Happy Birthday MamaM!

Wabisabi Brother, MamaM, MamaQ (MamaD was still a baby)

MamaM, Wabisabi Brother, MamaQ (Where is MamaD?)

By MamaQ and MamaD

Q: When MamaM was born she was considered the cutest baby on the planet. I'm pretty sure this was common consensus.

D: It's just because she was so chubby...and still is! Just kidding!! But she does have the most well-endowed bosom of the family. And she is lucky to have such big eyes which I have always been jealous of and that baby Olive has definitely inherited.

Q: One of my strongest memories of MamaM is when she was about 4 and MamaD was 3. Because they were so close in age they were always playing together and one morning MamaD came to my mother screaming and crying, with blood dripping from her mouth. MamaM was not far behind, in tears. Apparently MamaD had been running with a chopstick in her mouth and fallen. The chopstick had pierced the roof of her mouth (nothing too deep, but enough to draw blood). At first Mom assumed M had pushed MamaD or done something to cause the accident because she was crying so hard, but it turned out M was crying for MamaD and was upset to see her baby sister hurt. That's the kind of girl M is - super compassionate.

D: Wha? I don't remember it happening that way - but then again, I may have been too preoccupied with the chopstick in my mouth to notice M's empathy. I do remember crying when MamaQ slapped M across the face one time - I thought I was the empathetic one. But enough of my own self-absorbed thoughts - what I also remember is how mischievous M was - she blamed me for eating the cheese that our mom didn't want us to eat for some reason and I took the punishment. She tricked me into cleaning her mess because I wanted to be a maid and she told me that I needed to practice and probably gave me a dime. And one time, she even punched me in the nose just because I dared her. And this other time, I was so mad at her (I can't even remember why) and I was trying to hit her and she just held my head with her outstretched arm while I violently flailed my arms in the air...so I actually don't have a ton of fond memories of her as a young child....

Q: I hardly believe that - you were always together.  You were best friends! I missed out on all that stuff because I was so much older and more mature! (Ha!) Wait, I have another story about M that is actually quite funny. Once, after we had just come home from church, Wabisabi Brother noticed that there was a silver dollar-sized bald patch on M's head. Someone had cut a chunck of hair off. M touched the spot in disbelief and started crying - she was about 7(?) and old enough to be vain. She said that one of the kids from church must've cut it off. We were all baffled until Wabisabi Brother found a clump of hair in the trash can in her bedroom. Then the real story came out; I had done her hair that morning (took a curling iron to her bangs) and in an appropriately 80's fervor had Aqua Netted it to a stiff statuesque 'do. At some point she had gotten annoyed with the stickiness of it, and unaware of what she was actually doing, had taken a pair of scissors to it. Of course I got blamed for the entire incident and poor M had to suffer through 1st grade with a crazy cowlick. Classic M.

D: Oh, we had lot of good times - playing endlessly long games of Monopoly late into the night in the summer and having fashion shows with all our new clothes before school started. That was one of the greatest highlights of having a sister at that time - double the wardrobe!! And M has always had (and still has) a really great fashion sense. As we got into middle school and high school, being only a grade apart, I started to realize how cool she was and we had many of the same friends and did all the same sports. It was awesome to play field hockey and run track together. We went on a trip to Utah and Japan all by ourselves and it would have been so lonely without her.

Q: I always envied how close the two of you were.

D: Now, I consider M as much a friend as a sister. Sisters make good friends.

Q: Amen, sistah.

D: We do a lot of dinners together and it's so nice to have her relatively close (although now, I wish we could live next door to each other for our babies to play). Sorry MamaQ, that you can't be part of all our fun.

Q: Tell me about it... though I'm afraid as much as I adore both of you, I'm not quite ready to give up city-living to move to the desert.

D: Birthdays have always been really low-key in our family and we're not very mushy or sappy with our feelings. But M should know that she is one of the best persons that I know. I've always admired her and she is endlessly patient with my incessant rambling, a good listener, incredibly organized, thoughtful, intelligent, hardworking, down-to-earth, honest, grounded, and not afraid to tell it like it is - which all more than makes up for what a crappy cook she is.

Q: Oh, cut her a break! She's not that bad. And truth is, it's probably her only fault, if you can even call it that. To know M is to love her - she is just one of those people that everyone likes and everyone wants to be like. So we celebrate her presence in the world. Happy birthday, MamaM. We love you and are so grateful for your friendship, inspiration, and sisterhood in our lives. And all those crazy memories!
Have a wonderful day!