Can you believe it? Three years ago we had a beautiful little baby and now we have a three-year-old! I guess that means we're done with the Terrible Twos, but I really don't think they were all that terrible. To mark the occasion, we were happy to have both sets of grandparents join us and Benji was very excited to have "seven friends" over at his house to play (he calls all family members "friends" and he counts himself among his friend count). I tossed around ideas for exciting events for his birthday, but finally decided that (1) I couldn't possibly top Disney World, and (2) Benji really loves spending time at the house playing with his toys and his special people. So I finally decided that his birthday party would would be very simple, but just perfect for him.
After lunch he looked around the table at everyone's feet and declared that we all had socks on so we should go in the basement and play games (the house rule is that you need socks to go in the basement — it's kind of chilly down there). And that's exactly what we did. We played board games in the basement, opened presents, played more games (with his new presents), ate cake, and played games some more. From how happy Benji looked, I think it was the perfect birthday party for him. He was surrounded by the people he loves and that's clearly very important to him.
One of Benji's favorite books for bedtime stories is "The Secret Birthday Message" by Eric Carle, in which the little boy follows a scavenger hunt for his birthday present. So Mommy made a Secret Birthday Message just for Benji and hid it in his room the night before his birthday. We went on our little hunt first thing in the morning.
In the book, the present is a puppy, but in our version the present is a fish. When he saw the fish tank, he burst into tears. It turns out he thought that by getting the fish he wouldn't get a cake or candles. The poor little guy thought it was an either/or situation and the cake and candles were far more important than the presents.
So we had to think quickly and took Benji downstairs for some "breakfast cake" and put candles in his cinnamon roll and sang Happy Birthday. All was better.
At lunch we had a gourmet meal of macaroni and cheese, which was perfect for our guest of honor. He was very funny putting macaroni shells on each finger and eating them off his fingers.
You can't have a birthday without balloons!
And of course presents.
When he opened various presents, he wanted to stop all further present opening and immediately play with his new toys. This was especially true with new games as he is completely obsessed with board games (he even loves more adult games like Scrabble, Mastermind, Twister, and Blokus in addition to the traditional Candy Land and Cootie).
Who doesn't love a present that's almost as big as you are? Inside was a great car transport semi-truck from Grandpa and Grandma.
In a similar vein to the typical first Christmas where the kid likes the wrapping paper or the boxes more than the presents, Benji's favorite birthday present was also the cheapest — Travel Perfection. It's a great team game with Benji and one other person and he kept asking over and over to play it.
Of course we had to play a family game of Hungry Hungry Hippos.
The cake, candles, and singing is a very important part of the birthday ritual in Benji's mind. When we asked him how old he was in the morning he still answered "two" but after we had cake, his answer turned over to "three". Clearly the cake marks the birthday in his mind.
After the singing and blowing out the candles, Benji enjoyed playing with the singing cake man (also known as a Target gift card).
i sincerely do not know what you are doing here. are you lost? were you
looking for your delicate calico cat, and did you follow her up two flights of stairs
to this room? she is not here. she was here, yes. we gave her a warm bowl of milk, we talked with her about campaign finance reform for a time, and then she bid us good day. i believe she was
going to the post office two blocks down, but i don't quite recall.
for surely you did
not find your way from prinsiana, the least traveled site on
the internet. if you did, though, perhaps you are looking for humor. perhaps you are looking for profundity. perhaps you are looking for answers.
i'm sorry, but you shall go naught-for-three.
