Today was my dear daughter Natalie’s 16th birthday. Patrick and Eric were out of town in Austin for a Jiu-Jitsu tournament, so today started our with just the two of us. We went to the gym to exercise, then headed to McAllister’s Deli for lunch. This has been a typical Saturday morning routine for us lately. Today, Alex met us there for lunch. He has been busy working and spending time with Coral lately, so it was nice for him to take time out to spend time with his sister on her birthday.
Notice the Band-Aid on Natalie’s upper arm. She received a vaccine in each arm yesterday, during her yearly doctor’s appointment, but left the Band-Aids on until today because she forgot to remove them during her shower last night, and she didn’t want to take the chance of having visible adhesive residue on her arms. Silly girl!
After lunch, Natalie and I went home while Alex went to work. We took our showers, and waited for my sister Melissa and her daughter Emily to arrive from Houston. They had actually stopped for lunch at The Cheesecake Factory, instead of joining us at McAlister’s Deli, so we waited for them to finish their lunch. We then headed to La Cantera Mall to walk around. I’ve always loved that even though my sisters and I only had one daughter each, our daughters are like sisters to each other. I take every opportunity I can to get pictures of my daughter and her “sisters“. I took this picture at the Tory Burch store.
During Natalie’s doctor’s appointment yesterday, we realized that she needed glasses when she “failed” the vision exam. The next available appointment at the place that Patrick and I usually go to for eye exams, wasn’t until after school starts. Natalie is always worried about missing school. She was also worried about finding the right pair of glasses, so Melissa suggested that she and Emily shop for frames while they were in town so that at least Natalie would have that already picked out by the time she had her eye appointment.
We were at LensCrafters at the mall, when I realized that there was an optometrist next door. If we were willing to wait for a walk-in appointment, she could be seen today. We were told that we might have to wait up to two hours for the appointment, but it end up ended up being only one hour. It took another hour to complete the appointment and get new glasses ordered. This was definitely a win–win. We got to shop for frames and other things while we waited, Natalie got eyeglass frame fashion assistance from her cousin, and she doesn’t have to miss school. The one downside is that I think we probably spent more than I would have anticipated, but Natalie was very happy and even a little excited about her eyeglasses purchase. To me that’s a win-win.
We headed home after ordering the eyeglasses. Patrick and Eric got home shortly before we did. After changing clothes, we headed to dinner at Paesano’s 1604. Alex and Coral met us there. Natalie shared a kids’ fettuccine Alfredo with Eric, as per usual. She ordered the cappuccino pie for dessert. I asked the waitress to put a candle in it for her birthday. We started to sing to her, but she didn’t want that, so we stopped and she went ahead and blew out her candles.
Natalie opened her birthday presents from us when we got home after dinner. She had opened her presents from Melissa and Emily earlier. I had gotten her a cross necklace that she had requested from Stella and Dot, along with a bracelet. She also got a Lululemon bra that she had asked for when we went shopping at La Cantera Mall this afternoon. She was perfectly fine with not being surprised, since she was able to get things she really wanted. Afterwords, she and Emily lay down in her room on their respective beds, and played on their phones silently next to each other. I think it was a good birthday.
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