Birthday Boy

Yikealo turned 7 on the 12th, and it's looking like this particular birthday is going to stretch out for some time. We don't buy a lot of "things" as birthday presents around here, because we'd prefer to make memories as a family, and quite frankly, our kiddos don't need more stuff! For Yikealo's birthday celebration, we plan to spend some time at Great Wolf Lodge, but we can't fit it into our crazy schedule until a couple of weeks after his birthday, so that part will have to wait a bit.

In the meantime, Mr. Y was extremely excited to have his birthday! On Tuesday, I was cuddling with him on the sofa and bemoaning the fact that he was growing up way too fast. I said something like, "This is the very last day that I can snuggle you while you're still 6!" to which he replied, "But I'll still be little....enough with the moping, Mom!" I'm definitely not getting sympathy from that quarter, that's for sure. That night, he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to get to sleep because he was too excited. I told him that the faster he fell asleep, the sooner his birthday would be here, and he was out in no time. He did, however, wake up at 5:20 the next morning...and came out singing, "I'm seven today!!" He was thrilled to open his gift of a puzzle and two coloring books.

I attempted to get some photos of him on his birthday, and instead ended up with mostly silly pictures of him making faces.

With much effort, I did eventually manage to get a decent one or two!

 

 

 

Later that afternoon, David had an appointment with the naturopathic doctor that he sees in Indiana, so the boys and I hung out at Mom and Dad's place for awhile. Yikealo's cousin and good buddy Zavier came over, and we brought him home with us later that night. We're heading to Illinois this weekend, and figured that this would be a good chance to have Zavi stay with us for a couple of days, since we can easily return him to his family on our trip west. Y and Z always have a great time playing and plotting together. They went to work with me yesterday, and on the way home we stopped at a cupcake shop where the boys each got to pick two cupcakes for our little celebration at home.

Yesterday afternoon, they played with Legos, staged Playmobil battles, painted a model train, and spent quite a bit of time constructing a blanket tent and playing what must be the boy version of "house." Sintay was the Daddy tiger, and Yikealo and Zavi were the baby tigers. Sintay kept telling his charges, "Today, Daddy no sarra!" (Today, Daddy doesn't have to work!) "Now, you say 'Yay!'" Then they'd all wrestle around and growl at each other....lovely!

Sintay is starting to figure out this thing called a birthday, and is asking over and over, "When my birthday be, Mama?" in an extremely whiny voice. We've had lots of pouting and temper tantrums over the last couple of days, and next month can't come soon enough for him! We did let him blow out "fire" on his cupcake, "Just like Kahlo!"

To Mr. Y....we are so proud of you, bud! We thank God every day for bringing you into our lives, and we love the person that you are!