Last week in southern California we were warned that we should prepare for the worst, because Hurricane Hilary was set to make landfall over the weekend. Grocery stores were running out of bottled water and batteries, and neighborhood boards were peppered with questions about where to get sandbags.
Since we don’t live in an area prone to flooding, the only hurricane we were worried about over the weekend was Harley, who turned two on Saturday.
It isn’t so much that SHE is a hurricane as it is that she’s a toddler, and she’s baby #5 around here. Or #6. Or #8, depending on how you count them. (quick recap — Justin had three and I had two when we met, and Harley is our third together.)
Anyway. I don’t know if it was the weather being gloomy or the exhausting fact that I’m 40 and pregnant, but Saturday was one of those days where I really had to put my big girl momming pants on and make a fantastic birthday for my current youngest child.
Thankfully she’s only two, so we kept it pretty simple with a small family party, a handful of presents, a trip to the beach, and some homemade cupcakes.
Yes, we did laugh at the fact that we were hitting the beach the day before we were supposed to get hit with a tropical storm. Sure the news told us to prepare for the worst, but those same news outlets spent literal years trying to convince us we were going to die from covid, so we took their predictions with a giant grain of salt, looked at weather reports ourselves, and decided to head to the beach for a couple hours.
Besides, the beach is free and we’re on a major budget at the moment, and it’s not like we could have stopped the storm no matter what we did on Saturday. You gotta live, man.
I have to take this opportunity to poke fun at Justin, who was tasked with getting a really good photo of Harley at the beach on her birthday so I could share something on Instagram to make sure that all the other millennials know that she’s loved and cherished.
When I went through the photos later, I found some fantastic ones of Arya and Trinity who are their Great Ham Eras, and a really pretty landscape that included Harley’s back.
To be fair, she was ten thousand percent more interested in chasing seagulls than playing in the sand with her sisters. Also occasionally throwing a rock into the waves.
Once we got back home and cleaned up, she got some presents that had been ordered on Amazing a FULL 72 hours before her actual birthday. We are super on top of things over here.
Then we made the mistake of giving her a Baby Alive as her first gift to open … she was entirely uninterested in opening any others when there was a baby doll with a pretend juice cup to play with.
For the record, this is the photo I ended up sharing with Instagram:
As for the hurricane? This was the brunt of it on Sunday. Honestly we wouldn’t have thought twice about it being anything other than a summer storm if there hadn’t been so much media hoopla surrounding it.
Special shoutout to Cordelia, who told me she was going to “dress for the weather,” and then proceeded to style her outfit with a blue sweater with puffy clouds, rainbow rain boots, and dangly storm cloud earrings.
Happy second birthday to Harley, our sweetest little hurricane.
Glad that you're writing. I loved hearing about your little hurricane. Justin did take some good pictures. I love them all. And the little girls made the cupcakes with you. Chefs to be🥰
Loved the “stunning birthday portrait.” Descendants of Henry the VIII, are we?
Essay is nice reminder of life going on. Kudos to you and hubby for all the hard work - but family is like magic.