15 October 2008

Happy Birthday to my New Bloggy Friend!

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to TheLadyWithAllTheBabieees...
Happy Birthday to you!



Today is Jen's birthday. I've never met her in person, but the day I decided to bite the bullet and directly email her about something mundane was the day I started a lovely friendship, and I'm really glad I did!


Read Jen's Blog - "Buried With Children."
(There's just one rule: Leave A Friendly Comment!)

Jen lives in the USA, that's half a world away from me in Queensland, Australia. She has had the same number of pregnancies I have, but they've yielded twice the number of children. In my eyes, she's a bit of a Super-Mum, but she's quite modest about it. She always makes me feel okay about my parenting by saying that our lives are really quite the same, she just has a few more nappies (diapers) and a bit more whining at her place.

In yesterday's SITS Blogathon, she took pity on me being unable to enter most of the prize draws because All Of Australia was sleeping, and she personally emailed the organisers to have my name entered in the draw.

She and I communicate regularly via Google Talk or whatever nifty little messenger that her wonderful husband Jeff has set her up with. Her chats are often quite funny, as there are four little people in the background clamouring for her, and two little people here with me. I have to remember to take MY time, subtract 12 hours, then subtract two more and try to imagine what stage of the day she is currently dealing with!

And this is why when I was chatting with her at 7:45am MY time, SHE was chatting back, "...but I do have to go babies are literally on the table yelling for dinner and Jeff will be home any minute. I will be on-line later and then maybe we can chat..."

And we know that some great times could be ahead, if the day doesn't suck me away from the computer first.

Jen's family are so lovely. Her wonderful husband Jeff has arranged this little bloggy birthday party with all the excitement of a mother organising a party for her kids! Her big boy (Hayden) is about 6 months older than my Sonny Ma-Jiminy, and something tells me our boys would get along 'like a house on fire' (where on earth did that saying come from? It never struck me as so peculiar before!)

Her triplets Quinn, Jacob and Claire are about 2 months younger than my Smoochy Girl, and I see so much that is familiar in their walking, talking and general development. I can just SEE our 6 children playing together while Mr de Elba and Jeff talk about computers for EVER, and Jen and I polish off a large bottle of red wine together.

But then my daydream turns to the inevitable crying that will happen when 6 kids are playing, and the inevitable stumbling around, giggling and asking the husbands to do it when two mothers have just polished off a bottle of red between them.

Jen, HAPPY BIRTHDAY from us in Australia! I really wanted to bake you a lovely cake in my new kitchen (which -sigh-, we would have had to eat for you) and post a video of my family singing "Happy Birthday to TheLadyWithAllTheBabieees" but as things worked out, my new kitchen is not finished! So you just have to do with a little blog post from me wishing you all the very best for this year, and many more to come!

Now, if you can relate to this, I have to go and deal with a tiny person whining and grabbing on to my leg.

Love from all of us here, Jen. Have a wonderful day, won't you?

8 comments:

Swift Jan said...

Aww thats so sweet!

Jen said...

Oh, I don't know what yo say. You are just so sweet and well, if you could see my tears that should say it all.
Thank you and I am truly blessed to have you as a friend in my life.

Givinya De Elba said...

What on EARTH are you DOING awake at 5:49am?!? THAT'S not the sleep-in start to your birthday I was hoping for!!

Having said that, I have been waiting for HOURS for you to wake up and see my post! No - waiting for WEEKS. You should see the amazing gorgeousness of your husband's great plans for this Bloggy Birthday surprise.

Jeff said...

Thanks so much for helping make Jen's birthday so special.

Jen said...

I just had to come back and re-read it. You said such lovely things. I just love you too. I was awake so early b/c I have to work today and I wanted to see what Jeff wrote for this b-day post he promised me. Boy was I surprise.

Maternal Mirth said...

Isn't Jen the best? You really are a very sweet friend :)

Nauntie Lush said...

You are a dear. I need to go over there and remind myself that it is a good thing that I didn't go and get myself knocked up again! Also maybe you should start working on Mr. deElba and Crazy Sister to move here to the US! In Seattle we have DECAF, no MICE and LOTS OF COMPUTERS! (And I know of at least 50 kids that need speech therapy off hand...) Yeah our economy sucks, but that is a GREAT time to get your foot in the door and get settled in! Bring your new kitchen with you!

Allegro ma non troppo said...

Allright, off to the USA with us then, sister! You just need to get kiddy passports. Ha ha haaaaaaaaa that's so much funnnnnn.