September 26, 2012

• Zion Is Four

  Zion turned four today.  

  

  This feels a little bit bittersweet to his mommy, who has really enjoyed his cutie-patootie three’s.  He has been such a cute three – cuddly and rambunctious and a mess and impish.  Three still feels baby-like; four is edging on toward boy-dom.  

  Zion is giggly, squirmy, loves to be tickled and hugged.  Sometimes he has random bursts of loud boy energy that escape in loud blats and/or high-pitched ear-splitting shrieks.  He still sleeps with his green blankie.  He LOVES all things sugar.  As in LOVES.  He likes to watch Dora the Explorer and Shaun the Sheep and Pingu the Penguin.  He likes to be read to.  He has a really good memory for where things are.  He knows how to stand up for himself with his brothers, and is certainly no pushover.  He really likes to be with his brothers and play the things that they are playing.  He loooved to play in the pool this summer with his daddy, and was SO CUTE with his little breath-holding escapades, where he would lean down and put his face into the water for about three seconds, and then pop up out of the water, hopping and happily pawing the water from his eyes, gulping air.

  Last weekend my parents came to visit, and on their last afternoon here, Mom and I took the boys for a walk and let them ride their bikes around the school parking lot close to our house.  Zion would do a lap around the lot, and Mom would say “Zion David Miller is in first place and he gets a reward and he gets a hug and a kiss from his Grandma and he gets a hug and a kiss from his Mommy!!” and Zion would happily trot over and receive his hugs and kisses from both of us over and over.  If she left off the hug and kiss part, he would get off his bike and while looking sideways, remind her that he was supposed to get a hug and kiss.  It was just the cutest thing ever.  

  He had a good birthday.  His requests for his birthday were apple juice, grape juice, and hot dogs.  Today I made it a point to say “yes” to as many of his requests as I could.  These included a sippy cup of (watered down) apple juice in the morning, his choice of yogurt (vanilla) for breakfast, a snack-sized bag of Cheetos at 11 AM followed by a sippy cup of milk.  He also managed to squeeze in a early afternoon shower (his back and legs were hot, he said), ride his bike inside, and one of his last requests of the day was for a sippy cup of grape juice.  This was followed by another request for another sippy cup of juice, which was one of my very few ‘no’s’.  He also got some Smarties in the early evening (four, since he was four) as I was decorating his cupcakes, and he got to eat another cupcake before bed after he had already brushed his teeth.  (This was followed by another tooth brushing.)  The final highlight of his day, which he has been eagerly awaiting for days, was to sleep in mommy’s bed with her alllll night.    (This was included in his recited list of his favorite things about his birthday.)

  For his birthday cake, I had decided to make these Minion Cupcakes (Minions are in the kid’s movie Despicable Me) that I found on Pinterest (Love me some Pinterest!!), and Zion was agreeable.  I got white cake mix from the store, I made the white icing (quite tasty, actually – another Pinterest recipe), and decorated me some cupcakes.  The most frustrating thing was that the icing tip was too big, and was temperamental, so you would have no icing, and then a whole big black glob.  It was QUITE frustrating (till one adjusted one’s expectations).  But we managed.  

  The Ideal:

  

  The Reality:

  

  Looking good…(ish)

  

  And then there’s…

  

  You see what I’m sayin’…  

  The boys LOVED this project.  Love love loved it.  I gave them some extra cupcakes to decorate with sprinkles, and then they each decorated a Minion cupcake of their own.  This was not a planned activity, incidentally; this was me scheming as to how NOT to have to decorate with any more of that maddening icing tip than I had to.   

  

  Soooo…between the cake batter licking, and the icing licking…and the warm, fresh-from-the-oven cupcake I ate…and then there was this tasty quiche recipe that I found (again on Pinterest) while I was double checking how to make the cupcakes…and I wasn’t really in the mood for hot dogs and macaroni and cheese myself…and it called for feta cheese and some people said they liked swiss…so then I made two quiches…and then there was the orange kool-aid…and the Smartie candy eating…and then the third (fourth total) cupcake when all was said and done…erp.  Says the belly.  

  

  Anywho.  I got Mickey Mouse plates for Zion’s birthday, with Mickey Mouse cups and Mickey Mouse ears.  He happily sat the table with these.  

  

  We took turns going around the table and telling Zion what we liked about him.  For some reason, Zion was very opposed to this activity, and thought that we should talk about Layla instead.  

  I love his happy eyes in this picture.

  

  

  Present opening was after supper.  

  

  Part of Zion’s birthday this year was a (very cool) bike that he had already received in time to be able to ride it around at church camp on the first weekend in September.  

  

  His presents this night were a red foldable chair, a Star Wars toy, and a box of Toy Story Band-Aids all for his very own.  Tucked into the Star Wars box was a forgotten package of birthday candles that I inadvertently left there, and he was very delighted with these also.  

  Zion, I love you SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much!!!!!  You are my baby boy still, and I am so glad you love hugs!!!  

  

  

  • 10:44 pm
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