Happy Birthday, Calder

Someone hold me. Today my baby, my first baby, turned four. I'd tell you what Babycenter has to say about this age but apparently they stop at age 3. He's that big now. Sniff.

Seriously, how'd we get from this:

To this?

The only thing those two children have in common is an almost near inability to look directly at the camera. Oh, and a button nose. How seasonally appropriate. Calder is so grown up now it frequently blows my mind. He's just on the cusp of being able to read. He'll sound out letters and like to play little games like naming the first letters of whatever word he happens to be thinking of. Numbers are also starting to have some meaning to him but not too much. His go to "so big, it can't get any bigger" number is currently eleventeen.

Generic superhero theme activate!

Calder still loves his dinosaurs but he has expanded his interests to include monster trucks and video games as well as any and all forms of science. His new favorite show is How It's Made and its various incarnations. It seems the boys has a little bit of his daddy's engineering genes in him. Calder loves his sister. And hates her too. Just as it should be. On the whole he is wonderful with Wren, wanting to include her in his playtime, showing her toys and books and explaining everything that is going on in his matter of fact, bossypants kind of way. He can still be a bit of a holy terror, so much so that I just ordered a new parenting book, something about living with "strong-willed children". Hopefully this won't be a waste of ten bucks. Now if someone would just write a How to Raise Your Little Supervillain and I'd be all set.

Spider-cake, Spider-cake, tastes just like a regular cake.

We had Calder's birthday party last weekend. It was no huge affair due to the fact that we barely know anyone with children and I am terrible at party planning. It didn't even occur to me that he'd need one until Thanksgiving. Oops. Fortunately Etsy, Pinterest and Party City were there to help and I managed to throw together a small shindig for some grown up friends and a couple of little ones as well. 

The kid practically vibrated with excitement making it almost impossible to photograph him.

This year's themes was once again superheroes and I did a pretty good job of avoiding name brand stuff and instead went with a more color-toned approach to the decorations. I got a cool hero themed printable from a neato Etsy shop for most of the decor. Even though I went through two full color cartridges I would definitely recommend this. It was totally customizable and included pretty much anything you'd need for a party from invites to thank you notes and everything in between. I even tried to stay on point with the entertainment and bough a CD of hero-themed music. One track was so catchy it made Calder say, "What's dis song? It's makin' me dance and I don't know how to stop!" 

Hero sandwich bar

Calder's atcual birthday has been pretty low key. Bruce had hockey all morning so we just chilled here all day and opened his presents in the afternoon and let Calder pick out dinner. It was pizza. Shocker, I know. We had some nice phone and video chats with the family, or I should say Calder shouted "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" into the phone (doesn't quite get that part) and then ran away while I talked to Grammie and Grandma and Aunties of all sorts. Our one big activity was assembling Wren's new dresser. With Bruce gone, Calder and Wren were my assistants. While they were very cute, they weren't so much helpful. Pro tip: If someone says, "Do you want me to get the drill?" the answer is always YES.  We were so chill today we didn't even a second cake because we still haven't finished off all the cupcakes from last weekend. How long do cupcakes stay good anyways?