Way over the hill

Sunday I turned the big 3-5. Since I spent my entire pregnancy marked by "advanced maternal age" (it was written at the top of every record) even though I wasn't yet 35, I'm already pretty used to the idea.

I calculated that I'm exactly 1811 weeks older than Zachary (since we're still thinking of his age in terms of weeks). I wish I were just one week older so that I could use Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" as our theme song -- it was one of my favorite pieces when I was in a clarinet trio. Granted, a musical piece about the French invasion of Russia might not be the best theme. Maybe I should just stick to our current song, Kelis' "Milkshake":

"My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard,
And they're like
It's better than yours,
Damn right it's better than yours,
I can teach you,
But I have to charge."

Anyway, back to my birthday. It was fantastic! Even though it was over and I was getting ready for bed by 8:30 PM.

We started out the day with our first snowshoe trip with Zachary. We packed both the boys (Zachary and Cowboy) into the car and headed to Issaquah to meet up with Katherine and Oliver. Then we all piled into our car and went to Gold Creek Basin to see if the whole snowshoe thing was going to work with a 9-week old baby. It worked just fine! Zachary was bundled up in a fleece outfit and a warm hat from his grandma and I carried him in my Ergo front carrier. We got off the main trail quickly and did a nice hike up a side trail, with Cowboy having the time of his life in the snow. It was relatively warm (we had to strip off layers after we started up the trail) and clear and Zachary slept the entire time. It started sleeting right after we left, so we timed our trip perfectly!

That evening, we packed up Zachary again and headed to Todai for my annual all-you-can-eat birthday sushi dinner. Chris coordinated a large group of friends to meet us, and it was so great to see everyone! This was the first time most of them met Zachary, and he was very mellow the whole evening.

I had a wonderful birthday. I really enjoyed catching up with friends I haven't seen since before Zachary was born, and I'm looking forward to spending more time with them now that Zachary's a bit more portable. I spent most of my 34th year pregnant, and I'm really looking forward to my 35th year as a new mommy!

Pictures: Wenmei's 35th birthday