35

Ooh-er. 35, eh? That's like, properly moving along in life. The second half of my 30s begins today - the downward half (which probably means it will go faster than the uphill climb towards 35).

It's predictably cliched to say it, but birthdays are definitely coming along faster and faster these days. And (depressingly) I find myself more and more ambivalent to them. Michele asked me last week what I wanted to "do" for my birthday. Between us, we couldn't come up with much.

But the fact is, I don't really mind. I'll have a big party at 40 I'm sure. But right now actually, the kids' ages makes it difficult to organise anything major, and to be honest I'm just enjoying this time of life (not my age, but more the fact of having young children) in a quiet way.

So whereas, when you are younger, it is the presents you look forward to (and cards are, you know, nice and all), you open the cards first, and fast, so you can get to the presents.

Now I am older, the cards were actually what I was looking forward to most today. Michele has started making her own (which are coming along really well - a hobby she started a few months back, and has really taken to - I never knew she had so much hidden creativity!) so I was really impressed with her card to me, because I could tell that she had put time and effort into making it.

And also because Michele had told me how the kids had sat down (of itself, something to celebrate!) and each made me their own card. In advance, Jack had asked me "Daddy - what are you into? Football maybe? Cars? Because I want to make you a really nice card that is all about you."

So this morning I opened cards from Michele, Jack and Emma that had all been personally made especially. And Rhys gave me lots of smiles too. That's really what makes me happy today.