Lily turned three while we were on our holidays in Ennistymon/Lahinch. The day was long anticipated by Lily. Last years birthday party made a very big impression on her especially the part where everyone sang Happy Birthday to her. She talked about the song, the cake and candles a lot after that. If we played with stickle bricks or play dough or whatever we always had to make a birthday cake and sing the song. So just when I thought the birthday fascination had faded James' birthday party brought it all back and the "When is it my Birthday?!" questions started coming at regular intervals. Since she doesn't have an abundance of patience I gave her no advance warning that the big day was so close. I simply mentioned it when she was in bed the night before. In the morning when she came down the stairs (these days she sleeps in late) I said "Happy Birthday Lily!", she answered "..but where is my Happy Birthday?" So I brought her into Bama's front room where there was a table set with all sorts of pink things, balloons, presents etc and then she said "Oh there is my Happy Birthday!"We went out to dinner that evening and then went to the play park. She didn't want to leave so I thought to help extract her I would mention the cake (which I hadn't yet iced). This I am not so sure was a good idea. She was tired and had been waiting for this moment for a whole year so she quickly worked herself into a frenzy when she got home as she had to wait while I iced the cake. This was way too much to ask...so we went ahead and stuck the candle on the cake and continued with the proceedings. We gave her a big slice and her mood quickly changed back into sweetie pie mode.
Cake number 1
Two munchkins picking at the cake.
Cake number 2 (well really cake 1 iced) and more munchkin fingers.
Take two on the birthday proceedings.Then a few days later when we were back in Dublin we had a small family Birthday party where she got another go at the song, cake and candles!
Cake number 3.At the party she got her present from Mammy and Daddy which was a balance bike. She was delighted and is aspiring to keep up with James on his birthday bike.
As it happened on the day of her party James lost his first tooth. He had been waiting a long time for this watching his cousin and all his friends loose numerous teeth before him. Although he has questioned the probability of whether the tooth fairy is real or not many times before he was quite happy to suspend his disbelief on the day as he had heard from his pals that your first tooth gets you 5euro from the (real or not real) tooth fairy!
