Somewhere along the way, I stopped really celebrating my birthday.

After having kids, my focus just shifted — it became about making their days special, making sure their birthdays were filled with the kind of magic I used to feel. Eventually, mine just turned into another regular day on the calendar.

It’s funny though — even when I say I don’t care about my birthday, there’s still that little part of me that misses how it used to feel. That cozy, loved, everyone-around-you kind of feeling. Sometimes I catch myself missing those days… when being doded on wasn’t a rare thing but a given.

Leave it to my sister, though. She always makes sure I still feel special — seen, loved, and appreciated. She gets it. She knows the weight that comes with motherhood, how easy it is to put yourself last every time. So she took me out, just us and all the kids, for a really good meal and a good time. It was simple but meant everything. Honestly, my sister is my best friend — always has been.