The best birthday present

D turned 31 last Sunday. A few weekends ago we acquired an orange tree, which was his main present from Little E and I. It came from a lovely nursery not far from D 's parents' house called Wandilla Plants. It is a good thing we don't live closer to it as I can see us spending a lot of money there! We liked the idea that in our first year in this house we planted an apricot tree for my birthday and an orange tree for D's. We also like the idea of eating oranges and drinking orange juice and making orange juice icy poles for E and her little friends in years to come.

 

Continuing the garden theme, D's parents gave him a wheelbarrow and a ladder. I tease him that you know you are old and domesticated when for one birthday you get a lawn mower and the next one a wheelbarrow and ladder, but they are very useful gifts and he is very pleased with them.

E and I also gave him a copy of Bill Bryson's latest, At Home. We had this out from the library a while ago but it is on the high demand list and so couldn't be renewed, and given the enormous reduction in our free time since a certain someone arrived, a month was never going to be long enough to finish a book of that length!

My parents and Grandma thought that D needed a few personal gifts amongst all the garden/household items, and they found him two ties, new socks (which Mum, having hung out our washing a few times over the last 6 months, knew he badly needed!) and a new shirt. He was very pleased with these as he has to wear a tie and business shirt almost every day to work and gets bored with the same ones over and over again. 

We had a lunch time party for D on the day of his actual birthday. Just when I think I have learned my lesson about Little E being happiest with routine, and quiet gatherings, I agree to have 40 people over! And I decide it would be fun to make lunch for them all! D enjoyed it, which was the main aim, but it might be a while before I agree to cater for that many people again!

All of the above aside, D thinks his best present was the one he received at about 4am on the day of his birthday. E had had a restless night and at 4am I knew she did not need food as the little greedy guts had eaten two or three times already since we went to bed at about 9pm. So I decided it was D's turn to go in and attend to her. She greeted him with "eeeee! Da da da! Da da da!" She has not stopped since.