Diary of a Birthday
part deux
Mademoiselle wanted to decorate her own cake. She colored the frosting, piped it on in fancy flowers and dots, and then topped her cake with colored mini-kisses.
It's a Mademoiselle birthday tradition to have a bit of a dance party. She loves to play freeze dance. I think she won.
Bono made a surprise guest appearance.
Happy Birthday to You
Happy Birthday to You
Happy Birthday, Dear Mademoise-elle
Happy Birthday to You!
Mmmm...candle wax.
Present time!
Look at the surprised glee on that face!
Mademoiselle, I cannot believe it's been 6 years since you were born. I love you so much - you're my girl! I'm so glad you are in our little family and I get to share every day with you!
Thanks for letting me be your mom!
6 comments:
AHHHHHH! She looks SO OLD! (And very beautiful!)
Happy Birthday, Mama's Girl. That cake looks like the yummiest one ever. I wish we could have been there for your party.
I remember being 6. I was nearly all grown up by then. I moved to a new house when I was 6, two of them in two different towns, in fact. I liked to sew for my doll, and make potholders, and read. I learned to read when I was 6, and I figured out how to spell some really hard words, like 'little'.
My father was a teacher when I was 6, and I had a little sister who was 2 turning 3, and a little brother who was 1 turning 2.
When I was 6 I helped my mom plant a garden. I also played baseball with the boys who lived behind us, except that was mostly when I was 7. I'll tell you about being 7 next year.
When I was 6, some of my teeth fell out, and I'm happy to report that new ones grew back in their place and those are the ones I still bite with.
My hair was short and thick and the same color as yours. I took tap dancing lessons and wanted to learn how to play the piano.
Enjoy being 6! And write to me about what you are doing. I am really excited that I can see you again in 3 months or so...
Love, G of All
The houses I lived in when I was 6 were all very different from each other. And I lived in all 3 from the time I was 6 1/2 till I was not even close to being 7. So that was a lot of different houses!
Up till the time we moved the first time, when I was 6 yrs and 7 mos old, I lived in a house my mother designed. It was such a sweet little house! It was in Wethersfield CT. It had a living room going from front to back on the left, stairs in the middle, and a dining room and a kitchen on the right, the dining room in front. There was a small vestibule where the front door came in, with a closet, then a door or doorway, then the stairs straight ahead. There was a lavatory behind the stairs, next to the kitchen, and a real bathroom above it upstairs. Also upstairs were two bedrooms, one on the left (mine and my sister's) and one on the right (my parents'). The house had dormers with windows in them. The outside was painted white, with black shutters. It had the number 140 on it: 140 Beverly Road. We had a nice yard with a swing set near the house and a garden and a cedar fence down in the back. In front was a sidewalk that I could ride my bike on. I had friends up the street (Clare) and down the street (Ann, Heather, and Betty Jane). Leo lived across the street - he was a friend too. From my house I could walk to the kindergarten building (starting when I was 5) and the next year to the regular school for first grade, beginning when I was 6 1/2. Way up the street was Satriano's, the grocery store where we shopped, and down the street was Silas Deane highway, where we could get the bus to go into Hartford where we could do other shopping. We also had a car.
My father was a teacher, and he decided to work in a different town, so that's why we moved. It wasn't right at the beginning of school - I went to one first grade for several weeks before we moved.
But then the day came and we said goodbye to our sweet little house and my school and my friends, and we moved about 60 miles away to the town of Ridgefield CT. What a great house we moved into! It sat on top of a great rocky outcropping, almost like a mountain! And nearby, only a 5 min walk away, was a boy in my class and an older boy, and they had a pig! We used to take our garbage to that pig. Later, they ate him... That was my introduction to pigs. The house had lots and lots of rooms and our bedroom was very large. And there was a spider in the bathtub so I didn't want to use that bathtub, but there were other bathtubs...There was a small room near our big bedroom and for some reason I was sleeping in there, and I put my hand up over my head, just stretching. There was a window there over my head, and when I put my hand there, a wasp stung me! What was he doing there!? That's also where I was when I figured out how to spell 'little' all by myself. And it was in that house that I learned to read. I mean, one day I just got it! And then I was a reader.
But we only got to stay in that great house with its rooms and porches and patios for 11 weeks, and then we moved to the actual town my father was teaching in. My father had decided it was more convenient to stay down there than to drive the 17 miles home every day, so we had to move. So I said goodbye to my friends, the memory of the pig, and my teacher and my classmates, and we moved.
