Meera’s Birthday – Part II

Meera’s End-of-the-Bed-Present was a new “big girl tea set” (her favorite gift from her 2nd Birthday was a teeny tiny tea set that she has played with just about every single day for the entire past year). She was opening her present just after she woke up at 5:51am (photo below). This felt early to those of us who had been up until 1:30am decorating, but it felt much too late to Meera’s brothers. Kyle and Owen had been up since 5am waiting impatiently for their little sister to wake up. “We’re too excited to sleep!” they told me more than once in the wee hours of the morning. They desperately wanted to wake Meera up. I told them that they had to wait for her to wake up on her own. I’m pretty sure that they were more excited about Meera’s birthday than they have ever been for their own. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, we heard Meera’s pitter-pattering from her bedroom into the upstairs hallway. “I have a pink present in my big girl bed!” she exclaimed.

She could have just played with her brand new tea set on her bedroom floor all day and been perfectly happy. But Kyle and Owen knew bigger things were brewing. “Let’s look downstairs!” they said. And so we headed down. Seeing it all for the first time was all very exciting.

The thing about Meera is that she notices every detail. Nothing is lost on her. So all of the details are worth it. And there were lots and lots of details. The beauty of it was in the details. It wasn’t just a Fancy Pink Tea Party. It was pure magic in our house that day.

After exploring the scene, and then opening her presents from her brothers (a Tinkerbelle balloon from Owen; a Tinkerbelle toy from Kyle), Meera was whisked away to the Waffle House for a birthday breakfast. MorMor and I stayed home to finish off the final details because our Fancy Pink Tea Party guests were arriving at 10am sharp. Once back from waffles, all that was left to do was to get the birthday girl dressed in her Fancy New Outfit… the “pink twirly dress and fancy shoes” that she had been dreaming of were right there waiting…

And here they are— the bambinos— all dressed up in their Fancy Pink, just shy of 10am, just minutes before the Fancy Pink festivities officially began:

It was beyond adorable. It was Fancy Pink adorable. It was nothing like anything that any of us had done before. And that was the best part: we did it for Meera. It was not a party that the boys would have chosen. It was not a party that Mama or Papi would have chosen. It was the party that Meera chose. And we rallied behind her. Without complaint, without poking fun, without making light of it… we conscientiously and purposefully rallied for our girl, and we did it all the way. Because no matter how crazy we all might think this whole “Fancy Pink” thing is… it is – for better or for worse – Meera’s thing… and so… it is our thing too. Meera was ecstatic (that’s a fancy word for happy). She was Fancy Pink Ecstatic!