Happy Birthday, Cortlan!

I am now the mother of a five-year-old.  Crazy.

This birthday will be remembered for a number of reasons:

1. This was the birthday without heat.  We realized that our furnace was not working last night as the temperature began to fall rapidly.  Sure enough, the ignitor needs to be replaced.  We got ready for work this morning in a 60 degree house (it could have been much worse) warmed by two space heaters.  The breaker went off when I tried to blow dry my hair, but all in all, not too bad of a morning, considering.  We kept a heater going for Elly (the dog) and Dora (the fish) in our bedroom throughout the day.  They were fine when we got home; the temp was 58 degrees.  Hopefully by tomorrow afternoon, all will be back to normal.
2. We listen to Sirius XM Kids Place Live all the time on the way to and from school.  On our way home, Absolutely Mindy is usually giving her birthday missions: she announces ten kids' names and gives them missions that they have to complete so they can become another year older.  I may have been the most excited of all when they announced Cortlan's name, where he is from, and that he was turning five today.  The funny thing is that one of the missions was to do a Freeze Dance in the living room.  Honestly, it was too cold to do a freeze dance in our living room.  We are postponing the birthday missions until it is warmer in our house.  That may be a later post.
3. Another result of the cold house was that we didn't spend much time here.  Instead, we went out for pizza - Cort's requested birthday meal - and frozen yogurt at Yum.  We had never been there before, but Yum is a place where you get to serve yourself from eight or so flavors of frozen yogurt and then choose from about a million toppings.  Then you pay by how much your cup of yogurt + toppings weighs.  Fortunately, Cortlan's was free for his birthday.  He chose an interesting three-flavor combination of gingerbread, vanilla, and very berry with toppings such as chocolate rocks, rainbow sprinkles, and snow caps.  Needless to say, his weighed more than the rest of ours combined.  Everly got a miniature version of his.  She simply adores him and is so proud that he is five now.  She told everyone, "My brudder is FIVE!"

4. The day ended with a few gifts and on a very high note.  Between the crown he wore at school and passing out his cupcakes to his friends, to recieving birthday phone calls (we have got to give him some more practice at talking on the phone), to the fun we had the rest of the day, Cortlan assured me he had a great day.  This was reassuring after last night when as I tucked him in, I excitedly said to him, "This is the last time you are going to sleep as a four-year-old!  I can hardly believe it!  When you wake up tomorrow, you will be a five-year-old!"  I had forgotten that this might not be the most exciting thing for Cortlan.  Whereas most kids are thrilled at the thought of growing up (I know Everly is), Cortlan instead came to near tears.  He more or less told me that he didn't want to move out when he was nine.  (Apparently, that is the age when parents kick their kids to the curb; that is when kids become grown ups.)  I explained to him that he doesn't have to move out at age nine and that he can stay with us for a long, long time.  His concern at that point:  There can't be two Daddys living at the same house.  (Apparantly, when you are a grown up boy, you are also a Daddy and that there is some unspoken rule that having a Daddy and then his Daddy living in the same house is a no-no.)  In my head, I was thinking, "You are darn right you won't be living here when you are a Daddy."  But I told him what he wanted to hear, and what is most likely the absolute truth:  "You can live with us as long as you want to."  As I left the room, he double checked: "Forever?"  I love him.

Happy Birthday, my sweet boy.