in between

We are always in between birthdays at our house. The moment Christmas is past, Daniel’s birthday is looked for with great excitement by his big sisters. They talk about how he will let them help open presents, they talk about birthday hats, they anticipate April with the generosity of big sisters.

The spring months bring lots of family birthdays, though, and by the time the parties are through, the tears have started coming. “Why is it never my birthday?”

We talk about being happy for others. We talk about the fact that the months are laid out the same every year. We explain that each person only has one birthday per year, the same as the rest of us.

But then the helpful big sister puts the next date on the calendar into perspective by explaining that August comes at the end of summer. And we had tears again this morning because her birthday doesn’t come until the end of summer, and that’s so very far away.

Of course, the next time it will be the same helpful big sister who is in mourning because November is by Christmas and neither will ever come. Everyone else has birthdays all the year long, but hers–well, she usually ends up with about three parties each year considering the fact that Thanksgiving brings visits to and from family, but no matter. Even three parties in November don’t make up for the fact that we’re in between Novembers.

{Five-Minute Friday Prompt: “in between“}

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10 Comments

  1. “Even three parties in November don鈥檛 make up for the fact that we鈥檙e in between Novembers.”

    I love your last sentence! Such a sweet post. I am many times older than them both and I still feel like my birthday is far away…. another 11 months! 馃槈

    1. Oh I know! Did you do the “16 and a half” and such with your ages through the years? I find now that I’m lucky if I remember the right year, let alone how many months goes with it. 馃槈

      1. Yes, we definitely did! I’ve even been known to throw a half-year party on November 20th, my half-year-birthday 馃槈

  2. ah yes, the inbetween of birthday time…always hard to wait all those long weeks until the next celebration is upon us. especially when being young means that it feels like FOREVER until yours comes around again. I am visiting from the FMF linkup

  3. Hi Gretchen,
    Visiting from Five Minute Friday today. Your post made me smile remembering all the childhood waitings in between special events that never seemed to happen…and now it seems I can’t keep up with them! Thanks for sharing!