It's my 24th birthday!

It's been 24 whole years since I came into the world screaming. Seems like a lifetime ago. Funny how that is.

Yes, today is my 24th birthday! It would now be accurate to say that I have been around for dozens of years. I was told by a Chinese friend that this would be a major birthday in the Chinese tradition, something having to do with their 12-year Zodiac, but much like 22 and 23, I haven't gained anything particularly significant by turning 24. Except perhaps that I am now undoubtedly in my mid-twenties, whereas yesterday by being 23 I could get away with claiming to be in my early twenties. Definitely mid-twenties. I don't feel grown up enough to be 24.

How should I celebrate this birthday on my blog? Seeing as I am home right now and have access to my parents old photo albums, my thought was BABY PICTURES! So I have selected a few pictures from my first year of life to share.

When I was a baby, when my hair grew in, it grew straight up. I was a punk.


Here's a nice one of me with our old dog, Pua. She was a really great dog with us babies--we could poke her or walk on her or whatever, and she would just sigh and tolerate it, or, if she really wanted us to stop, she would lick us. Good dog.


And here are the pictures from my first birthday. It seems I got a birthday pie instead of a birthday cake, but it looks pretty good. Mmm.

Mom leans me in to blow out my candle, but I bet it was my helpful brother standing by who actually put it out.


Sampling the pie...


Sweet.

Happy birthday also to Bill Cosby, Anna Friel, Topher Grace, Brian Grazer, Kristi Yamaguchi, Michelle Rodriguez, Oscar Hammerstein II, and Henry David Thoreau, among many others!