Birthday party

Susan blogged about it before the event. I'll post a quick little something here now that it is over. Nathan's seventh birthday was on June 16, 2007. He died just over a month later. Julia has talked for a long time about wanting to have her seventh birday party at Chuck E Cheese's, just like Nathan's was. We had our reservations about this, but we knew that for Julia it was a way to stay connected to her brother who she misses so much. We agreed to let her have the party there. Like so many of these things, the anticipation is worse than the reality. I was excited for Julia before the party because she was so excited, but I cried a bit in the shower getting myself ready to head off to the party. She had a great time and for the most part I did too. Birthday parties for seven  year olds are tiring, but I came away from this one exhausted. I think the day carried with it a bit of an extra emotional toll, but Julia had a great time and we all held up.

I'm sad and worried for Julia. One of her coping mechanisms is to very deliberately and purposefully walk in her brother's footsteps. It won't be long before there aren't any more to follow (at least not the kind that she has been following).