Baby No More!

A month ago, we were at Target and Gideon wanted me to buy him a transformer. I told him that he would get one for his birthday...in a month. So what do you think I've heard several times a week for the last month? "Is it my birfday mom?" "Mom, is it my birfday yet?" "Mooooom! I want my transformer, is it my birfday now?" You can imagine that when we told Gid on Thursday night that his birthday was "tomorrow" he was more than a little excited! He told Ren, "You surprise me!" Ren said, "Now?" And Gid said, a little exasperated, "No! Tomorrow, on my birfday!"

So, Friday morning, we heard him stirring and we snuck around the corner to "surprise" him...when we saw that he had hobbled down the hall to the bathroom, with his jammies around his ankles and a pull-up oozing with diarrhea hanging off his bum. Poor Gid. He must have gone in the night and it was crusted all over his legs and bum. He HATES showering, so it was sad that the first thing he got to do on his birthday was stand in the shower, sobbing, while Ren cleaned him up.

When he was dressed, we had Gid's "surprise" take two: we gathered a few of the kids together, snuck up on him and yelled, "Surprise! It's your birthday!" He loved it! We let him open a few presents in the morning from Jonah and Curtis (a panda puppet and a small transformer) and he was very happy to finally get to experience the joy of his birthday! Then when the Big kids came home from school we had a family party with cake and presents and a treasure hunt for his new train table. He was thrilled to sit in front of his cake and go through the birthday rituals of listening to us sing and blowing out the candles. He kept saying, "It's my birfday!" and his eyes would shine as he looked at me. With all the times that I forget to follow through on things that I promise, having his birthday actually come, after I promised him it would for a month, seemed to give him confidence that Mom wasn't just making things up!

The treasure hunt, designed by Jonah, Cody and Curtis and complete with map (created by Jonah) led him through three levels where he had to fight "bosses" with his light saber. (Kind of Dora the Explorer meets SuperMario) First he had to go past the spider web on the front porch, where he had to fight Curty the Black Widow.

After vanquishing Curtis, it was on to the bouncy trampoline where he met Jonah the Jedi. He hopped on and beat Jonah as well, then followed the map around the corner and through Bucket Valley (the boys had thoughtfully taken out a pile of 20 or so sand buckets and spread them across the back walk).

There he met Codo Baggins and his sword, which was easily bested by Gid's lightning fast light saber. Finally, he headed down to the creepy basement, where he confronted all three level bosses and downing them all, he got to unveil his train table. He loved it!

Now it hits me that after 17 years, I no longer have a baby. I'm really pretty happy about that. I love this crazy, three year-old and his zest for life. He's loud, physical, comical, sweet and adored by eight people older than he is who are happy that he brings out the little kid in us all. Happy Birthday Gideon!