Happy 4th Birthday, Casey!

Today is Casey's 4th birthday. And for the first time, I think, he actually understands what is going on! He picked out this Thomas cake. And he's sleeping with the little wind-up train as I write.

We actually celebrated his birthday twice. Once last night at his favorite restaurant (Red Robin), and then again today at My Kids Clubhouse, which is his favorite indoor play place. He had fun both times. Here are a few highlights. Suffice to say that I can hardly believe my little boy is actually 4 years old. I remember commenting once that time seemed to go faster after I got married. Well multiply that by a billion once you have kids!

Dinner at Red Robin

In attendance were Grandma and Grandpa, Auntie Tiffy, Mark & Godmother Ann, Marcie, and of course-- us. Casey was a little distracted and didn't really eat the pizza. But he did play with Grandma (and his new birthday hat) for a while:

And he did crawl up into Ann's lap to enjoy the entire restaurant clapping and singing happy birthday to him:

And of course, there were the presents. Casey loved opening them all-- the paints, the books (boy do we love books), and the Cars toys from his sister. Of course the shake 'em King car won the prize for the night of the most-played with toy (he took it to bed with him last night), but we have read the Where's Waldo style Cars book no fewer than 5 times since last night. Anyway, here are a few snapshots of gift opening. And a special thanks to Mark for being our personal photographer for the evening!

Yes, that last shot is of him using his new camera to take a photo. He also took one of his new "The King" toy.

Casey's Birthday Party with Friends

This morning we continued the celebrating with a party where his school friends came to play at the My Kids Clubhouse, a great indoor play place in our home town. I'm not going to post many photos from this experience-- not because Casey didn't have a blast (he did), but because I don't feel comfortable posting a bunch of photos of kids from his class on the Internet for the world to see. First, here he is playing on the slides:

And here are some photos of the birthday song. We used our last Lotus candle-- one of the ones my bought and brought back with us from China. It always gets a big wow from the kids, and even though Casey looks a bit frightened, this was his third time seeing it. It was a big hit with his friends.

If you'd like to see a little video of the kids singing happy birthday and Casey blowing out his candles, click here.

We opened presents after we got home, and Jason's mom joined us. It was a huge help with Marcie while Casey tore through the gifts. We were trying to slow him down so that we could do thank you notes as we went. One of my favorite things about birthdays with Jason's family is his mom's rendition of Happy Birthday. She sings it to the birthday boy or girl in Chinese-- I think Cantonese. It's the same tune, just different words. You'd think I'd know all the words after all these years, but I still don't. But I love the song. And of course, Jason's mom sang it for Casey while we were at home.

In Other News

Though the rest of the day was relatively uneventful, there are a few newsworthy items to share. First is that Marcie has finally uttered the magic word. You know, the one I have been waiting for. Mama. She said it today four times, and each time to me. She's had a word for Grandma and for Daddy for a while now (Daddy is Dad-ow, by the way). She's even been saying: all done, more, duck, cow, ow, uh-oh, up, down, and good girl. But today she said Mama. What a glorious sound! I wish she were feeling better (she has yet another cold). Check out these rosy cheeks:

I should get back to studying. Tomorrow is my first day back to school. Thanks to all the people wishing me luck on my last semester of law school (God willing). I just spent the last half hour reading in the bathroom while Casey took a bath and a shower. He woke up around 10pm to go to bathroom. That never happens. Which tells us we need to keep him home from school tomorrow-- poor kid. I was half tempted to use Desitin on him! At the start of this post, he was snuggled in his own bed with his wind-up Thomas and one of his Lightning McQueens, and the Birthday Thomas he got from a friend today, and the Sally. Now he's gathered them all and is sleeping in our bed, where he'll be until I transfer him later tonight.