Our Valentine’s Day baby | Two Decades of Kids and Counting | Sally Torbey | Palo Alto Online |

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Two Decades of Kids and Counting

By Sally Torbey

About this blog: About this blog: I have enjoyed parenting five children in Palo Alto for the past two decades and have opinions about everything to do with parenting kids (and dogs). The goal of my blog is to share the good times and discuss the ...  (More)

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Our Valentine’s Day baby

Uploaded: Feb 13, 2017
Twenty-four years ago our baby girl was born on Valentine’s Day. It was a warm, sunny Sunday, and the tulip magnolia blossoms were in full bloom as my husband walked and I waddled around the neighborhood, stopping periodically to breath through contractions.

While it was slightly awkward when a neighbor stopped to chat, not realizing we were laboring, we were walking around the block because our toddler was being entertained by his Auntie at home and our presence was distracting. And, when I was in labor I loved being outdoors. I experienced a transient heightening of my senses. The colors were brighter, the fragrances sweeter, and the warm breezes and sunshine mesmerizing.

Other than almost delivering in the hallway in front of pregnant couples on a hospital tour, it was an ideal birth, resulting in a beautiful baby girl and the best Valentine’s present we could imagine. My husband, however, never got accustomed to the fact that having a baby on Valentine’s Day meant that we shared the most romantic holiday of the year with our daughter’s birthday. Every year he would excitedly inquire about our romantic plans for the day, and every year I would remind him we were celebrating our daughter’s birthday with a Baskin-Robbins oreo ice cream cake. This went on for 18 years, and then she went away to college.

As Valentine’s Day approached that year, it broke my heart to see the magnolia tree blooming outside her bedroom window and she wasn’t here. I consoled myself anticipating that we could finally celebrate the day as a couple, but my husband, after almost two decades of forgetting our daughter’s birthday and remembering Valentine’s Day, somehow forgot all about Valentine’s Day after she left home. He scheduled a business dinner meeting for Feb. 14th, and then was surprised how upset I was about it.

My husband made the mistake of securing a table at one of the more popular restaurants in town for his business dinner. His table-for-four meeting was awkwardly surrounded by tables-of-two celebrating love with champagne, including a few of our friends, who gave him an even harder time than I had for forgetting our first unencumbered Valentine’s Day!
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Comments

Posted by PR, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood,
on Feb 13, 2017 at 7:18 pm

Sweet! Thank you, Sally!


Posted by LJ, a resident of another community,
on Feb 13, 2017 at 7:49 pm

And Baskin-Robbins sounds pretty fine, too!!


Posted by Resident, a resident of Adobe-Meadow,
on Feb 14, 2017 at 3:00 pm

That's awesome. Thank you for sharing such sweet memories.


Posted by Sally Torbey, a Palo Alto Online blogger,
on Feb 14, 2017 at 3:15 pm

Sally Torbey is a registered user.

Dear PR,
Thanks for reading!

Dear LJ,
Tried and true!

Dear Resident,
Thanks for reading and commenting!


Posted by Lisa Ger*, a resident of Crescent Park,
on Feb 16, 2017 at 9:24 am

Hi Sally, I too am a Valentine baby, but never thought about it from my parents' point of view. Thank you for your post. :-)


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