By now it was around Thanksgiving time and the weather was getting wintry. We moved to Darien CT into a house that was pretty nice. It had a kitchen and table in the back, a big playroom, and a living room, and then stairs that went up to some bedrooms. I shared a bedroom with my sister. My brother had the little room in the back, and my parents' room was on the other side of the hall. My mother liked to put us to bed early and I remember lying there in my bed for a really long time making my legs go like I was on a bicycle, and also playing games on the floor with my brother and sister. (They were a lot younger so I always won.) One day my brother got burned and I remember my mother putting some ointment on the burn on his belly, and then we went to a movie. Outside we had a swing set and a garden. When we first got there there was a huge old brick building that they were tearing down. It was really funny when they took out all the toilets and lined them up! It took all the way till I was 7 to take that building down so I can't tell you about what happened next, but it was pretty cool... My school was great. My teacher was Miss Paul. The nice girl, Margy, from across the street walked to school with me every day. I called her up in the morning and told her I'd meet her at 5 of 9, and then I'd skedaddle across our busy street and walk with her. She was in kindergarten but was much bigger than I was. We walked up to the corner, crossed with the crossing guard, walked down the side street for a long way, crossed with another crossing guard, and got to the school. Then we went inside and did math, reading, and music and I loved it. Then Christmas came, then I was absent for a while because I was sick, then came my 7th birthday, so I can't tell you any more. But I did live in 3 houses when I was 6, and went to 3 different first grades, and had 3 different teachers, and 3 different sets of friends. And I had a really good time.
When I was 6, there were no car seats. Kids just sat in the car like grownups. Babies lay in their carbeds, which were like boxes that fit between the front and back seats.
When I was 6 there were no microwaves, just stoves.
When I was 6, my grandparents had an icebox, not a refrigerator. And they had a wood stove to cook on. Even though they lived in the middle of a city. They got a refrigerator and gas stove right after that.
When I was 6, girls had to wear dresses or skirts and blouses to school.
When I was 6, no one had a TV. I had never seen a TV. But I loved to play my records so I could listen to music. I had a 78 with Oh Susannah on one side and Carry Me Back to Old Virginie on the other. I had a story record called Rusty in Orchestraville and another about a train named Sparky who could talk to a boy who loved to go see him at the train station. I think that's all the records I had.
Of course there were no vcrs or dvds.
When I was 6, I had never gone to a movie, or to a restaurant. There were no fast food places.
When I was 6, I had never been to church.
When I was 6, my mother used to end every phone conversation by saying 'Righto, bye'.
When I was 6, milk was delivered in glass bottles to the door.
Before I was 6, my mother and I used to go to the egg farm to get our eggs. I loved to do that! But after my sister and brother were born, we didn't do that anymore.
Before I was 6, when I was maybe 2 or 3, there wasn't enough food because it was World War II. So to make sure everyone got enough food, the government passed out little tickets called 'ration tickets' and if you used all those up, you couldn't get any more food. Also they had ration tickets for gas. So we were always very careful to get just what we needed. Sometimes my mother (Nana) had to stand in line with me outside the store to get meat. When she and her neighbors heard that the store had gotten meat, everyone ran to get in line so they could get a piece. I couldn't stay home with my dad because he was away in the army because of the war. But that was all when I was 3.
When I was 6, I was a happy little girl with dark nearly black hair like yours. It had been curly, but when I was six it was short and straight and heavy and thick. I wore it with a barrette when I went to school. I was medium-sized. My snacks were saltines with jelly in between, or peanut butter. My mother made apple brown betty for me, or bread pudding. I liked my sandwiches with the crusts trimmed off until my mother told me that was wasteful so then I ate them with crusts. I loved milk. I loved my friends. I loved my Shirley doll and I loved to sew.
And that's about all I can remember about being 6. At least until tomorrow.
Love, G of All
Keep it up, G! Or maybe start your own blog. We like it!
M>
Recipes from when I was 6 (and 5 and 4 and 3 and 2 ... ):
Egg Nog
Crack an egg into a little bowl (ours was brown) and whip it up with an eggbeater until it isn't stringy. Add a cup of milk and a tablespoon of sugar. Whip it up again. Pour it into a glass, sprinkle on some nutmeg, and drink it. YUM!
Apple Brown Betty
Take those bread crust trimmings and other older bread cut into one-inch squares, about 2 cups altogether. Slice 2 apples into about 8 pieces each. Get out the cinnamon. Butter a brownie pan really thoroughly. Put half the bread in the bottom, then half the apples, then a sprinkle of cinnamon, then repeat. Pour a little fruit juice over the top before you add the final cinnamon if the bread is really dry. You can sprinkle on a little sugar, too. Bake it in the oven until the apples are soft. Serve it with milk on top, or cream, or ice cream.
Bread Pudding
Chop up some old bread like for Apple Brown Betty. You should have 2 cups. Then mix 2 eggs with a fork in a measuring cup and add milk until you have about 1 1/2 cups. Stir in about 2 T of sugar and a little nutmeg, cinnamon, or cardamom or all 3. Pour it over the bread and mix it up till all the bread is wet. Let it sit while the oven heats up, then cook it at 350 degrees until the top is brown and the egg mixture is set. Take it out and eat it right away with cheese, apples, or ice cream.
I remember sitting at our kitchen table while my mom (Nana) made this for me. She'd make it every day. I got to choose which one. This is really a memory from when I was 2 or 3, probably. These three recipes were made as I sat there at that table. I hope you can try these. Let me know!
Love you! G of All
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