Fantastic Four

David turned 4 years old last Nov. 30. When November rolled in, we made a birthday calendar to mark the days leading to his birthday. The dude had a lot of fun crossing out the calendar but got too excited in the last week leading to his big day that he crossed out all the remaining days! He came to my room and told me November is finished.  I think he thought he was being efficient, I told him he was being silly.

I was trying to figure out a fun birthday for him but I knew what he wanted – time with his cousins, or as he calls it playing with them 100 times. We asked him what he wanted for his birthday and he said he has a gift already. He was talking about my brother and sister-in-law’s advanced birthday gift for him which we kept at the veranda. He tried to take a look at it and tore off a corner of the wrapper though 😛

As soon as he woke up on his big day, I went to his room where he was staying with his dad while he was recovering from his coughs and colds (he stayed in his room with Dan so that Noah wouldn’t catch the bug — or so we thought), I brought him balloons that were blown up by Yaya Ann and his gifts! He got three from me and Dan.  We got him some shirts from Mothering Earthlings, new books from Adarna Publishing and a Lightning McQueen Appmate for his favorite game in the iPad. I  had him wear one of the shirts I ordered because it was too darn cute and it was perfect for his birthday 🙂  I ordered a onesie that had the same message for Noah as well.

I wanted his cake to be special so I ordered a Pororo cake done by Cats of Tazzy Cakes. We’ve gone over the list of cartoon characters he wanted and Pororo won. Cats was easy to talk to and her cake was delicious! Underneath Poror’s winter wonderland was a moist chocolate cake. We all had second (and third) helpings of the yummy cake! For the rest of the day I drew up two plans, one is to spend the day at my brother’s condo at the Fort so that David and his cousins can swim and then go to the Mind Museum or Active Fun after lunch at Uncle Cheffy’s. While the kids  are out, I can stay at the condo with Noah because he really can’t go out yet. I also thought about a party at home too and the kids can go to Fun Ranch after lunch. Well, the latter won that day because poor Noah was coughing and had a cold (so much for isolating Kuya David) The morning of David’s birthday saw us at Noah’s neonatologist’s clinic who gave us a stern warning not to bring him out. She placed Noah on antibiotics too, which I gave right away because Noah’s cough got worse 🙁

The rest of the morning saw Dan going around C-5 looking for food to buy for our guests and my mom and our helpers sprucing up the house and cooking extra food. The guests came, we all ate great food and David got his wish of playing with his cousins 100 times (maybe even more).

A week after his actual birthday, we hosted a party for David and his classmates in school. I ordered blue cupcakes from my friend Maan. My mom cooked her spaghetti, chicken nuggets and chicken wings for the kids. I did loot bags and filled them with sweets that David gave away before class was dismissed. It was fun seeing the kids eat the blue cupcakes which stained their teeth and tongue. They all had fun showing off their blue teeth. Silly kids 😉

4 is a magical, if a bit tentative, age. It’s the age where one is part of the older kids in pre-school but is still too young to go to big school.  I remember being 5 years old and being sent off to Kindergarten but I never really remembered how I was when I was 4 years old. For David though, this year is when he became a big brother, a role he just glided into without much prodding. When Noah would sometimes make his loud baby sounds, David would come running into our room to ask if Noah misses him. He thinks Noah is calling out to him, and maybe that’s the truth. Then this morning, David was playing a racing game on his dad’s iPad and he casually looked up and told me, “Mom, I love racing cars and kissing Noah”. I know he LOVES racing so to also say he loves kissing his baby brother right after that made my heart swell (no, I didn’t cry this time, but I grabbed our kuya and gave him a big mama bear hug). David is going to rock his 4^th year so well.  He’s starting to read without much of our help and have been surprising us with words that he’s read from books and labels. He even read Google, enunciating the e in the end, which we all had a good laugh at.  He’s at a stage where he asks questions – as in a lot of why’s stemming from a simple question that he builds up like a game. I try my best to be patient and to meet his why’s with facts or with a simple “I’m not sure”. I want him to ask and probe and be curious and so I always indulge his questions. Sometimes though, he just asks because he can and I have to give him a look which he’d answer with a sly smile, which probably translates to “hah! I’ve stumped you mama!”  And yes, he does stump me sometimes and it’s a feeling I relish because it means that this little dude is on a path to discovering new and amazing things and we’re both going to learn about them together.

Dearest David, I know you got your wishes when you celebrated your birthday but here are my wishes for you: that you stay kind and compassionate; that you continue to love your brother without fear and condition; that you be good and attentive to your teachers; that you listen to your parents always; that you never lose your candor and; that you may love and laugh fearlessly always.

Happy Birthday David! Mama, Dada and Noah love you very very very much! You are one reason why I know our family of four is going to be alright.