Birthday Baths

Want to know what Audrey wants for her birthday?  A bath.  Yup, that's what she wants.  A bath and to be able to run around in her diaper with big girl underwear on top.  I say...

"WHAT A GREAT IDEA!  WHAT A SPECIAL WAY TO SPEND YOUR SPECIAL DAY!"

And then I gave her ice cream for breakfast.  And I didn't get frustrated when she put the ice cream cup two feet from herself and dribbled it on the floor as she ate it.  Ice cream for breakfast AND a bath?  This day is going to be so awesome!

There is only one thing standing in my way: Sebastian.  This almost-four-year-old knows the birthday drill, and once he finishes his second helping of breakfast ice cream and this episode of Diego and the bath - WITH BATHTUB CRAYONS! - he will mention balloons, cake, presents, new puppies, pony rides, and Santa Claus because, you know, presents.  We'll work on that.  He proudly presented the birthday gift he bought me as being from Santa Claus, so he's kind of ahead of the game in a lot of ways.  To be fair, my birthday is immediately after Christmas, but from what I hear Santa should be coming to our house tonight for Audrey's birthday as well.  We've got some things to talk about that.

For his second birthday, Aaron and I (mostly Aaron since he's the family trumpet player) blew up something like 100 balloons and put them all over his room.  Then we had balloon hats when he woke up.  We also had a newborn sister and we were trying to curry favor with him so he wouldn't sell her on eBay.  In retrospect, we had some odd expectations about sibling integration.  We also really liked the balloon idea.

I feel dumb, because he probably just wanted a bath, maybe some ice cream and Diego.  Now, we have photographic evidence of what a birthday can be and tub crayons are just not going to do it.  Furthermore, Sebastian got to open his Valentine cards and gift while Audrey got to open her birthday presents.  His brain will kick into gear the minute he's picking out his post-bath shirt and he'll realize that if Audrey gets a huge birthday present, he can get at least a large Valentine present to open at the same time.   It's only a matter of time until this birthday bath is no longer enough.

Let's see if Aaron loves me enough to stop and pick up an obnoxious birthday balloon on his way home, to present with the dinner presents and keep the distraction up.  If I give Sebastian the chance to spill the beans about how special a Birthday Bath really is, I'll have a very clean little girl with big eyes demanding a parade by the end of the day.