Happy Birthday Caius

We started the day with a present for Caius. I went a bit big on birthday gifts this year- at least I think they are big. I had the present sitting on a chair in the kitchen and was a bit surprised that Caius even noticed and especially that he was very interested in it. He and I were up early and we had to wait for Rayne and then Daddy to get up to open it. The wrapping paper had jungle animals on it so we spent some time looking at the animals.

I expected Rayne to over take things a bit. I didn't want her to be jealous or feel left out but I also think it's okay if she starts to learn that it's his turn and hers will be in a couple weeks. We started out well, putting the zoo together and sharing pieces but once it was set up she didn't want him playing at all. Jeff and I got a bit frustrated trying to explain to her that it was actually Caius' toy and that he should get to play. Eventually it made for an unhappy morning which was really hard for me because, of course, I wanted it to be a perfect day, but I tried to keep my perspective.

We took the kids to the zoo for his special day. Again, this is a bit more than we will probably normally do, but this felt like a significant year. Wouldn't you know, we had record heat and Daddy does not do well with heat. Other than that we had fun. The first thing we saw was a turkey crossing our path and Caius got so excited he about jumped out of the stroller pointing at it. Rayne later said her favorite animal was the gorilla we saw eating grass. We had heard that the new polar bear exhibit, with penguins too, was open but it wasn't so that was too bad. But it was a good day.

After the zoo, we went to Jeff's grandma's for cake and ice-cream. His mom and Joe and my mom and Khrystine came too. Caius got a few more presents and quite enjoyed his cake! I made the cake, with help from Rayne and Daddy, and topped it with more animals for his zoo toy. It was nothing fancy but I wanted to make it rather than store buy it and I thought it turned out cute.