Joe at 4

Saturday, Joe turned 4.  Damn.

We had a great day, with a party for him at Bounce U (aka "Concussion U") attended by his school friends and cousins Margaret, Lucy and Kate.  Afterward, we had a family party at our house.  It's nice to have room now to comfortably accommodate everyone, kids and adults, at an event like that.  I know that's something that means a lot to Jude.

We started off the morning with a trip to Pfunky Griddle for breakfast, at Joe's request.  J.P.'s buddy, J.D., came along for the ride on the tail end of a sleepover at our house.  Joe loved having J.D. along, as he looks up to him and, really, all of J.P.'s friends.  After breakfast, I slipped over to Cumberland Transit to pick up a sleeping bag to give to Joe for his birthday.  He always complains when J.P. has a sleepover and the boys sleep in sleeping bags, because he doesn't have one.  Problem solved.

After nap time, I took J.P. to his basketball game at First Presbyterian Church at 4 p.m., which also was the start time for Joe's birthday party at Bounce U.  Divide and conquer, as we're quickly realizing is the new normal with both of the boys getting involved in more activities.  J.P.'s game was great and after it was over, J.P., Jimdad and I rushed to Bounce U.  We got there in time to watch the kids play for a bit, then headed to one of the party rooms for pizza and cake.

After we left Bounce U., I picked up more pizza from Mafiozza's for our family party at the house.  We timed it perfectly and had a good meal together.  We had big kids playing and watching basketball upstairs (Matthew and J.P.), small kids playing with toys in the living room (Joe and Margaret) and even smaller kids crawling on the floor (Kate and Lucy).  Family.

Joe really got into opening his gifts, which was a change from Christmases and Birthdays past.  He had quite a haul, with books, Despicable Me Minions, etc.

Yesterday, J.P., Joe and I went to Rose Park after a family breakfast at Bongo Java.  We got in a good baseball workout, Joe's first that wasn't in the back yard.  It was pretty cool to be out on the baseball field with both of my sons.  Okay, not pretty cool, way cool as a in a dream come true for someone who is as big of a baseball fan as I am.  Belmont U was getting ready for a game, so the coaches set up the batting cage and let the boys hit out of it, which they enjoyed.

After church, Joe opened up the presents from Jude, J.P. and me.  The gift hit of the entire birthday weekend, without questions, was "Hockey Guys," a plastic hockey player set complete with a miniature rink, goals and puck.  He already has "Football Guys" (a J.P. holdover) and "Baseball Guys."  I don't really get it, but he loves all 3.  This morning, before school, he contentedly played a pretend hockey game on the coffee table in the den while I watched.  He kept up a running commentary between the players, referee and P.A. announcer.  It was really funny.

Joe and J.P. are alike in many ways, but different, too.  Joe is perfectly content to play or read by himself, for extended periods of time.  I don't recall J.P. doing that much.  Even now, J.P. is constantly asking what we're going to do next.  He prefers to have activities scheduled that usually involve someone playing something with him.  Joe is fine playing by himself.  I wonder if that will continue as Joe gets older.  I suspect it's a birth order thing, given that J.P. had Jude and me all to himself for the first 3 1/2 years of his life and Joe always has had to share us with J.P.

A great and busy birthday weekend.  Jude and I are blessed to have two healthy, happy boys.  Blessed beyond words.