Birthdays and Mother's Day #2?

I was in line at the grocery store the other day talking about kids and the start of a new school year with the cashier and another woman chimed in: "I think the first day of the school year should be Mother's Day." While I don't feel that way (yet, if ever), I remember growing up and saying to my Mom "Happy Birthday, Mom! We're off to school, just for you!" (Her birthday is in early September, so we often started school around, if not on, her birthday.)

Funny how things like that stick out in your head.

Anyhow, Jessica started a new school year last week and it seems to have its ups and downs. She likes her aquatics class (a swimming only Phys Ed class) and doesn't care much for any of the others. She laments that she doesn't have a boyfriend and none of the ones she thinks are cute seem to have any interest in her. Her Dad and I think the boys here are intimidated by her self-confidence. Derek's been trying to tell her that not having a boyfriend can be a good thing, but she's not convinced.

For me, it has had its ups and downs as well. Having some quiet in the place is nice during the day, but I've started to become accustomed to having help watching Juliana. With just me and her, I've had to start readjusting and get a little less housework done until after Jessica gets home from school.

Jessica also celebrated her 17th birthday this past week and she's so excited for her presents. Among them was a Barnes & Noble gift card (she LOVES books), a new purse, a charm for her cell phone, money (always good), a homemade cheesecake instead of a traditional cake (her request), and a new iPod (the brand new one that came out this week). She also had picture day at school, which was a special sort of torture. Have I mentioned how much she dislikes having her photo taken? No? In the end, we made the best of it, and she went in with a smile and didn't complain too much. We'll see how they turned out in a couple of weeks.

Juliana is walking/running through the place, usually dragging Tigress around with her, or trying to get to the cats' water dish, or getting at the cables coming out of the back of the computers, or... well, we'll just say she's very curious about everything and doesn't like to sit still for very long. When she decides to focus on something, however, she will not usually be deterred from it.

She turns one year old next week, and we are going to have a small family celebration at my sister's place on Saturday. My mom says that for the 1st birthday, the Chinese lay out a bunch of different objects on a table, and whichever object the baby reaches for first is an indicator of what career they will have when they grow up. I'm not sure my Mom really believes this, but she thinks it might be fun.

We'll see what objects we having lying around that we can use, but right now I need to figure out what kind of cake to make for Juliana's birthday.