I should be cleaning

for you see, tomorrow is my little man's 4th birthday. I know I'm a day early in celebrating but I just can't help it. All of the kids birthdays have been fun and special in their very own way. I think I am looking forward to tomorrow so much because for the first time, so is Alex. This year he is very much aware of his birthday, how old he is, how old he will be, his party (or lack thereof, but don't tell him that...), and everything else. He picked out a cake for me to make, it's going to be a lemon cake. I will actually make it today so it is done on time. I don't have a great track record with birthday cakes. Daddy is out and about doing some last minute shopping. We are on the hunt for a toy school bus, who knew they were so hard to find??? As for tomorrow, well I will try not to have any expectations, that way the day should go smoothly. We'll put up some decorations after the boys go to bed tonight so it should be a fun and festive day right from the start.

We had a little unexpected pre-birthday celebration today, with a funny little twist. As we were out and about it ran into lunchtime, which so often happens to us on Saturdays. We ended up at a restaurant for lunch and the waiter overheard us talking about Alex's birthday and how it was his very last day of being 3 ever. The waiter then said, ah, that's good to know and with Mom & Dad's permission can we bring Alex some cake. Of course we accepted the cake. So they come out with all of their restaurant hoop-la to make a big deal of our almost 4 year old's special day. Initially Alex was very excited, then he started bawling. We finally got him calmed down only to discover that he thought if they gave him cake today then he wouldn't get any tomorrow for his REAL birthday. Now, the tears could have been easily avoided if mommy and daddy had clued Alex into what was going on. No, we decided it would be a nice little surprise to get this special cake after lunch. Stupidly, we have learned nothing in 4 years of parenting, Alex is NOT a child that likes to be surprised. Anyway, they also gave Alex a card and a certificate for a free meal, so all is well. Alex even managed to say thank you to the waiter for the special cake and the card. Mike and I had a good laugh over it all.

So now I really should go and clean the house and make a cake and all of that other fun stuff.

Oh yeah, happy valentine's day :-) That kind of takes second fiddle to the big birthday!