Happy Birthday, Rooster!

Tomorrow, the Rooster officially turns four, but we celebrated today.

Despite the dozen or so meltdowns, he had a great day. Are you surprised? Well hold on, there's more.

We went to an amazing museum exhibit -- all completely hands-on and participatory, and he laughed, climbed, touched, pointed, described, and PLAYED. Afterward, we had a lunch that -- despite being entirely gfcf and eaten in outside in ovenlike heat -- turned out to be delicious. Who knew you could buy cupcakes made without anything that sounds remotely pleasant and actually lick your fingers in delight? Guess they were worth the thousand bucks they seemed to cost for a box of six.

Another big surprise hit: Rooster's Grammy and Grampy gave him a puzzle, and he LOVED IT. If you didn't read some of my earlier posts about noncompliance, you might have missed the fact that my boy has a zero tolerance policy for puzzles. When pressed during an assessment to please show horse's head belonged, the Rooster articulately let the persistent diagnostician that the horse's head belonged right back in the box from which it came. (I dread how he might phrase that when he gets a little older.) No horses in this puzzle - this one had brightly colored dinosaurs. We all spent quite a while working on it together, having a blast.

His daddy gave him a "enormous" (the Rooster's own word) toy snake that he loves so much he made it his namesake.

His Grandma in Virginia sent him a giant bouquet of balloons that mark a milestone: these are the first balloons ever that he has not insisted on "setting free." The environment and I are thankful. (The rooster is quite the Jamie Lee Curtis fan, and her picture book inspired his passionate catch-and-release balloon policy.) The Peaches, of course, got a few balloons of her own, to keep peace in the family, and she and the rooster have actually been marching around the house together having a balloon parade.

Not even four until tomorrow, and already big changes.