Joseph Turns 4!

Happy fourth birthday to our fourth-born, Joseph Anthony, commonly known as Josey!

Morning conversation with Joseph:

"Guess what? Now you're four! Happy birthday!"

"I'm four? NOW? I need to get up to see how big I am!"

Josey stands up on the bed. He doesn't appear to be any bigger.

"Honey, you're not going to seem bigger on your birthday. Remember, you grow just an eency bit every day, all year round."

We padded downstairs in the dark to bake chocolate chip muffins for a fun birthday breakfast.

After all the siblings were awake, we opened gifts.

Joseph is no longer allowed to play with the play money he so enjoys because it is part of my math curriculum and he kept losing the coins. To solve that problem, we gave him a cash register and his own stash of play money for his birthday!

While I taught a half-day of school, Chris (who had MLK day off) took Joseph on errands, including getting his first hair cut at a salon and picking out his own cupcakes for later celebration.

After half-school and music practice, we loaded up for a drive to meet the grandparents at the midway point in Greenville, SC, two hours away. Cue 'Gilligan's Island' theme music because that is when the misadventures began, making this one of the most unpleasant drives (in both directions) we've experienced in some time (not coincidentally, also the first long drive we've taken as a family in ages).

We ran off some of the children's energy at Greenville's downtown park--and Margaret fell into the foul duck pond, a happening for which I had no change of clothing--before meeting Chris' parents at Mellow Mushroom for an early dinner.

Obviously a picture taken by Daddy

Thankfully, the time at the restaurant was really fun, the food was delicious, and we all felt refreshed from the car ride of fighting children and two hours of a crying baby, and we all felt strengthened for what we didn't know we were anticipating: more baby crying and a vomiting, pregnant Mama.

Evening conversation with Joseph:

"Mama, am I still four?"

"Yes!"

"Am I going to be four tomorrow?"

"Yes!"

"Am I going to be four when I die?!"

"I hope you'll be much, much older when you die, honey."