Collin Turns Five

I know it's hard to believe, but the world's most adorable baby (most terrific toddler and perfect pre-schooler) is not quite a baby anymore. In fact, he's five, and officially a kindergartner. I was not ready for this birthday. In my head, five was a really, really big deal. It just felt like a milestone. In a way, I'm glad that I was so busy, so that I couldn't really think about it, and it just slid by without too much fanfare. Since we'd just gotten here, he was happy not to have a party because he didn't know anyone yet and we were happy to oblige not spending a fortune on a bunch of kids we didn't know, filling treat bags and all that.

Anyway, we celebrated the way we normally do. For Collin's first birthday, I filled a small area of his room with balloons, while he was asleep, and let him discover them when he woke up. I did it again when he was two, only with more balloons, and again when he was three and again when he was four.

You know how kids' memories work, right? You do all kinds of special things for them and they don't remember (case in point: I asked him the other day if he remembered Star Tours at Disneyland, and he couldn't remember almost anything about having been at the park, at all, seriously) but, they manage to remember the time that you forgot to brush their teeth. 

Anyway, I was wondering if it was worth it to carry on with this tradition that is actually, really, really hard to execute, because it takes a lot of planning and effort, especially now that he's older and I have to actually conceal surprises from him. Driving to school a few days before his birthday, we were talking about what he wanted and what he hoped for on his special day and he said, no kidding: 

"Will I wake up with a balloon forest, like I always do?" 

Well, I guess that clinched it. I'm committed to blowing up balloons and making repeat trips to and from the party supply store the night before my son's birthday until he's 18 and goes off to college...then, I'll be driving up to his dorm to sneak in, and do it there. This year, it was the worst! I had a massive migraine and there was a major wind storm. It took two trips and I lost about 65% of the balloons I bought to either popping or to the wind during the load. It was quite the trip. The things we do to make our children smile. Bryon supplemented because I called him, sobbing, saying I was in too much pain to make a third trip, but that we just didn't have enough for the "forest." Good Daddy that he is, stayed up for hours that night pumping up balloons for the floor. 

Enough about the balloons! The big deal was the Lego Death Star. The boy had been asking for it for months and months. Eye roll if you will, as it is a $400 Lego set. It's the ONLY present he got (we aren't crazy). And, since he didn't have a party, or anything else, it seemed relatively reasonable. We usually spend a couple hundred on his birthday anyway, so it wasn't outrageous. Expensive, but not insane. We are still working on it. We knew it would be hard, but it is the most detailed thing I think I've ever seen. He was thrilled to see it and I was thrilled to be able to give him something that made him so happy.

Since he has no concept of money, we were afraid he'd be disappointed by only being able to open one present, so we sent him on a treasure hunt to find his mega-gift. He loves Scooby Doo, so we got him the original series and cracked it open, put all the DVD's in individual boxes and used each one as a clue to the big gift. He had such a fun morning! Side note: that box weighs about 20-30 pounds. No kidding.

I'm not sure he even realized that we didn't even buy a cake!

He had so much fun making chocolate cupcakes with Star Wars decorations that he thought it was the most special birthday in the world. 

And, it was! Our family was all back together and there's not much more to ask for than that.