Twenty-What?!

Well yesterday was a very special man's birthday. No, not special like that. Just very special to me :)

This year has been the year of lame holidays for us. My birthday was spent NOT getting the free massage I had planned on. Instead we went to WalMart, Costco and of course, Home Depot. Woo. The highlight of the day was going to Pounders and playing in the waves for an hour or so but even that was kinda lame because David had to hang out on the beach with the little peanut. For our anniversary, David worked at our house all day long and then watched the baby while I went to a Zumba class. Yay.

Yesterday David went to work in Kailua. Zalea had a doctor's appointment at 2pm so I decided to head into town early and hit up WalMart to get some supplies to make David an awesome birthday present (which I shall not describe here because I may still be able to use the idea for Christmas or something). Everything was going as planned. I mixed up some Jello for him, packed up the van and headed out towards Honolulu. Eventually Zalea fell asleep and I started to feel excited about making David's surprise. I was sitting at a red light at a busy Honolulu intersection humming happily to myself when from under the hood of our trusty (not) Nissan Quest came an explosion BANG! and a huge cloud of hissing steam blew up over the windshield. My jaw dropped and the engine died. I had a flash in my head of the entire car exploding into flames which caused me to leap out of my seat and sprint around to the passenger side, throw open the sliding door and snatch out Zalea in her carseat and rush her to the safety of the sidewalk in a flurry of protective maternal instinct.

Unfortunately my maternal instinct forgot to tell me to put the brakes on and the van happened to be on a small hill. Some dude passing by happened to be kind enough to point out to me that my van was running away from me (slowly) and so I dashed back across to put the brake on, collect diaper bag and yoga ball (yes I bring that thing with me wherever I go) and try to remove the keys, which were stuck somehow.

Back on the sidewalk Zalea had her usual perplexed look on her cute little face as I returned once more, looking like some kind of crazed yoga instructor with the huge ball and diaper bag. People were definitely staring. But not helping. Just staring. So I got out my phone and called the USAA roadside assistance people, who then called the cops since the van was very much obstructing traffic. The cop came and said I needed to move the van out of the road. Really. He said that. He also said if I couldn't do it he'd have to call his own tow wagon to get it out of the way which would cost me. So I loaded up baby, ball and diaper bag once more and got in the driver's seat. The cop pushed from behind and we made it through the intersection and off to the side of the road where I waited for the USAA tow truck to come.

While I was waiting I called David and let him know that the van blew up. Happy Birthday. He came to pick me and the baby up and took us to WalMart. But it wasn't as fun because he was so mad that the van blew up that he didn't even want me to buy him anything for his birthday. So I bought some bar soap and we headed to the doctor's office. An hour and two needle-pokes later we were on our way home. David cooked us dinner and Zalea started to get fussier and fussier. Poor babe. Her little legs were so sore and tender that it was hard to find a good position to hold her in. She finally drifted into fitful slumber and I put her in her bed.

David wanted to go crab catching for his birthday but none of the family was answering their phones to go with him. And I couldn't leave the baby either. Looked like the night was going to be a total bust. But then David walked down to his parents' house and convinced his mom to come sit at our place while Z was sleeping so we could go crab catching together. So, flashlight and plastic bag in hand we walked down to the beach and chased crabs for an hour or so. It was the most fun we've had together in quite a while, sprinting and frolicking in the sand, trying to nab the crabs as they zig-zagged down to the water. By the end of an hour we were hot, soaked in salt water and covered in sand. And we had a bag full of crabs. When we got home we even had time to boil them, shower and brush teeth before Zalea woke up. All in all it was the least lame part of the entire day.

I'm so happy to be married to this awesome dude. He is strong in so many ways, but also tender and kind. He is a great dad to our baby and provides for our needs without complaint. I love him despite the fact that he's an old fart now (this is his last year to be a twenty-something) and even a whole year of lame holidays can't change that.