Birthday Boy

Even though we are planning a big birthday party for both boys later in the month, we still had a small birthday celebration for Linc on Friday.  It was primarily an exercise in sugar consumption, to be honest.  Linc shared cookies with his class mates at school, then Sam took him to Barnes and Noble to go book shopping and cash in on his free birthday cupcake.  I think Linc was pleased with the arrangement.

  
And yes, he ate every bite before falling into a sugar a coma having a nice nap.  When he returned to the land of the living, it was time for presents.

 

Linc is remarkably hard to shop and plan celebrations for because the things that Lincoln values most are not things.  He loves music, and he begs to watch music videos on YouTube over and over.  Other than that, he just wants someone to engage him.  He wants attention, to be played with, read to, hugged, wrestled with, held when he is upset.  Linc has never walked into a store and fallen in love with a toy at first sight, as his brother has done dozens of times.  He has never become incurably enamored with a robot or a light saber or a stuffed animal, clutched it to his chest and insisted that he must have it or die, never made a scene in the store because he isn't getting some toy obsession of the moment.

No, what Linc throws a fit about is being ignored, being forced to sit in the cart instead of walking (well actually, running full sped) down the aisles.  He will happily take a toy or book to look at while we shop, but whatever we give him is only interesting as long as we are playing with it right along with him.  When we turn away to start scanning the shelves and comparison shopping, he throws whatever toy we've given him in the back of the cart and starts complaining.  

So, how do you shop for a kid who wants nothing but your love and attention?  We decided to keep the gifts small this year and take him to dinner somewhere with live music because we figured that's what he would enjoy most.  After searching from one end of the Live Music Capital to the other, we found a restaurant with music scheduled early in the evening and a big patio with a playground for the kids.  It would have been perfect, too, if it hadn't been a complete dive that did not actually have a live music license and thus had to cancel the band.  

Linc was pleased as punch to hit the playground with his brother and stuff his face with tater tots, though, so we considered it a success overall.  The poor kid was so tired by the time we left the restaurant that he feel asleep in the car before we could even get him home and stuff him with more cake.  He may be four, but he's still our baby in some ways.  I looked back at him and saw a giant curled up in that old carseat, shoeless feet splayed out so far they almost touched the back of the driver's seat.  He really has sprouted this year, and at that moment I was struck both by how grown up and how completely helpless he looked all at once.

Sam carried the birthday boy to bed, kissing his head and whispering, "Happy 4th birthday, buddy.  Love you, little man."  Just about a perfect day for Linc, if you ask me.  Happy birthday indeed, little man.