what she got.
Since I’m all about legal downloading of music, I also got her an Itunes gift-card to go along with it. Just a small amount to get her started, we can always go buy another card in the future. She ended up getting a dress, and some shirts. Along with a pair of Wonder-Women socks, and a new scarf, toque and sweater from her cousin.
Her MéMé bought her a cooking apron, which I’m sure will get plenty of use. She also got a make your own lip-gloss kit, which I’m sure will be lots of fun and mess in the future.
Usually after were done the birthday gifts, and Christmas stuff we hang around at home. It usually feels like another normal day, plus a huge supper. Today instead of just sitting around the apartment, we decided to take the kids to the movies. We went to the theater just down the road, with the super comfy recliner seats.
We went to see the movie Sing, because it seemed like a good kid show to go see. I wasn’t expecting to like the movie, because there was supposed to be a lot of singing hence the name. However everyone ended up liking it, and it was a cool out of the ordinary way for us to spend the day. I really like the fact that we were able to make it feel more birthday celebratory for Keera, instead of just sitting at home doing nothing. 
Keera’s been a fan of MOANA since we went to go see the movie, it’s the new Frozen movie around here. After the movie, we came home and ate supper. Once the kids got into their pyjamas, we did Keera’s birthday cake. It wasn’t our usual way of celebrating, but I’m learning new things every year. Hopefully I figure it out, before she’s a teenager lol.
I wasn’t sure if Keera’s getting too old for the table-cloth themed thing or not, so I just ended buying her some Finding Dory napkins and plates. She noticed the plates and napkins, and didn’t really mention anything about the table-cloth so I’m thinking she’s over it.
I don’t know who she learnt it from, but Keera’s new thing lately has been doing a peace sign during pictures. She’s totally rocking it.