A Little Bit Early

The Toddler has been talking about his birthday for months now. When his two brothers had their spring birthdays, he started planning his. And the most important part of his birthday was that his best friend Jack be there. If you ask him when his birthday is, he'll tell you "My birthday is August"... and every few days he'll ask me, "Is today August?"

So when we got the perfect idea for a gift that would really be better to enjoy all through summer and not at the end of summer, combined with the sad news that best friend Jack will be moving soon, we decided to have August come early at our house.

Yesterday we celebrated with our true family style. The day was his and he enjoyed picking out every last detail. Being the youngest is really the best too, because all the siblings pretty much got that it was his day and loved being able to spoil him and help him celebrate (without any sad or jealous feelings!)

The day prior to his "birthday" we made preparations. One of which was while I was in the shower - the older three kids worked outside on the deck painting a banner for the birthday boy. Thinking painting outside would be safe, I didn't think about little feet stepping in said paint and walking up my light carpeted stairs! I spent the next hour after my shower shampooing each step. That banner will be staying up for a while.

The Toddler was so excited. Clapping his hands and thoroughly enjoying each gift as he opened them. Taking time to set up and play with all his little gifts! He would hug the gift and the giver and thank them profusely. The grand finale was a sandbox from Mom and Dad - which made the sand toys given by his sister much more meaningful. He spent the only couple of the hours of the day that it wasn't raining IN the sandbox - as did his three older siblings. And already again today, it has been a big hit! I'm glad we celebrated early so that he can get good use out of it this summer.

He chose each part of each meal, and spent the day in his regular daily attire (which doesn't look like it will change with his aging) in another pair mitch match of pjs! We played some of his favourite games, and had an indoor picnic.

After dinner the poor tired boy (who wouldn't take a nap) had his very low-key birthday party. He had picked out the plates (they had three candles on a piece of cake because he was turning three), he wanted donut cake - which meant me just buying donuts, and ice cream. He chose one party game, and was excited to bring down his bin of cars because he knows his friend Jack loves to play cars. So Jack's family and his little neighbor friend Ry Ry and her family came for a quick celebration. And really I think he had the best little birthday!

This morning I was putting away gift bags, and he caught me and said, "We didn't have my birthday!" (He's been big into lying lately, which is a whole other post.) I reminded him about his special day and he said, "I liked that birthday. Let's do it again today!"

So while today may be back to June 17th, yesterday it was "August"! And since three is my most favourite age, I luck out that I get to have a three year old for my last time for longer than a year! And what a sweet little guy he is.

If you remember his age confusion last year... this year he is older and wiser and finally "free":