Since I've lived in Toronto, we've celebrated her birthday weekend by going to the Royal Winter Fair. We go to the Superdog show, the petting zoo, the barns to see all the animals. We cruise the booths, check out the butter sculptures, and come home in the early evening talking about what our favourite things from this year's fair were. Steph's brother is the vet of record as well, so we generally stop in to visit him, hear some behind the scenes stories, and so on.
More than anything, she wanted a Blue's Clues aspect to her birthday dinner. I plan to surprise her with blue velvet cake pops, and Steph and I have been practicing the birthday candle dance Blue's friends do in the episode Blue's Birthday Party. It will be funny and goofy and she will cry and squeal and it will be awesome.
The part that makes me sad is that her best friend, who was invited and confirmed that she was coming more than a month ago, bailed on the weekend two days ago, because her parents bought tickets to Les Miz and she wants to go, as opposed to coming here for the weekend. So close to the weekend, Maddie was not able to find a friend who did not already have plans, and she is moping. Big time.
The thing she's most hurt about is that her bestie isn't even pretending that she feels bad about leaving Maddie without a birthday guest. She said, well, the tickets were $300...you know there's no way I can't go. It doesn't sound like she offered any kind of apology for bailing. I know the friend very well, she's visited for the weekend often, and we've always had a blast. It surprised me very much that her and her mom would choose this weekend to go and see a musical, when it's been playing since the beginning of October and has been extended into February.
Last year, Maddie invited Mel's boyfriend as her guest, because Mel was going through a bad patch, and she wanted to make her sister feel better. She is always the peacemaker, the one who can compromise or sacrifice. When she was little, I used to tell her that she made the sun happy, because she was always such a sweet tempered little girl.
I wish there was something that I could do to make her less sad. Steph said, you have to let her experience emotions other than happiness, and I know that's absolutely true. It's just that this weekend, I wish things could have been different.
I guess I know where she gets the whole "want to make it right" thing from.
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