Momnesia

Happy Birthday

Scott went to the fights last night so Emerson and I went out for girls' night.

"I go downtown!" she shrieked when we got in the car at day care.
"That's right, we're going downtown," I cooed.
"I go downtown!" she shrieked again, and about every 30 seconds after.

"Downtown" to her is a nebulous place where there is water and playground equipment and enough room to run. If we are on Broad Street, she still says, "I wah go downtown." She means Riverwalk.
So we went down to 9th Street where the pretty fish fountain sits in front of the Jessye Norman Amphitheatre. "WaaaaAAAAAterh," she gasped, and jumped up and down until I lifted her onto the stone rim.

"I run away!" she laughed, and ran around the fountain until she reached me again.
"I run away!" she shouted, and ran the other way until she reached me again.
"I run away!" she called, and... really, this game went on for about 30 minutes. I had long since given up even pretending that I was playing along.

Finally she grew bored of it and we walked up the top of the levee.
"Huuuuh!" she gasped at the top and her eyes grew large. "Bid waaaaAAAAterh!" she pointed at the Savannah River....
... and took off at a dead run for the Amphitheater. It drops precipitously into about two stories of stadium seating and I managed to grab her just in time. We walked carefully down the steps to the riverbank, where boats passed and we watched a train cross the water in the distance.
"I run away!" she yelled and took off running down the brick sidewalk.
(sigh) Okay...

So I followed behind her as she merrily tore down the path, pointing at everything we passed and shrieking, "LOOK, MAMA!" Flowers, rocks, more bricks, dirt, trees, leaves, ants. There was a lot of pointing and shrieking. You'd think we'd raised her in an underground bunker.
We got about a block down the river when I saw a man ahead, lounging on top of a picnic table. He was obviously homeless, but looked harmless enough. Emmie plowed towards him, reached the table, stopped and looked at him.
"OhNo!" she squealed, turned tail, and hauled ass in the opposite direction.
Great. Sorry, guy.

Then we went back up the amphitheater steps... and back down... and back up... and back down... and then she climbed up the bleacher seats... and when she turned around to go back down, I had to put a stop to it. I called 'time out' and we went to get dinner.

"What do you want for dinner, sweetie?" I asked at the table.
"Um... lemonade... and burh-day cake... and lemonade... and burh-day cake, okay?!" she smiled up at me and laughed excitedly.
Got it. She was not going to stay seated for long.
She scarfed up spinach and artichoke dip, although it was more about the chips (why does she love chips so much?!), pounded lemonade, and I had the waitress bring out a slice of cake.
She insisted I sing "Happy Birthday" to her, even though her birthday isn't until January... not that she knows that.

After a few bites, she pushed the cake back to me.
"I sing it," she said, and sang "Happy Birthday" to me:
"Hah Burhday to yoo
Hah Burhday to yoo
Hah Burhday dear Mama
Hah Burhday dear Mamaaaaaaaaa!"
"Wah sum?" she asked. "Hab sum cake!"
I picked a little off the plate.
After a few bites, she pulled the cake back to herself.

"My turn!" she called.
I sang to her again. We went back and forth until she had largely destroyed the cake, grown tired of it, and gone back to the chips. The other diners looked at us like we were ridiculous, singing Happy Birthday to each other repeatedly. Whatever. I had an awesome time.

Then we got in the car and went to the playground for a little while. When she fell down and then wouldn't stop crying, I knew it was time to work our way home.

But it was a great evening together. I just love spending time with her!