Milestones

Rare self-portrait, in the mirror

Well, I've reached one of the big milestones in life - you know, the ones you look forward to or dread, or both, and somehow it feels as if things change when you cross that threshold. Today was my 40th birthday. I've actually been pleasantly anticipating this time. It feels like I'm entering a club or something. Like maybe I'm really an adult now. Of course, we've been through so many challenging times in the last 5 years, I've felt like an adult for quite a while. The whole 40th birthday event really didn't bother me - until a few days ago. I started having questions about what I am doing here, where am I going, who am I, that sort of basic thing. I suppose I still have a good amount of work to do in discovering myself!

So what did I do on this momentous day, you ask? It's Tuesday, so that means Aaron works and Gabriel has school. The kids and I spent 2 hours in Lego class today, designing and creating.

Gabriel works on his mosaic

And here is the finished project (a house floor plan with all kinds of imaginative things going on).

Annika works from her plan to create a picture of her imaginary friend with really long hair

Then home for lunch, and I got to spend the afternoon with my favorite son at the Seattle Art Museum. It happened that this was the day that my friend was able to babysit Annika so that I could take Gabriel by himself to the museum. We are fortunate to have an exhibit of Picasso in town this winter, and Gabriel has been itching to go ever since he heard about it. I'll share more about our visit and what we learned on a later post, but it was enjoyable for both of us. It's not very often that I get time alone with my son any more, so it was special for that reason, but also for all the culture we got at the SAM.

The entrance to the Picasso exhibit - they didn't allow photos inside this part

One of Gabriel's favorites from the main collection - he says it is colorful yet simple.

I picked up Aaron downtown after that, and we went out to dinner as a family. That's pretty special, actually, since we rarely eat out any more. (By the way, I discovered that PF Chang's has an ample gluten-free menu, and they are willing to work with other food allergies as well.) Aaron got me a book, and my friend got me a canning book that I had wanted. It's so good to have friends who know what you want! Lastly, I should mention all the words of encouragement that arrived on my wall in Facebook. Oh, what a marvel! To have so many people remember my day, and take a moment to write a little note to me. I treasure it. And I look forward to seeing what this next year will bring.

Ya gotta smile - one of the African masks in the SAM collection; Picasso took some of his influences from African art work