Happy 3rd Birthday, Xavier!
Greetings to everyone.
Xavier turned three years old today!
This year was something of a quandary. We are in Biloxi, Mississippi this year. Rebecca was feeling stressed, thinking she needed to organize a party of some kind. Instead, we decided on a small celebration with just the immediate family.
With Rebecca in school and Xavier also in school, I hit the stores for cake, candles, cards and a few token toys (simple toys which will pack easily for the return trip to Denver in a few weeks). Rebecca called as I was leaving the apartment telling me she had an extended lunch. She was able to join me on the quest for gifts and cards.
After dropping Rebecca off at her classroom, I headed for the commissary to see about a cake. We thought cupcakes or something like that (Xavier loves cupcakes!). I found a small sheet cake brightly decorated instead. The baker happily personalized the cake. I grabbed some wrapping paper and headed back to the apartment.
In the afternoon, I picked Rebecca up, then we checked Xavier out of the CDC. We decided to surprise Xavier with pizza and ice cream, two of his favorite foods. All through dinner, Xavier kept asking for "ice cream, Daddy, ice cream!" We used his desire for ice cream as a motivator to eat all his pizza (or at least all the pepperoni we ordered as a side).
After supper, we headed to the ice cream counter (Sal and Mookies Pizza and Ice Cream Parlor was where we ate—it's a cozy pizzeria across the boulevard from the casinos near the base). Xavier chose the very colorful rainbow ice cream, which was vanilla with swirls of food coloring in it. The primary color (as you can see) was blue. Interesting note: that blue color was unaffected by Xavier's digestion process. Guess what color his next few diapers were!
We returned to the apartment, where cake and presents awaited. Xavier did not know about the presents, but we did tell him he had birthday cake back at "The Room" (which is how Xavier refers to the apartment). He was excited to get home!
We lit the candles and sang the traditional Happy Birthday song. The candles changed color as they burned, something we did not expect. I had to wonder what types of chemical were getting on the cake from these candles. Rebecca had similar thoughts and did not let Xavier lick the frosting from these candles, though he begged to do so.
Xavier knew just what to do. He blew and blew, he just had some difficulty in directing his blow. Also, the candles seemed not to want to blow out.
Xavier ate his slice of cake, then as with the ice cream, showed his messy hands to boast of his satisfaction. After washing him down, we let him rip into the two gifts that sat on the table, teasing him all the while we sang and ate cake.
Xavier very adeptly ripped open his packages. The high humidity here in Biloxi made the tearing of the paper difficult. Turns out, damp paper resists tearing. However, Xavier remembered his training from five months ago. Soon he was flying a plane and dive bombing dinosaurs.