Eliot's 4th Birthday

I can't believe my little boy is 4 years old.  Where does the time go? Really.  The last four years have gone by so quickly.  They say that the days are long and the years are short and that is exactly how I feel.  Eliot has grown up to be my buddy, though and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I love the fact that he says "I love you" first now, without prompting.  I love that he still snuggles with me for a nap.  I love that he still touches my face for comfort.  I love that he tells me that I'm his best friend.  I love when he asks me to take care of him.  I love when he calls me baby (like I call him baby sometimes).  I love when Ted tells me how much he missed me while I was at work.  I love that one of his favorite thing to do with me is fold laundry.  I love our book reading time together.  I love playing legos with him.  I love his passion for trucks and machines.  I love how he teaches me and Ted (and everyone else) about trucks and machines.  I love the way he uses his hands to talk and sometimes bobbles his head too.  I love how he has compassion for people and animals.  There is just so much to love about my special boy and I am so beyond blessed that he is mine.  How did I get so lucky?

For his birthday, we let him pick the theme.  He wanted a garbage truck party.  Well, let me tell you, this is NOT easy! No one sells garbage truck anything! There are no garbage truck plates, balloons, party favors...nothing!  So I tried to get creative.

We picked green and orange for the colors-- the two colors you see most on garbage trucks (and because of the orange vests the sanitation engineers often wear).  Ted bought a galvanized trash can (I looked into getting minis to hold party favors but they were $6 each!).  We had Ted's co-worker do the cake-- a garbage truck, of course!  I found a garbage truck crossing sign on Ebay.  I also found some recycling stuff (books and stickers and bracelets) that I used for the party favors so we kind of integrated the garbage truck theme with recycling and called it a day.

 

When it came time to open gifts, the first one Eliot chose to open happened to be the one he's been talking about for literally months; a Bruder brand Snow Plow Truck.  He went nuts over this truck.  He could not believe his eyes.  His astonished reaction went on for about five whole minutes.  He was a very thankful and grateful boy.   Of course, he loved the rest of his gifts too, but nothing caused the reaction like that snow plow.... not even the next day (his actual birthday) when Ted and I surprised him with a ride on John Deere Tractor.  I mean, he was excited, but nothing like he was over that snow plow truck!

 

 On his birthday, we spent the day playing with all of his gifts.  We played with a rock excavation kit, a tool set, we painted monster trucks, built legos, rode the tractor, played with the snow plow (of course), dug with a bulldozer, and went to Grandpa's house so he could give Eliot his very special gift; an ipad.  It was a busy day, but Eliot said he had a great birthday!