Birthday girls

Sunday, November 4th, Amber turned 4 and I turned 32. Thankfully Amber’s sickness from the day before abated and she was able to enjoy opening her presents first thing in the morning. Since Saturday was my substitute birthday (even though it didn’t exactly go as planned), I was in selfish me-mode and forgot to wrap Amber’s presents until I was crawling into bed that night. I jumped back out of bed and tossed the gifts into our well-used, slightly wrinkled birthday gift bags. Then I dug out the birthday banner and enlisted Jeff to blow up four balloons. Everything was all ready within 15 minutes. We’ve got this kid-birthday thing down!

One of my struggles of gift selection is keeping the magic without the junk. In other words, make it fun and exciting for the birthday kid but don’t get useless stuff that will clutter the house. And watch the quantity: less is more, but make less feel like more. The old quality over quantity mantra. Our kids are old enough that we have covered most of the basics with toys. We have Legos, blocks, a bin full of dress-up clothes, princesses, barbies, cars, and trains. Our kids are still young enough to want fun toys for their gifts. Somewhere in between toy overload and fun-loving kids is a line of fun-non-junky gift ideas. Let me confess: I nailed it with Amber’s birthday. I found things she loves that are not going to clog up the playroom. It was very satisfying, and so fun watching her opening and loving her birthday presents.

Amber’s gifts included:

• ·        several coloring books
• ·        sparkly markers
• ·        watercolor paints
• ·        three sparkly crowns
• ·        the latest Princess in Black book (The Science Fair Scare)
• ·        a lollipop (from Rose)
• ·        a big helium-filled balloon (from Jay)
• ·        a LumiPet (a squishy silicone bunny night light)

We filled out Amber’s birthday interview little by little throughout the afternoon on her birthday. Amber’s attention span is short and she’s too stubborn to willingly answer more than two or three questions at a time. I ended up extrapolating several of the answers to the birthday interview questions, because Amber completely refused to answer, and/or did not understand the question no matter how I rephrased it. Eventually the whole interview was filled out. My favorite response this year was “What do you want to be when you grow up?” AMBER! (said with energy and determination).

Jeff stayed home from church with Amber on her birthday, because it had been less than 24 hours since her last…eruption. Happy birthday to me–no sacrament meeting wrestling Amber! Today at church (one week later), Amber climbed all over me, messed up my hair, shoved my hair in my face/mouth, pummeled me with her fists, and generally squirmed and thrashed so much that with ten minutes left in the meeting, I suddenly stood up and walked out to the foyer. Alone. I briefly considered taking Amber with me for a “time out,” but I know from experience how pointless and frustrating that is. So I gave myself a time-out instead. It was amazing and effective.

Captions, then pictures:

• Ready to open presents–waiting while we sang happy birthday.
• Wearing one of her crowns and sampling her lollipop. These round lollipops are at the check-out of Walmart and Amber always reaches for them, asking and begging for a lollipop. I told her “maybe for your birthday” dozens of times, and then Rose picked one out for Amber’s birthday present. Amber licked it twice, made a face, and set it aside. She didn’t like it!
• Even though she didn’t like the lollipop, she was still happy to finally have one.
• Rose enjoyed Amber’s unicorns and mermaids coloring book as much as Amber did.
• Amber is actually pretty good at watercolor painting.
• Birthday girls! We escaped the chaotic kitchen for a quick front porch selfie at sunset on our birthday. I do get rather sentimental on our birthday and take lots of selfies. Amber is getting so big! She’s not my tiny little newborn birthday present baby anymore.
• Amber’s birthday dinner of choice was grilled cheese and tomato soup. She doesn’t love many dinners (our pickiest child yet) but she loves grilled cheese and tomato soup, especially the tomato soup. Jeff made the sandwiches and Jay heated up the soup on the stove.
• We always take birthday selfies.
• The cake: Amber picked out a chocolate cake mix and a can of chocolate frosting with funfetti sprinkles. My 9×13 glass pan was in use when we were making her cake, so I dug out my once-used round cake pans and made an actual two layer cake. Since we don’t own a cake stand or cake box, I did the old cardboard and foil cake plate. Amber was pleased.
• Age four is FUN. Amber knew it was her special day and she basked in the glory of it. That satisfied smile says it all.
• Family selfie on November 4th: a tradition since 2014.
• I did not grow up eating cake with ice cream, but the White side of the family always has cake and ice cream at all birthday gatherings, so Amber expected it. We are now a cake and ice cream family.
• Obviously we are always going to take several pictures together on our birthday.
• Amber is not the easiest person to be close to…
• I love how when these kids are excited they always want to have sleepovers, even when they already share a bedroom every night. A sleepover is when they sleep on the floor together instead of in their beds. They plugged in the heated blanket and Amber’s glowing bunny light and were quite cozy.

Amber has been making such progress lately–finally starting to come out of the tunnel-vision impulsive toddlerhood. Jeff and I have both noticed how she is “becoming more human,” as we like to describe it. She is still mischievous and fiery and violent, but she is becoming more aware of her surroundings. Just the other day I dashed outside on a cold morning to throw something in the trash can. When I came back inside, I kept saying “Burrrr! I’m SO COLD!” Amber walked over and handed me my blanket, with a matter-of-fact “here you go, Mommy.” Then she walked away. I was so startled at her thoughtfulness that I nearly forgot to say thank you. The next thing I knew, she was painting watercolors all over the kitchen table. It’s one step forward, two steps back.

Amber is still the best birthday present I ever got, and the perfect last child: she projects enough personality and mischief to make up for all of the other babies that I couldn’t have. We love our wild-child, fierce-hugging, warrior-princess Amber.