This morning, School Girl woke up as usual. She ran downstairs and opened up one of her presents and a card. The present was from a friend of mine, who also has a daughter. The card was from Evil Dad and me; complete with fake/paper tattoos, a new obsession. (As an aside, I’m brushing up on my knowledge of Hepatitis B and C for when she turns 13 – I suspect I’m going to need that.)

Breakfast – same as usual, but her favorite this time. “French Toast without eggs, please.” Which is easy enough to do even on a weekday. She came upstairs to brush her teeth and get dressed without the usual 1/2 hour of pleading. She decided to wear her “birthday clothes” – a new Hello Kitty shirt and her unicorn jeans.

We got her lunch together – “something special”, so there’s tuna salad (thank Cthulhu we’re branching out) and bread pudding from Tuesday in addition to the other standbys. We packed up her birthday treats for her class. Since they’re not allowed to bring food (I only have to bake ONE batch of cupcakes! W00t!), we had picked out some dollar-store puzzles for the girls and bouncing eyeballs for the boys last weekend.

Since it’s a freakishly warm morning, we walked to school. She wanted to say goodbye sooner than usual, I noticed; I told her that Evil Dad and I might both be picking her up this afternoon, as it’s going to be a busy one. I watched her hike over to her class’ line, and turned to go.

I hope that M’s doing okay today. It’s never been the best day for her, for obvious reasons. I’ve been afraid to call her, strictly based on how things have gone in the past. I hope that she’ll call today. We spoke to C, her mom, yesterday; she might call this afternoon, even though School Girl talked to her last night.

It’s been hard to wrap my head around the fact that her birthday is today. Not April. February. I don’t think I have to explain that one, as I’ve written about that before.

So, happy birthday School Girl. The only things I have for you from that day are pictures, not stories. The stories are for somebody else to tell you, and I hope they can tell you those stories one day. We all love you more than the sun and moon and stars in the night sky. Have a great life.