MicroblogMondays: Birthday Wish

Bob turned 40 on Friday.

He loves pecan pies.  I am not much of a baker.  In fact, I had never baked any cookies, cakes, pies, or pastries in my life.  I wanted to do something special for him especially that his dream of vacationing in sunny and warm Hawaii for his 40th birthday was replaced by a day at work.  We couldn’t possibly travel to Hawaii with the twins at this age and still have a decent time.  It also happened to be Chinese New Year on that day.  My dad came to visit the grandkids and spend Chinese New Year with us.  All in all, it was a special day.  The babies’ first CNY and Bob’s first birthday with them around.  I decided to take a chance and bake him a pie.

My boss has this chocolate pecan pie recipe.  I had tasted the pie and liked it a lot.  She told me that it was extremely easy to make.  I took one look at the recipe and thought that it would be manageable.  I didn’t have any of the equipment or ingredients.  It tells you how often I bake (never).  I had to look it up online about the kind of pie crust to get and learned that a glass pie plate might be better with the refrigerated pie dough.  (Excuse me for not making the pie crust from scratch.  It still counts as a home-made pie.)  After a huge mess on the counter and spilling chocolate on myself, I successfully lay the pie crust on the glass plate and poured the filling inside.  I didn’t understand what it meant by letting the pie “set”, so I had to look it up.  I jiggled the finished product and felt semi-confident that it was done.  The pie turned out to be beautiful.

Bob left work early and we had an early dinner at a Burmese restaurant with the babies and my parents.  When we returned home and before the babies started their night time routines, we sang happy birthday with a candle that said “40” on the pecan chocolate pie.  Bob had both babies in his arms.  When it came time to make a wish, he paused for a moment and went on to blow the candle.  He loved the pie and the fact that this year’s celebration included the babies.

For many years, Bob’s only birthday wish was for us to finally have a baby. He told me that when it came time for him to make a wish this time, he looked up and saw me, Bunny, and Okra.  He did not feel the need to make a wish.  He thought for a second and just blew out the candle.  There are many things in life that we complain about, but when it comes to birthday wishes, those other things don’t feel important or matter anymore.  The one wish has now been fulfilled.  A new wish is not necessary for him.

I had been wondering about that.  I too made every birthday wish in the last few years to be about having a baby.  Now that we have the twins, I wonder what I will wish for this year.