Happy B-Day!

Today is my wife’s birthday.

My son had had lobster for the first time earlier in the year, on Mother’s Day. This boy, who once was such a picky eater, surprised me when he was willing to try it then. And once he did, he loved it. I told him that lobster is very expensive and we would have it only on special occasions. And so, from a few weeks ago, Kai has been reminding me that Mom’s birthday is coming up and that maybe we should get lobster.

I was planning that we would celebrate her birthday this weekend, but Kai really wanted to have lobster and did not want to wait another week. So, we ended up celebrating Mom’s birthday last weekend.

While my wife was busy tutoring and then going to the beauty shop, Kai and I spent much of the day working on the birthday celebration. First, we went to place where kids could paint pottery.

Kai loves going there. The first time I went there with him, he had me write down the names and corresponding numbers of each of the nearly hundred colors they had. This time he did not obsess over the colors/numbers, and went right to work on coloring a bowl.

After that we went to a local seafood market. I had plan on getting lobster tails, but Kai asked the attendant if they had whole lobsters. I was not planning on getting whole lobsters – we don’t even have pots big enough to steam them. And they are more expensive than tails. But Kai really had his heart set on them, and it was a special occasion, so I relented.

We had to make one more stop, to get a gluten-free cake mix, frosting, and candles. And then we went back home to work on the next steps.

Kai cracked the eggs and I mixed everything together for the cake mix. And then while it was baking, Kai checked every 5 minutes to see if the lobsters were defrosting. Playing with whole lobsters was definitely more fun than just getting tails.

When the cake was done and cooled off, I put on the frosting and Kai decorated it. It didn’t look as slick as a store-bought cake, but I think the sincerity really showed.

When my wife returned home, we heated the lobsters in the oven.

Eating whole lobsters takes a lot of work. And I totally forgot to take pictures as I was busy helping Kai shell his.

But we all enjoyed it.

Afterward, we brought out the cake and sang happy birthday.

I hope all of my wife’s wishes come true.

Happy birthday, honey!