Almost Birthday

This morning, still darkish around 7:30 I saw Magda coming out the dark dining room.When I asked her what she'd been up to, she excitedly told me that she colored the last piece in her birthday calendar.  Meaning tomorrow she turns 5.

She had been anticipating her birthday for a long time now, and coloring her caterpillar had become a cherished morning task.  Though some days she'd skip it so that she would get to color two circles the next.

Some parts of the wait have been fun, but other parts less so.  When in a store, she can be a little horror with "buy me this" or "buy me that".  Invariably I don't, but she doesn't appear to have noticed, or maybe she keeps hoping that this one time I'll change my mind.  I've been going the "thanks for letting me know what you like" and "maybe that's something you would like for your birthday" route.  Which, of course, made her change her spiel to "I want this for my birthday".  Argh!  I really wonder how exactly she imagines her birthday to be.

Of course, it doesn't help that she really, really, really wants and needs all the little-girl-crack that's out there that I hate.  How I loath the pushers Mattel and Disney.  But hey, it's a birthday, right?  We've made the mistake of making a healthy cake for her 1st birthday (she didn't care but I like my sweet stuff unhealthy).  So yeah, I'll go and get her the darn Tiana doll that she'd been obsessing about for months. Principles and all be damned!