Xavi's Fourth

Birthday's are serious business!

The first few birthday parties for children are never really for the children.  They get stuff all the time, and really don’t have much in the way of desires.  Most of it is lost on them, and it’s more of an excuse for friends and family to come together and enjoy the traditional smashing of the cake.

But by the fourth birthday or so, they’re starting to realize that these are events that mean something.  If nothing else, it means you’re pretty certain to get a big slab of cake no matter how good you’ve been.

Instead of throwing big parties, we’ve started making birthdays more of an event.  For Xavi’s birthday this past weekend, my parents came into town.  We did some cake and a few presents the first night.  The next day, we got up and took the family to Polly’s Pies (mmm, biscuits and gravy!)—restaurants are almost bearable with the boys, but not this time.  We managed to get out of there on speaking terms with management, and made our way over to the Orange Empire Railway Museum.

This weekend was especially groovy because they were doing a Civil War reenactment, and they had their steam locomotive out for the last time this season.  Only Porter knew who President Lincoln was, but I was pretty in awe of him.  He was taller and thinner than I am, and he and Mary Todd really seemed to know their character history.

Thirty-seven vampires in one day.  I asked.

But the absolute best was this morning.  As I was driving the boys to drop them off before school, Xavi piped up in the back and said, “Thanks, daddy, for my book about me and Bear on Crabby Pond.”  Amid all the other exciting presents (including a Kid’s Kindle Fire), it’s nice to know that this one stood out—at least this morning.

We’ll see how long that lasts.