Michael's 32nd Birthday

   I was very happy to be off on Michael's birthday this year (yesterday). For the past few years I have always had to work, so we'd go out to eat the weekend before his birthday, and the night of his birthday we'd rush to open his presents before doing Emma's trach care and me needing to get ready to go to bed early for work the next day. So I wanted to make a big deal this year and I'm glad we were able to have a fun family day, even with everything going on in the world.

   Emma's riding side saddle on her unicorn and then signing "all done" so I'd take her off. We were getting ourselves ready before we got her ready and I had to stop my make up every minute when she'd crawl too far forward and disconnect her vent tubing. She's a mover now for sure!! Big 3 year old (and 4 months).

   DIY blowout. Is that what it's called? And is that what it would look like if I got it done at a salon? I don't even know. "The dog" is still around too. 13 years old now. And her name is Sasha, by the way, not Sophie. Haha! *cough Alex cough*

  There he is!!  :)

   Holding my hand in her sleep as we drove through Windermere to get to our first fun destination!

At work a few weeks ago we got an email saying essential workers get free entry to Wonderworks through the end of November. We originally planned to go 10 days earlier, but Michael needed to run a bunch of errands (I think that was when he was finishing up the drain project in my bathroom) so we went for his birthday instead. We both got in for free since Essential Workers obviously include first first responders and teachers! Emma's age 0-3 ticket was free. We only had to pay five dollars for parking. We both agreed that the experience was worth the free tickets, haha! Michael's review was, "Pretty sure after we went last time (in summer 2011?) I said I didn't need to go back. And I definitely don't need to go back now. It was smaller than I remembered." Haha, but he didn't have a bad time. And the main reason I want to do lots of stuff is for Emma to experience new things with her eyes and ears. She didn't touch anything there. #germs. And we brought our own medical gloves to wear most of the time. 

   ^^ water droplets dripping upwards! 

   I was excited for her to sit at the Earthquake table with us because she loves when she's sitting on her trach table and we shake it really fast like she's on a roller coaster. She laughs a lot. But this time it was roped off with an employee attendant and there was a 4-foot height requirement. That's dwarf-ist! :p

   These family photos were taken by an employee after she took pictures of us in front of a green screen. We did a regular photo, scared photo, silly photo, and a hugging photo. Later we got to see them with different backgrounds. Michael and I both liked the scary one where we were in a graveyard, but the pictures were $10 or $15 each and we specifically wanted it on one of the magnets, but they couldn't do that unless we bought all four photos first. And we didn't like the one photo enough to buy an 8x10 of it. 

  In the photo below, Emma was on a pulley chair. I pulled on the heavy rope several times and her seat slowly lifted up, causing her to look confused, but then laugh. :)

 Just relaxing in a bed of 3,500 (?) nails, no big deal. I wonder if Massage Envy has this? ;)

  Playing music with my feet! We should have brought Emma's AFOs! ;)

  Now time for dinner! Our first time actually eating inside of a restaurant together since the Corona Virus outbreak. Well, Michael and Emma's first time. I have safely gone out with my parents a handful of times over the summer. Other than that, we have ordered food to go and ate at home since March. I'm not even sure we went out to eat in January or February since I don't have any pictures of it on Instagram. :p 

  ^^ I really like this photo of us with the sun in the corner.

   We had the whole area to ourselves. Maybe because it was only 4pm? Another couple sat down later. Michael estimated their table to be at least 20 feet away. Far enough that we couldn't even hear their conversation. And even though the governor said restaurants could go back to serving at full capacity, it looks like Cooper's Hawk is still serving at 50%, according to us seeing the "this table has been cleaned" cards on every other table... (on half of the tables, not on all of the other tables). And of course all of the servers had their black cloth masks on the whole time. We kept ours on too until our food came. And it said they throw the menus out after each use. Poor trees! Welcome to Teletype, haha! 

   I had been wanting to go on a date with Michael very badly for a long time, so this was very nice and much needed for my heart. It was so nice talking to him and for an uninterrupted hour without having to get up to do some other chore or let the dog back in the house, or putting my food away early to take my shower, or whatever the reason usually is for why our home dates get cut short. 

  However, because we haven't eaten inside of a restaurant for a long time.. even though we got to-go boxes for all of our leftover food, besides the caprese flatbread (not pictured) that we finished, we both forgot to grab it on our way out. I guess it was my job since Michael always pushes Emma in the stroller. We got outside, took these family photos, and luckily Michael asked if I got the food. I rushed back inside and even though the table had been cleared, our to-go bag was off to the side. Pheeew! Note to self: for some reason I always think I don't like the caprese flatbread. Maybe because it has balsamic vinaigrette on it? But it is good. 

   My stomach wasn't used to so much food, so I asked Michael if I could go for a walk when we got home. I was definitely going to fall asleep without one. He said yes, as long as I changed Emma's diaper first, then he took a short nap on the couch while I was outside. He opened his presents around 7:20pm and got everything he had asked me for, yet was still excited. 

   ^^ So precious! 

   This picture of him opening the last box is my favorite because, one- look at that sweet smile, and two- it is the only present I got him, besides candy, that was something he didn't specifically ask for, but is something he will use. A present he wasn't expecting. It was a 36 can case of his new favorite flavor of Ultra Rosa' Monster energy drinks. That's all he drinks now besides Coke Zero and coffee. 

  

   All his goodies from me (including a box of glue sticks and a glass plate for his bigger 3D printer), as well as the Jango Fett dude made from lots of cool looking bolts and screws, which is from my parents that they got at a neat shop while in Myrtle Beach, SC earlier this year. He said it's not Boba Fett because Jango is the one who has two blasters. Since yesterday was Columbus Day there was no mail delivered, but today Michael just received birthday cards from NaNa (his grandma), and his aunts Becky and Debbie. He also got presents from his parents while they were here visiting over the weekend (Thursday evening to and left early Sunday morning). They went for walks and ran lots of errands together, but they aren't big picture takers, and I worked all weekend. So here are the pictures I got while I was at home with them at night:

  ^^ Dr. Gore was trying to get Emma to look at the camera by shaking one of the toys she had been playing with, but then Emma wanted to hold it. One second later she threw it and it hit him right in the face! Mrs. Patty almost died laughing and then again while looking back at the pictures later. In the photos below you can see him keeping a safer distance. 

   Lastly, Michael got the skeleton down that had been in our attic for the past few years. It scared me when I opened the garage the other night! The first Halloween in our house we had it dressed in a tattered pirate costume (which Michael said basically turned to dust in his hands the other day, hence him being naked again now) and hanging in a tree directly in front of the house, but in summer 2018 we got all the trees cut down, so the other night he took it to VAMP -the makeup school- where it will now live. Muahahaha! PS- in that 2016 post I linked, it says "I wonder if we will get an HOA notice about needing to take the skeleton down". Answer: we did not. We did have people stop in front of the house and take pictures though! :)

   Also, we ended his birthday yesterday with our usual popcorn date. After Emma is in her crib and all the medical chores are done, we make a big batch of yellow popcorn using the Nostalgia air popper I got at Publix recently, then add movie theater butter and salt, and mix it around a giant bowl. Then we snuggle together on the couch and watch an episode or two of the romantic-thriller "You" on Netflix. Last night we watched episode two and three of Season 2. We both really look forward to this time together.