Rick Grimes

When Carl had been growing up, before everything went to hell, every birthday his son had was something special for Rick; remembering that day his boy came into the world, changing everything in so many ways. After just a few years, he couldn't remember what life had been like before he was a father, and whatever he'd been doing, it wasn't nearly as important as being Carl's dad, and then Judith's dad. But when Judith came along, he couldn't be much of a father. He tried, he sure as hell tried, but he made mistakes, did things he had to do to keep them all safe. He couldn't regret that, and they just had to move forward, but he was always thinking about ways he could do it better.

At the end of the day, what he wanted and just couldn't ever really have, was a life where he could be their dad, and everything that meant. Keeping them safe was about the only thing he could manage most of the time, but the love was fierce inside, begging to be shown and given the chance to come out and thrive. Always. It was just hard when walkers were threatening at every turn.

Here in Darrow, that was changing. He didn't always cook, but he tried; sometimes he'd make pancakes in the mornings, eggs, bacon. He'd play with Judith, talk to Carl about school, trying to find ways to let this all feel normal, but keep it in the back of their minds that it could all go away tomorrow.

He didn't want Judith growing up with fear, though, not if she didn't have to. So her birthday was a chance, for the first time in years, to be a family and celebrate the day someone special came into the world. He hadn't been able to really give Carl a birthday celebration these last few years, and that weighed heavy on his mind. But knowing this day was important to his son too, made it a little easier.

Rick had talked to everyone earlier in the week, Michonne wasn't coming until the party started, and Beth agreed to help them decorate ahead of time. By the time Beth and Daryl would have gotten there, Rick had the cake already made. He'd kept it simple with a yellow cake and chocolate icing. The icing looked messy, but it wasn't something you could mess up too bad taste-wise, and he'd made decent cakes before. It just had been a while.

Apart from the party itself, the biggest source of excitement was that Judith had been getting more animated with her nonsensical baby talk, almost sounding like sometimes she was close to forming a word or two. Rick would encourage her, trying to help her sound things out, just looking forward to the moment she said his name. And sure enough, last night, Dada finally came out. Just once, but it was enough to make his heart light up in a way he didn't realize it still could.

Dada.

Yeah. He was trying to be worthy of that smile on her face.

He'd keep that a surprise for today, and maybe she'd say it again in front of the others, possibly even another word or two.

She was in good spirits, always happy to see everyone, and even if she had no idea this was her special day, the smiles from her were plentiful. She could walk pretty well by now, so when Beth and Daryl got there (and Michonne, when the party officially started and the food was all ready), she was often on her feet checking things out, and more often than not, wanting to be held.

The apartment itself was small, but cozy, decorated nice, and around noon, lunch was ready: burgers, hot dogs, fries. Rick cut up a hot dog for Judith into tiny little pieces so she wouldn't choke. The fries were soft enough to go down easy, and the cake would be an adventure, he knew, so by the time they were ready for cake, he stripped her down to just her diaper to make clean up easy.

It's been snowing pretty heavily, but it comes as a surprise, for some reason, when they get completely snowed in. Rick is prepared, of course. There's plenty of canned goods, and even if the power goes out, they should be just fine. It helps having Michonne here, especially with Judith. And she's so good with Carl, too, that he's just grateful.

He's holding Judith against his chest as he gets up to grab some peanut butter and jelly. Seems like an easy meal, and he doesn't feel like cooking.

"Hungry?"

This mailbox can be used for Rick's mail/emails, but can also be used for OOC contact with the mun as well.