The thing Brandon wanted most for his birthday was permission to FINALLY take over Rebekah's room. He'd been asking for years...through Rebekah's first year of college, her 18 month mission in London and then again this past year back at USU. I continued to tell him no. The room was hers as long as she called our house her home. When she got herself engaged, Brandon could see his long wait finally coming to an end. And so for his birthday not only did he get to take custody of Rebekah's room, he also got to pick out some new bedroom furniture. The twin bedroom set he'd had since he was 4, while still pretty nice, was feeling a bit cramped and he was more than ready to stretch out into not only a larger room but also a bigger queen-sized bed.
So he went to school and I began birthday decor prep in his new room. {The furniture had arrived a bit earlier and he'd already been sleeping there for a couple days.} I ran to the store for a few more decor items, birthday cake ingredients and some smaller gifts, when I got a call from him on my cell phone.
"Wait...where are you?" I asked.
"I'm at home," he replied.
"But I was sure today was a B Day...what happened to your 8th period?" I demanded...panicking a little bit because I wasn't done birthday-ing up the house. {Yes. Birthday-ing. It's a verb.}
"Remember how I'm already done with the big project in Engineering? That's all we were going to be working on today so I just came home." he said.
"Oh...well, I wasn't expecting you home for another couple hours. Umm...have you gone in your bedroom yet?"
When he he said he hadn't, I decided to have him meet me for lunch at Kneaders. My reasons being two fold: One, I was a little sad that he'd come home for lunch on his birthday and found no one at home to greet him. And two, I could keep him out of his bedroom for a little while longer.
He went to work a little bit after lunch and I fast tracked the birthday gift wrapping, a few more decorations, and baking his requested birthday Oreo Cake. Bryan brought home Thai food, specifically the Tom Ka Gai Soup Brandon had been craving, and when the birthday boy returned home we were ready for some celebrating!
After dinner and gifts we watched Captain America as a family. {A Marvel Movie Marathon is underway as we get ready for Avengers Infinity Wars in a few weeks.} He didn't actually go into his bedroom till 11:30 that night. Truth be told, though maybe he appreciated the sentiment, he was more than ready for me to take down the decorations early the next morning.
"But Brandon...they've barely been up even 24 hours. And you didn't even see them till 11:30 last night. Don't you want to enjoy them a little longer?"
"Eh," he replied..."it's not my birthday anymore."
I'm guessing the birthday decor, even though I had carefully made sure it matched his bedroom colors, was just getting in the way of enjoying the real gift...the actual bedroom that was finally his. Birthday decor was just cluttering stuff up!
Brandon would only allow me to take pictures of him with the balloons if I let him hold them up as 71. ha! I finally convinced him to switch them around for at least one picture..
New birthday bedroom and furniture...modeled by Lilian.
