Happy Birthday, Oggie!

Earth has gone around the sun once more since we marked this day last time.

We shared this day with a simple celebration with his friends in school - the Birthday Walk. His teacher had made a cute blue crown with ocean creatures he likes - esp., Octopus.

And, we had a quiet celebration with family at home. The paste batik birthday flag we made brightened up the room.



With all the hectic work during the week, it so happened that I only had the night before to make the cake that I wanted to. And, with Ana falling sick again the day before, I wasn't sure I should enlist her help with the cake.

Of course, we could always skip the cake or get a store-bought one, he is not going to know the difference, or care.

I would have done exactly that were it not for the determined and persistent ring in my head that was hard to ignore. Blue Car Cake, Blue Car Cake, Blue Car Cake... not just because he loves cars and he loves blue, but also because it makes me happy to create a cake for my kids, no matter how sloppy it turns out.

I had no lofty plans. I know my limitations. A no-nonsense simple white cake. Home-made buttercream frosting. Some store-bought Blue fondant and some old icing to define and finish it.

Close to midnight when the cake was cooled, cut and carved into a rough car shape, crumb-coated with buttercream, and was chilling in the fridge so I can get the fondant rolled out, I was overcome with a feeling of such depth and proportions I had never felt before. Now, it might be crazy, but, I grew up with the belief that children are like gods (or what we idealize in gods).

Watching Og absorb unbelievable amounts of information from his surroundings, surprising me with his understanding of things every day, I could not shake off Dr. Maria Montessori's words that ring often in my head: He learns everything without knowing he is learning it, and in doing so he passes little by little from the unconscious to the conscious, treading always in the paths of joy and love.

At the same time, the realization that here is a being born with such capacity that is impossible to fathom, slowly but surely gets shaped somehow by what influences him in his immediate surroundings during his formative years. A child learns without even knowing what learning is: he absorbs and acquires it somehow.

Made me realize what a huge responsibility parents have and how evolution has programmed us to do it in such a way as to ensure the propagation of the species.

But, I am rambling...

Anyway, the fondant got rolled out and applied somehow. My preoccupied and tired mind was exploring how to be a better person in this lifetime, while my hands went about the motions of "decorating" the cake (poorly) using the half-empty, half-hardened ready-made icing from last year...

When D caught me squeezing the remnants of a small tube trying to drag it across to complete whatever I was trying to draw, he helpfully suggested, "Why don't you quit while you are ahead?" And I did. As far as the cake-decoration went.

After the modest celebration, "This is a fun birthday, Mama!" came out of nowhere and hit D and me like a fluffy sweet thunderbolt.

Happy Birthday, Oggie!