Continuing the Tradition

When we were dead broke, back in the day, Mom, Goldie (my brother) and I used to go to this sushi place off Kerner called Yu Shang for our birthdays. There is a Vietnamese guy there (shhhh...don't tell) named Henry who has an awesome creation called the Henry Roll that we order every time we step foot in the place. The place always reminds me of that TV show about the bar where everyone knows everyone, because regulars get a chorus of shouts when they walk in to welcome them.

Last night Mom and I had planned to do a small celebration for T-Boog's birthday, and also to celebrate that I made it through labor as well. We had plans of vegan cake and a hike, but since T-Boog is sick I didn't think she needed to load up on sugar or be out too late so last minute we decided to head over to Yu Shang. I was bummed at first to not be celebrating her first birthday with her father, but both he and the Nanny had classes last night, so instead of being bitter as I would have a year ago, I just made do with what I had.

Goldie met us there, and I realized I hadn't has sushi for almost two years, since before I was pregnant. We sat Boogie in a high chair at the sushi bar, ordered up some tea, cucumber salad and hot and sour soup. We took turns feeding T-Boog all of them, and she loved it, though I think the soup was a bit spicy for her. She loved the seaweed off the top of the cucumber salad, and the edamame, and I pulled some smoked salmon off the Henry roll and gave that to her as well.

And, as tradition holds, once we finished they brought out a dessert for T-Boog with a candle and the entire restaurant, the sushi chefs, waiters, host and patrons all sang Happy Birthday to her. I was standing up holding her when they started, and the whole time we were singing she looked around at all the strangers yelling to her with this shocked look on her face. It was classic. Then we blew out the candle, and dug into the dessert, which was mango ice cream with a dough on the outside. She was digging the ice cream, had it smeared all over her face, and I'm glad she got a special desert on her special day.

***

I am bringing her to Kaiser today though. I'm at home blogging this time. She's had a temperature about 99.2 the past two days, and this morning it was up to 100.3 so I'm taking her in to see what we can do to help her eat, sleep, and breathe. She's been kind of panting all day which worries me, but I'm hoping it's just because her nose it stuffed up. I hate to say this out loud, but one part I do like when she's sick is she turns into a little Snuggle Bunny. We were in bed this morning, and she buried her face in my neck, flopped her burning hot body across my chest, and passed out. And since she's congested, she has this adorable little baby (oops, toddler, now?) snore, and her hair is all matted from sweating last night, her little red nose and her fingers gripping a clump of my hair. I brought her back to her crib since the dogs were jumping on the bed, and really, I needed to blog (heh), and I was worried if I slept with her she might get too hot. At least in her crib she gets the air flow, not like in my bed when we snuggle under the covers.

But I'll keep ya'll posted if this is more than a cold.