Birthday

We celebrated Anna's birthday Sunday afternoon.
The buildup to the actual birthday has been an emotional roller coaster for her (and us) . She has known for months that her birthday was on May 14. No problem there. But it became a problem on May 2nd. I picked Anna and Justin up from school at 11:30 as usual. And Anna began to sob. I carried her all the way home (seven minutes). The sobbing continued up the stairs and into the rocking chair. If you have never seen Anna cry, let me describe it for you. As tears run in streams down her face, she throws her head back in lament, and for added effect, her husky little voice cries out. It can be impressive. People on the street stared wondering, I'm sure, what I had denied my child to bring on such pathos. Why the tears? "Me want it to be my birthday NOW!" You see, she knew it was May, and the actual numbers were not important.

Days later we had another, albeit smaller, crisis complete with tears. This time, "Me want to be five on my birthday." I spent some unproductive time explaining that four has to come before five. More sniffles. More tears. So I finally thought to ask why she needed to be five. The answer? Because five year olds wear necklaces. So I assured her that four year olds can wear necklaces, and she cheered right up.
She relished opening her family presents in the morning and asked where the rest were when she was done. In the afternoon our neighbors and some of Anna's favorite Big Girls celebrated at our park. Anna opened more presents (another necklace!), ate cake, played, and wore a flower crown. A good day to be four.