Happy Celebration

Things really seem to be smoothing out for BJ at preschool. (Knock wood!) He had another great day, with no crying, even though S had to pick him up late. (All of 40 minutes or so, but it meant that he'd have to start "rest time," which was a dicey proposition.) We'd known about the schedule change ahead of time, so we were able to prep him for it, and I'm sure that helped because apparently he was just fine.

When he got home, he was happy and full of news from the day: painting with white paint, playing with J on the playground, having car trouble when S dropped him off. ("Mommy, the car went CLUNK!" Happily, we were able to get it into the shop this afternoon and found out it was nothing serious -- just a hose that needed to be replaced. Whew!)

Tonight after dinner, BJ announced that he wanted to celebrate his good day at preschool. The other night, we'd made a big deal about his making it through the day without getting upset and said we were ordering a pizza to celebrate, so I'm sure that's where he got the idea. I asked him how he wanted to mark the occasion, and he told me he wanted a special snack. So I stuck a birthday candle in his muffin, which delighted him enormously.

He insisted that we each have a candle -- of course BB got all excited. S was on campus tonight, so it was just the three of us. Good thing, since I could only find three birthday candles! She started trying to sing "Happy Birthday." So I chimed in with: "Happy Celebration, no tears! Happy Celebration, no tears! Happy celebration, happy celebration, happy celebration, no tears!" Not my most inspired poetic moment, I confess, but the kids were quite happy. And really, that's all that matters. We all blew out our candles and made wishes, and nobody got burned in the process. Yay!

He asked me to sing the song several times while getting ready for bed -- I think we might have a family ritual in the making, so I'd best remember how it goes. Funny how simply putting a candle on something makes it special, huh? (Note to self: buy more birthday candles to keep on hand!)