I love these low-key happy birthdays.

Matthew turned 4 yesterday. His brothers woke up remembering it was his birthday and sang to him immediately (not the you-smell-like-a-monkey version!). I think he got everything he wanted – at least he says he did:

• Ice cream for breakfast!
• Pop sicles at his last day of camp in the morning!
• Oma and Opa and friends visiting! (Including best friend Anneke – the little monkeys!)
• A new Indiana Jones Wii game – just what he wanted – thanks Nana and Shana!
• Phone calls from grandparents, uncles and aunts! (Sorry to everyone who caught him when he was more interested in his new Wii game than in talking to them…. does anyone have pointers on that? Ideas about how to remind them that family is more important than video games? (I’m serious – I’m taking notes if anyone has any….)
• Requested dinner chicken parmesan!
• Presents to open!
• Birthday cake with sprinkles and with 4 candles plus 1 to grow on to blow out and sparklers too!

Last year for Matthew’s birthday we were in the High Sierra Nevada, near the San Francisco  Sierra Nevada Field Campus. Grandma Penny and Grandpa Jim rented a BEAUTIFUL cabin and we had great adventures.

But we forgot cake! SO we decorated a platter with oreos (don’t tell daddy), m&m’s, blueberries and 2 table candles!

That was another low-key but happy birthday.

I think I really confused Matthew yesterday morning though. We had all told him over and over that 3 was almost over and that he would turn 4. He knew it the second he woke up that – he was thrilled to be 4!

However, it can be very hard for a mommy to see her little babies growing up up up! In March I told Jared he was not allowed to turn 6 and enter real boyhood from little-boyhood. He thought this was very funny.

Yesterday morning as he crawled into our bed where his whole family was waiting for him, I told Matthew that he had to stay 3 because I didn’t want him to turn 4, he freaked out! He started yelling at me and he  actually looked scared – like somehow I had ripped the fabric of time and it was all so unfair.

If I only I had the power to control time! Of course, for now he doesn’t have to know I can’t. For a little while longer Glen and I can be omnipotent. Although, for the Lipka boys 4 has traditionally been the age where they challenged that notion with every fiber of their being. We’re in for a fun year!