Happy Birthday To Dax!

Dax had his very first "friends" birthday party this year.  We have had some big family parties for him in the past, but this is the first time he got to have his little buddies over for his birthday.  Was he excited?  Um, yeah....

I made the mistake of taking him with me to hand out the invitations about 10 or 11 days before the actual party.  Every morning from that day on the first thing he would ask me was, "Mom, is today my birfday party?"  When I would tell him no, he would ask, "how many more days?"  If I said 8 or 6 or 4, he would pull a sad, sad face and say, "Dats too MEN-EEEE!!!"  Then he would ask me again at least 2 or 3 times during the day (each and every day), expecting days to have somehow past without the sun setting or rising or anything.  He just couldn't believe it when I told him that there were STILL 6 more days.  Sometimes he would tell me, "You're so MEAN!" like I was the one controlling how slowly the days went by.  Whatever, dude.  Next time I will have to remember to sneak up the party on him and not tell him about it until the morning it happens. 

After what seemed to Dax (and me) like many, many MEN-EEE days, the "big day" finally (finally!) arrived.  Dax was superduper excited.  Here he is, by some of his decorations.   He asked for a dinosaur party (shocking, I know.)

At the appointed time, Dax's buddies started showing up.  Every time the doorbell rang, Dax bellowed "I'LL GET IT!!!" jumped about 3 feet into the air and hit the ground running as fast as he could to the door.  Before long, we had quite a crowd of 3,4 and 5 year-old boys running and roaring around the living room.  I did a terrible job taking pictures.  We tried to wait for everyone to arrive before we started on the activities, but before long I saw that if we waited any longer, these kids were going to either 1) beat each other to death with the throw pillows from my couch, 2) break my eardrums with their little-man roars and shrieks, or 3) shake, knock, burn or otherwise take the house down to the ground.  So, we sat them all down to build dinosaur sack-puppets-slash-treat-bags. Once they had a purpose they calmed down pretty quick and the noise level decreased to a less damaging level.

After they got their bags made, we had lunch.  We had pizza and grapes, which everyone seemed to enjoy.  Once everyone had eaten their fill, we headed outside to break our pinata, which was shaped like a triceratops.  These boys were soooo excited to be able to smack something with a stick as hard as they could and not get in trouble for it.  We let them all have a whack at the pinata with the traditional blindfold, but the little triceratops pinata survived.  Then we let the kids have a try with no blindfold.  Still the triceratops would.  Not.  Die.  (Though he did lose a couple of limbs, which only got everyone more excited to see him meet his doom).  Finally, Dax's big 5-year-old cousin laid into the pinata, as our last hope before letting Preston have a turn.  He took that dinosaur DOWN!  Yay!  As soon as the candy hit the ground, there was quite a feeding frenzy.  I was proud of my little Cora, who waded right in there with the big boys and wrapped her hands around quite a bit of candy. 

After the pinata, we tried to convince the boys that they didn't need to eat ALL of their candy right away, and played a game of pin-the-tail-on-the-dinosaur.  Then it was FINALLY time for Dax to open his presents. 

He scored tons of great stuff, and it was all we could do to pry the kids away from the toys with promises of cake and ice cream (like they weren't already sugared up enough). 

 After everyone had eaten their fill (again), I begged and pleaded and got all the buddies to sit (relatively) still for a picture.  What a bunch of cute boys!

Dax had a great time at the party, and the house is still standing, so I call it a success.

Dax has completely mastered his tricycle, so we decided to take the next step and get him a bike for his birthday.  We decided to jump on the balance bike bandwagon.  We also got Dax a new helmet.  (I had to get it once I saw the little slogan on the back:  I LoVe My BrAiN.)  Looks sharp!

Dax jumped on the bike and started walking it around the driveway.  Before long, Arden pried him off of it and jumped on herself.  She has her own bike that has had the training wheels on and off and on and off a few times.  She just was a little afraid to ride her bike without the training wheels on.  It has been hard for to teach her since we live on such a steep hill.  Our driveway is pretty flat, but it isn't much space to learn to ride a bike.  HOWEVER, after one single day playing with Dax's balance bike, Arden jumped right on her bike and took OFF.  She is a total pro now.  I am a believer.  Dax is still wondering why he should give up his perfectly good shiny red trike to walk around the driveway with a bike with no pedals, but hopefully it won't take him long to warm up to it. 

Dax also had his 4-year-old doctor appointment this week.  He is a square.  He weighs 43 lbs and is 43 inches tall (which is above the 90% for both height and weight).  The doctor said that he is going to be a big guy, at LEAST 6'2," and probably quite a bit more.  He is filling out is 5T clothes nicely, and it won't be long before we have to switch him to 6.  (which will kind of be a bummer, because once you graduate from 5T clothes, you have to shop in the "big boy" section, and it is a little harder to find shirts with happy little dinosaurs flying kites on them.  Oh well....)

Here is my great big little man with his bear. 

He has really grown up a LOT this year.  I was looking at his 3-year pictures, and you could still see a little bit of baby in him, but now he is a big kid all the way through.  *sigh*

I asked Dax a few questions:

Me:  How old are you, Dax?
Dax:  Four.  Den I wiw be five, den six, den seven, den eight, den nine...
Me:  Yeah yeah, let's not think about that now.  How old is Cora?
Dax:  Free.
Me:  Right!  How old is Arden?
Dax:  Six.
Me:  Right!  How old am I?
Dax:  Ummmmmm....twenty-one?
Me:  Good answer!  How old is Daddy?
Dax:  Twenty seven?
Me:  Okay.  What about grandpa?
Dax:  Twenty eight?
Me:  And Grandma?
Dax:  Twenty nine?
Me:  What about Great-Grandma Wilson?
Dax:  Seven?

Hmmmmm...I was feeling pretty good about 21 until Dax decided my grandma was younger than me.  Actually, I think that Dax can only count to 29 without help, so 29 to him is as old as it gets.

Happy Birthday, my little man!   I can't believe how fast you are growing up!

Cut it out.