Eat it!

Zosia is turning two tomorrow. Her birthday, it appears, will be celebrated along many lily pads of family celebrations. We celebrated with my parents last weekend, before they left for their vacation. We will have our own special nuclear family celebration tomorrow. Next weekend we will have ice cream at the playground for neighborhood families, and then finally we will celebrate with Ben's family (along with a couple of other birthdays) in September. So I can understand why the whole birthday thing seems a little confusing. Is it a day? A season? Each celebration, I must add, will be of utmost simplicity... no moon bounces, clowns, entertainers. Just gatherings of loved ones and maybe a little treat.... which has not escaped Zosia.

Lately Zosia has been mentioning her birthday with increasing frequency. "Birthday coming up!" she'll exclaim, somewhat randomly, throughout the day. It's so cute to think that she has some notion of what's coming up. We will often try to engage her in conversation about it. So yesterday I said something like, "Yes, Zosia, it is coming up. What are we going to do on your birthday?" To which she, without a moment's hesitation, replied, "Eat it!"

After a moment of thinking about it, I realized that in her mind, the only notable thing about a birthday is the cake, and birthday is therefore synonymous with birthday cake.