lambscapearchitect: dada

Today is the birthday of the most popular person in our family--"Dada".

The girls and I planned a little birthday breakfast celebration for our favorite fella. Eloise made lots of pictures to decorate the kitchen and we served up all his faves---smoked salmon, scrambled eggs, croissants, fresh squeezed (not by me) o.j., and coffee.

Harriet colored a picture for him on piece of white, round cardboard from the previous night's pizza order. After he admired it, she promptly took it to the dishwasher thinking it was a plate.

Eloise, always one for a joke, made him a card on a gigantic piece of paper and then folded it up into a little envelope so it would be a surprise when he opened it and unfolded it for an hour. He loved the gag but also the content...

"Dada, I really love you and that's because it is your birthday.

I like it when you go on bike rides with me.

I hope you get a whole supermarket full of peaches for your birthday!

Love, Eloise

After breakfast, it was time for Dada to head to work.

Every single day Eloise and Mike have an extended dance remix farewell out our front window. This has been going on since Eloise could stand. She can be anywhere in the house-- in the middle of a meal, a show, a tantrum, or a game but when she hears that front door lock she bolts to the front window to take her post. She begins by blowing 1000 kisses, waving, jumping up and down, yelling funny things through the window and laughing hysterically as her father reacts to every one of them in the silliest way possible. People walking by chuckle to themselves and people driving by can only see Mike outside pretending to fall down from the weight of all the blown kisses and bouncing around like a goofball with his briefcase in hand on someone's front lawn.

Today, Harriet got in on the goodbyes. Both his girls gave an extra special birthday rendition of "Goodbye, Dada". I could tell from the look on Mike's face, through the window, that this was his best present of the day.