Today is K’s fourth birthday. He was born on 04/04/04 at 9:20 am. He weighed 8 lbs. 15 oz. and was 21 inches long. It was an easy delivery as those things go, approximately 9 hours from the time I felt the first contraction to the time he made his grand appearance. Yes, I had an epidural. 
He’s been excited about this day for weeks, asking me every day, and sometimes two or three times in a day (the passage of time is still a mystery to him) “Is today my birthday? Is it Mommy? Is it my birthday yet?” I would reply, that no, it’s not his birthday yet. “Well when IS it, Mommy?” And I would tell him, a month/three weeks/a week/a few days, and his face would fall for a moment, and then he would go on to whatever he wanted to do next.
So the day finally dawned, and I woke him this morning by singing Happy Birthday. In reply, he started to sing Good Morning to You to me, but N and R heard he was awake and came up the stairs singing. That was the end of any morning cuddle time I was getting, but he was SO excited that the Big Day is finally here. And Four-Year-Olds don’t put their fingers in their mouths and Four-Year-Olds always go to the bathroom in the toilet. That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.
We took R to school. It was a rare occurrence that he did not want to go, because he knew I had some Birthday Plans with K. But to school he went, and had a pretty good day anyway.
K had received a postcard in the mail from Geoffrey, the Toys R Us giraffe. The postcard told him to come to the store and tell them it’s his birthday so they can make his visit special, and they included a coupon for $3.00 off a purchase of $3.00 or more. So we decided to swing by TRU, only we got there half an hour before the store opened. We decided to pass some time at the Dunkin’ Donuts across the way, and K consumed 2 munchkins and 2 donuts while we waited for the store to open. The half hour passed and we headed back to TRU for his special birthday visit.
We walk in the door, and K marches up to the service desk and says “Excuse me? Today is my birthday! I’m four years old and my name is K!” The people at the service desk make a bit of a fuss over him. He is given a crown to wear and a shiny mylar balloon. They announce him on the loudspeaker. One of the employees gives him a funny little happy birthday song and dance. This last proves to be a little to much for him and he hides himself under my jacket.
I had explained to him in advance that he had three dollars to spend on a little something for himself — some new sidewalk chalk or bubbles, maybe, or a couple of matchbox cars. After wandering the store for a while, and picking out all sorts of inappropriate things (a motorized car, an outdoor swingset, a bike, a HUGE LEGO setup) he finally settled on a couple of little toy boats. He’s into water play at the moment.
We take his selection up to the register, and he hands it over to be rung up along with the coupon card he’s been clutching in his hand this whole visit. The cashier rings it up, then looks apologetically at me and says the gift card is only good on items $3.00 and up, and the boats are ringing up at $2.99. Not to be deterred, I toss a package of gummy worms on the counter – he’d been eying those up too, and any other day of the year I’d have said absolutely not.
The gummy worms were consumed in the car and shared with his big brother once we picked him up from school, but the balloon had an unfortunate mishap. He was playing with it in the backseat, and the ribbon came off. When we got home, he wanted to carry it into the house himself and didn’t wait for me to reattach the ribbon. As he reached our porch, the balloon slipped from his hands and floated away. Oh, the sadness in his voice. What wouldn’t I give to have a renegade balloon be the worst that ever happens to him? “Mommy” he said, his voice quavering and his lip shaking, “I tried to hold it and it slipped and I couldn’t catch it and it’s going up, up, up, and…” and here the lip gets shakier and the voice gets quaverier, and I slipped in with the cheeriest voice I could, “It’s okay honey, lets say bye-bye to the balloon! Bye bye balloon!” and R, who normally might have taken the opportunity to make a little jibe at his brother, chimed in too “Bye bye, balloon!” And K said “Bye bye balloon”, too, and waved at it and watched it for as long as he could as it floated up and away.
And we came inside then, and put his cake in the fridge and had some cupcakes, and went on to have a wonderful rest-of-the-day for his fourth birthday. I even got some more cuddle time in later in the afternoon.
Sappy musings ahead…
K, you are truly a joy to behold. Your whole face is a window to your soul, and when you are happy the sun shines through and everything looks the brighter for it. When you are unhappy, ‘ware the storm clouds, for your storms are brief but so veryvery intense. You are going to change the world one day, and I will feel privileged to witness it.
Happy, Happy birthday my love.
