We celebrated M.’s fourth birthday last night. As mentioned earlier, her actual birthday is today. We didn’t make a huge deal out of. Next year, no doubt, she’ll realize that she got to go to several cool birthday parties for friends and that she should start complaining about wanting farm animals to come to the house, or a trip to Chuck E. Cheese, or something like that when her birthday comes around. Perhaps this was our final chance to have a quiet one at home.

She did well most of the day, which I was incredibly thankful for since I was suffering from a migraine until about 5:00 when my third dose of Advil and fifth caffeinated drink kicked in. However, around 3:00 in the afternoon, all of a sudden, it hit her that she was going to get cake and presents in a few hours, and she started bouncing off the walls and asking the birthday equivalent of “Are We There Yet?” questions. When she would leave me alone for a few minutes, I would hear her talking to herself.

“I really can’t wait for the sun to start going down and Mimi and Ampa to get here so I can eat my cake and open my presents!”

We kept the gifts pretty simple, too. I had taken the girls to the mall earlier in the day (25 people in line for iPhones!) and got them some cups at Pottery Barn Kids that have the liquid inside that freezes and keeps their drinks cold. After dessert, both girls got Barbie Fairy Princess dolls. M. got Mariposa and C. got Willa. And I hooked M. up with a Beatles Yellow Submarine t-shirt. I’m still mad some other kid in her class was rocking a Beatles shirt last spring. She might have to wear a Ramones shirt on the first day of school this fall. Tomorrow we’re going out and finding the Mariposa movie to officially add to our collection. Slippery slope officially slipped upon. Damn.

Both girls were quite pleased with their gifts and M. is excited about being four. For the past couple days I’ve been doing my best to warp her and turn her into a little version of me who reflects on every little aspect of her life.
“M., did you know this is the last bath you’re ever going to take as a three-year-old?”
“Wow, really dad?!?!”

I’ve got pics up on our site. I’ll review the video tomorrow and see if there’s anything worth sharing from it.

Oh, and I’ve played around with the time/date stamp on this, so it will post exactly four years after she arrived, two weeks early, to our surprise and delight. For as exasperating as she can be at times, she’s really a sweet kid. Many of our friends have told us that four is no walk in the park, but it is a lot of fun to see her getting smarter, more aware, and more independent each day. You can see the seeds of the girl she’ll be in a few years.