"Can you please go away?"

And the request didn't even break my heart as I was cheerily poking my upper half into William's Rocket Ship tent to ooogle at him sharing his yogurt with the wooden caterpillar that my dad made for him. I said "Of course! I understand completely." Which I do. That and I'm still high on the motherly bliss of the festive Birthday events of the past two days. And no it was not MY birthday and yes, I understand that it was not about me at all - but still, for me, is was two of the most wonderful (as in 'full of wonder') two days ever! William enthusiastically helped decorate the house and yard, in rainbow colors, balloons, caterpillars, butterflies, ribbons and cacoons. He gave solid approval of my interpretation of the birthday cake request - (though now that my brother mentioned it, it did kind of look like a giant hamburger). And the sweetest friends and family packed all their kids into cars and came to help celebrate on a precious and beautiful April weekend, when I'm sure the temptation was strong to just laze around (as much as one can with small children) in p.j.s all day. I was struck by how lucky I felt that we have such lovely friends and families - not just lucky - blessed. And William was glowing with joy, before anyone even arrived he had tested every activity set out: the dough was good, the craft paper and crayons - nice, each ribbon wand was unwound and tossed over the balloon chain that was strung from the house to the avocado tree. Pipe-cleaner caterpillars were arranged and re-arranged and sometimes tasted, when one thought he was unwatched. And then he waited perched on the steamer trunk, as he looked out the window next to the kitchen door. It was only moments before both sets of grandparents arrived - and the squealing and jumping began, and then the house was full and people were eating and drinking and chatting and laughing, and there were four babies under a year - my own baby Jacob being the oldest of them! The oldest! I can hardly believe it. The house seemed to empty as quickly as it filled, only that electric feeling of anticipation was replaced with a soft wave of 'wow'. The yard still looked beautifully festive, and there was now a big blue rocket ship with a very shiny silver cone top, and William and Jacob were running and crawling all around and in and out of it and they were laughing and William was waving orange and pink ribbons around and it was late afternoon when the light is just so magical and the clouds were coming in and it was all so beautiful, the kids, the yard, the flowers on the table, the day itself. I had the silly thought that we must be truly entering the golden-age with the kids, that it must be written somewhere that three is the official age of it getting really really good. But who knows, and I don't mean to minimize any great moments in the past few years, I just couldn't help but thinking of our pediatrician looking at us with our brand new first baby - radiating joy and love and amazement like we were, and telling us 'Just wait. This is the least of him." I remember thinking that I got it at the time, but I really had no idea.

On Monday, his actual birthday, there was the much looked forward to Birthday Circle at school. This is where Mommy and Daddy get to come sit in class, we bring a big board with pictures of William from when he was born until now, and they do the birthday circle thing. When we got to the class they were all singing Do Rae Me... and we caught William bobbing his head along before he saw us. The table was already set up. In the class, there were two groups of four little tables put together. At the one where William was sitting there was a big tile with a beautiful painted sun with a face on it. Around the tile were paper cards with the Months of the year written on them in fancy script. The month of April was pointing at William and there was a brightly colored globe about the size of a cantaloupe sitting there. Directly in front of William were three votive candles, three colored rectangle blocks and a small wooden card with a red number 3 painted on it. His teachers initiated conversation about when he was born and a tiny baby and then asked if he stayed a baby - and that was the cue for him to stand up and carry the Earth around the Sun (the table) while everyone sang the months of the year. And then one of his teachers lit one candle and they talked about when William was one. Until it was time to walk around the Sun again and talk about being two - and then one last time for turning three. The look of pride and joy on his face as he rounded the corner carrying that little globe was beyond words. And that's about when I had to start trying NOT to burst into tears. Then he sat back down and his teacher played the piano while everyone sang "Happy Birthday" at one point he looked back over his shoulder at me and grabbed my hand and said "mommy!" and I lost the battle with the tears. Not wanting to be a complete freak and terrify the children with any serious red-faced crying, I did manage to keep it together except for some dabbing at my eyes and 'over-smiling'. But when each of the other children raised their hand to get up and give William a hug, tell him that they loved him and say Happy Birthday, well it was tough, and I lost the tear dabbing battle too. It was possibly the sweetest expression of friendship I've ever witnessed and right there and then I completely understood just why William had been looking forward to his birthday for so long.