Family
Celebrating a Special Half Birthday
A treat when turning three and a half — and every year since
Trista’s post about special anniversaries inspired me to share a celebration my former partner and I came up with for our foster daughter.
When our foster daughter came to live with us, it was just before Easter and also my own birthday. My former partner invited our foster daughter to help her bake me a birthday cake, which was very sweet for all involved!
Then we celebrated my grandma’s birthday and nephew’s birthday — and I feel like there are probably others I’m forgetting to mention, too. In short, it seemed like a lot of holidays came and went, and our foster daughter longed for something that felt more personal to her.
She asked when her birthday would come. Well, it wouldn’t come until the end of the year, and as it happens with foster care, we couldn’t be sure if she would still be living with us then (though it turned out she lived with us for two years). And when you’re three years old, you think of time on a much more short-term basis, not months ahead.
We realized we could celebrate her half birthday, which is in June. We took her to a local drive-in restaurant where she has always liked to get a milkshake and French fries for a special treat.
She was very pleased to go up to the counter to help place the order on her special day of turning three and a half!
It’s a fun place to eat, too, as most people sit in their cars, or if the weather is nice, on their bumpers or in the backs of their trucks, or sometimes people stand around talking with their family and friends.
For seven years now, we’ve celebrated her half birthday by visiting the drive-in. Since my partner and I separated, we haven’t all three always gone to celebrate together, but many times we have.
There’s also a little park within walking distance from the restaurant, and last year my partner’s mom and a couple of other friends came with us for milkshakes and fries and then sat outside at the park for an hour.
My former partner is very good at remembering dates and will text me on the anniversary of the day our foster placement began. I don’t have her head for numbers, but I do always remember our foster daughter’s half birthday, and I feel like I’ll still be sending half-birthday wishes when she’s too grown-up and busy for a visit to the drive-in with the moms she met when she was three.
