Adam had a few requests for his birthday. He asked me if he could have a balloon, a cookie cake (“to why I really like cookies mama”), a party hat, and a cupcake. It seemed like a reasonable list of demands so I didn’t mind promising to meet all of them. He was pretty set on those four things, and it wasn’t until a couple of days later that he asked if he could “maybe have a birthday present too”.

For his birthday dinner we went to his favorite restaurant, The Apple. Some of the waiters clapped and sang to him – he was a big fan of the clapping, but covered his ears when they started to sing.

When we got home we brought out the balloons, party hats, and cookie cake (he already had his birthday cupcake – or at least the frosting off of a birthday cupcake – after lunch).

Adam loved his “party”. There were a few near catastrophes though. Luke refused to wear a party hat and Adam declared that his party was “ruined”. I convinced him that it was okay for Luke not to wear a hat, since he’s just a little guy, and the birthday boy seemed okay with that, “my party is perfect again”.

We also lost power for several minutes, which led to Adam saying, “oh no, my party ruined again”. Once the lights came back on it was all perfect again though.

And there were presents too. His big gift was a new bike. His favorite gift was a thirty-five cent magnifying glass.

Go figure.