As the wide smile in this photo clearly indicates, Sam changed his mind about cancelling his birthday this year, but it was a close call. On Thursday evening, he firmly announced from the back seat of the car, "I don't want my birthday anymore: I don't want the cake or the presents or the movie. Nothing." We chalked it up to late-day exhaustion and some resistance to the idea of being the centre of cupcake attention at school the next day. But Sam cut straight to the point: "If I have my birthday, I will still keep my name, but I will lose my number." He didn't want to give up 3. He liked 3.
We tried to describe some of the exciting doors that open to 4 year olds: Junior kindergarten, T-ball registration, and ... well, our list stopped at two doors to be honest. We drew a blank. Sam wasn't so easily mollified, so we swung the conversation in other directions (speaking of feet), expecting that a good night's sleep would change his mind. But he held steady throughout Friday and on into Saturday morning. It didn't help that the gap between was marred by a 6 hour dead-of-night stint in Emergency, waiting for verification that Sam's tenacious ear infection wasn't going to render him deaf. Odd to be sitting in the Civic Hospital, 4 years to the day of my admittance to the Maternity Ward with this quadrupled boy half-asleep on my lap.
He awoke (far too early) on Saturday morning with the diplomatic compromise to enjoy the planned festivities with Carter, so long as we acknowledged that this wasn't a birthday per se, but was only a birthday celebration, and that enjoying it was by no means to be construed as the embracing of 4-ness. The sight of the wrapped and bowed presents from Carter and the bright orange topsy-turvy Quasimodo ice cream cake got him into the spirit, however, and he was all smiles as Daddy counted the candles ... right up to 4. He began to try the number on for size: "Will I be 4 for as long as I was 3?" " Will I turn 5 anyways, just liked I turned 4 anyways?"
And then, on the way to the Ninja Turtles movie today, he came out with this: "Are you sad that I am growing up?" While the math and science questions had been easy, the personal one had us stumbling over ourselves a little. No, but yes. We're proud of how he's growing up and curious to see what lies ahead, but we also ache at the knowledge that he'll move out in to the big wide world one day and not need so much from his mom and dad. In a tiny but insistent case in point tonight, he told me he could button his own pj's, "because I'm 4 now." Yes. All of a sudden, you are.
When he asked how many more times his birthday would come while he lived at home with us, I answered that it would be at least 14, and more if he didn't go to a far away grown-up school. He was thrilled by the answer: "FOURTEEN!? That's awot-awot-awot!" To our little 4 year old, that may be true. But to us it's not that much. It isn't much at all.
Happy birthday, sweet boy.
We tried to describe some of the exciting doors that open to 4 year olds: Junior kindergarten, T-ball registration, and ... well, our list stopped at two doors to be honest. We drew a blank. Sam wasn't so easily mollified, so we swung the conversation in other directions (speaking of feet), expecting that a good night's sleep would change his mind. But he held steady throughout Friday and on into Saturday morning. It didn't help that the gap between was marred by a 6 hour dead-of-night stint in Emergency, waiting for verification that Sam's tenacious ear infection wasn't going to render him deaf. Odd to be sitting in the Civic Hospital, 4 years to the day of my admittance to the Maternity Ward with this quadrupled boy half-asleep on my lap.
He awoke (far too early) on Saturday morning with the diplomatic compromise to enjoy the planned festivities with Carter, so long as we acknowledged that this wasn't a birthday per se, but was only a birthday celebration, and that enjoying it was by no means to be construed as the embracing of 4-ness. The sight of the wrapped and bowed presents from Carter and the bright orange topsy-turvy Quasimodo ice cream cake got him into the spirit, however, and he was all smiles as Daddy counted the candles ... right up to 4. He began to try the number on for size: "Will I be 4 for as long as I was 3?" " Will I turn 5 anyways, just liked I turned 4 anyways?"
And then, on the way to the Ninja Turtles movie today, he came out with this: "Are you sad that I am growing up?" While the math and science questions had been easy, the personal one had us stumbling over ourselves a little. No, but yes. We're proud of how he's growing up and curious to see what lies ahead, but we also ache at the knowledge that he'll move out in to the big wide world one day and not need so much from his mom and dad. In a tiny but insistent case in point tonight, he told me he could button his own pj's, "because I'm 4 now." Yes. All of a sudden, you are.
When he asked how many more times his birthday would come while he lived at home with us, I answered that it would be at least 14, and more if he didn't go to a far away grown-up school. He was thrilled by the answer: "FOURTEEN!? That's awot-awot-awot!" To our little 4 year old, that may be true. But to us it's not that much. It isn't much at all.
Happy birthday, sweet boy.
2 comments:
Happy Belated Birthday, Sam I Am!!! Even thought it's been 4 years, I'm not sure I'll ever get over the suddenness of him in your life...not even when he's 40. He's brought you so much well-deserved joy, that we all should be thankful for that day 4 years ago (or, at the very least, that tent at the lake, 4yrs and 9 mos ago!)
Well, in Carter's eyes Sammy is still 3 because it just can't be possible for Sammy to be older than him in numbers, but smaller in size. A real mystery to my little man! One he will, no doubt, have to get used to. I can only imagine that JK/SK will be filled with kids older AND smaller. But as for Sammy, he insists that Sam will be 4 AFTER he is 4. Thankfully that is only a few days away. :)
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