Who's counting?

Atop this page is a countdown to my birthday and that of Cerise. I didn't put this in place to remind anybody about it. If anyone needs to be reminded, that would be me, the party planner. This count down add-on is simply one of my recent discoveries in the world of blogging and since 5th and 30th birthdays are both milestones in anyone's life, I thought that was a good enough excuse to utilize the add-on. Besides, it comes in handy if I want to stick to my timetable.

In the last three weeks, I have started making arrangements for our millenium baby's 5th birthday. It didn't take long for me to realise this is no ordinary birthday that a know-what's-best-so-leave-it-with-me stage mother can conveniently and effortlessly organise. Don't get me wrong. It's a huge task putting something like this together. It requires system, creativity, attention to detail, resourcefulness, multi-tasking, and forward thinking, not to mention money. But it's "convenient" simply because a stage mother of a toddler like me gets to do all the thinking and make ALL the decisions. Sweet! So that makes it effortless.

But for the first time in my birthday party management career of 5 years, I found I no longer call the shots around here. Reality check. I am no longer a mother of a toddler. Cerise is turning 5, marking the end of her infanthood and the beginning of her childhood, that period in her life when she certainly knows what she wants and gets it. Needless to say, my new job title is "consultant to the decision-maker". Cerise has her say on every detail from the venue, the theme, the dress, the guests, right down to her present --- can be very distracting. We brainstorm and debate until we polish the big plan --- tough! whew! quite a challenge! Cerise makes the executive decision, Daddy signs the cheque and Mummy directs the floor on the big day, of which I will blog about in due time.

As for my 30th, I am sooooo looking forward to it, make no mistake about it. But I have no idea how I'm going to celebrate. Wish my family and dearest friends were here though.