Today isn’t Lexi’s birthday. Huh? What kind of nonsense is this? Lexi’s birthday is in June, but it falls on a Wednesday this year so every Wednesday, Lexi talks about her birthday.

“Mommy, did you know my birthday is on a Wednesday?” Yes, Lexi, I do. You’ve only told me 80 times. “Mommy, how many more days until my birthday?” Ummm…like 80 days.

Side note: Lexi’s response to any question involving time is “80” something. “Mommy, I haven’t been to Chuck E Cheese’s in 80 years!” “Mommy, I haven’t had a bath in 80 days!” Mommy, I can’t wait for dinner. That’s like in 80 minutes!” My husband and I have no idea what her obsession with the number “80” is, but it has now become a Hurst habit as you can tell.

Okay, back to the present. Every Wednesday brings around a new round of discussions regarding her sixth birthday. I don’t know about you all, but I just don’t get all that excited about birthdays. Growing up, I was one of six children and quite often my birthday would get lumped in with others for cost-saving measures. (Cue the violins here…) I don’t have an aversion to gifts. I just don’t really need them. It’s not practical. (You can go back and read an earlier post on how I feel about gifts, wrapping paper, etc…) And while my hobby is making elaborate cakes for other people’s birthdays, anniversaries, showers and weddings, I don’t need a cake on my own birthday.

The first time we threw Lexi a birthday party was last year when she turned five. I’m not kidding. And I really only threw her an actual party for these two reasons:

1. I had enough of my mom friends heaping layers of guilt upon me for not having hosted a birthday party when I apparently enjoy planning events for other people. They had a point.

2. More importantly, Lexi looked at me one day while pointing to a parenting magazine and said, “I wouldn’t mind having that Candyland cake for my birthday.”

I was sold right then. Lexi really doesn’t ask for much so when she verbalizes it, it means something to her. So…we had a Candyland birthday to end all Candyland birthdays. If I’m going to do something, it’s going to be big! And exhausting.

After that, we told Lexi that she wasn’t having another big birthday until she turned 10, 15, 20, etc…I thought every five years sounded reasonable. But it’s Wednesday, and Lexi is talking about her birthday again so I was gearing up towards the “you’re not having a big birthday” spiel.

But before I could do the mom thing, she said, “Mommy, I just get so excited about my birthday because that’s the day I was born. You have two babies in heaven so I bet you really love my birthday because that’s the day God gave you a child.”

And with that, I wanted to tell her she could have a big birthday party every day! She humbles me in so many ways. I think of birthdays as these huge events to bear while she reminds me that birthdays are inherently special because a life begins on each person’ birthday.

So Happy Birthday, Lexi. I pray I never take your birthday or mine or anyone’s for granted.

How do you celebrate your child’s birthday?