Happy Third Birthday, Adam!

This morning, I woke up to the sound of paper ripping. That was, of course, Adam opening the first of the presents we'd set out for him to find. It's like the train fairy visited our house last night. Poh-Poh and Gung-Gung, Uncle Ian, Uncle Norman (all in absentia) and Naomi all got Adam trains or train set paraphernalia. I wish I'd taken a picture of his opening the presents but mostly because I'm going to be writing this post as a nearly chronological recap of the day. Next, we played with the trains and made some thank you phone calls.[Aside: I could stare at this pic all day long! But there were also another half-dozen just as great showing his telephone persona, if that even makes sense.]

Then, Adam and I went to the grocery store to pick out a birthday cake. We had wildly different ideas of what would be good. Of course, we went with Adam's final pick, pictured above (after he'd been talked out of an individual serving-sized cake.) It was a very sweet triple-layer genoise filled with cherry preserves and covered in whipped cream icing with shaved white chocolate. Like I said, very sweet. Even Dion called it sweet. [Aside: That paragraph was for you, Beck.]

We took the cake with us to Plaza Flamingo, which is where we go for lunch almost every Sunday. This turned out to be a good call. Not only is Adam a little unnerved by deviations from our regular routine lately but also, Plaza Flamingo has Birthday Sombreros! Again, Adam was not so sure about the funny hat. In this shot, Dion's actually holding it above his head.

OMG, Birthday Sombreros.

Is there anything better than children in Birthday Sombreros?

They were so fabulous that a table of photography enthusiasts came over to take pictures of the kids. They kindly used our camera for a family shot, too. Later, we shared our cake with them.

Countdown to blowing out his candle:

We were even able to persuade Adam to nap after lunch with the promise of being able to open one more present after nap. We actually had to wake him up around 5:30 for fear nobody sleeping tonight. His big-ticket present was an easel. Chalkboard on one side, dry-erase on the other, clips for chart paper. Of course, the erasing is the best part. "Rub, rub, rub, it DISAPPEARS!"

Uncle Norman dropped by on his way to ultimate with some lovely cupcakes, commissioned from Julie's cousin, Catherine, who does this kind of thing for a living, I think.
I hear the secret is a stencil. For the record, these were my cupcakes:
His bedtime book was - appropriately, you will see - his small present from me and Dion, Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. It's one I remember fondly from my own childhood and one that had been on display at Indigo a month ago or so. I have read it to him, at his request, every time we go to Indigo to play, which is at least weekly.

Adam, Naomi, Dion and I all had a great day. Thanks, kid! It was bittersweet for Adam and for me too. Adam was a doll today but he was very concerned about turning three. Dion picked up on this a few weeks ago when his behaviour was a little off - wanting to be treated like and called a little baby, which we indulged as much as we could. Turning three has got to be harder than turning thirty, or ahem, thirty-five. Adam was even having trouble going to sleep tonight.

When I went in to tuck him in again we had a little chat. I told him that he was three years old today because he came out of my belly exactly three years ago. He was my baby then and he is still my baby.

Adam said, "No, I'm not three. I'm two. Three is not okay." *heart breaks*

I told him that three will be wonderful and that he wasn't a big boy yet.

"When? When will I be a big boy?"

"When you want to be."

"I'm a little boy. A little baby boy," said Adam.

"Yes, you're my little baby boy." And then the night-time script, "I love you, Adam. 'night-'night. *kiss* See you in the morning!"

And he dropped off to sleep, softly. *sigh*