Next year we’ll really party

Today is Wesley’s third birthday and until his diagnosis this was a day I had looked forward to for years. His first and second birthdays were mostly just another fun get-together, but he’s old enough now to have the capacity to understand what a birthday means for him, so it should have been a day he looked forward to for weeks.

Falling on Memorial Day weekend means crowds everywhere, so we decided to have a small get-together next week. Park, pizza, and playing with friends. Everyone we invited understands the possibility that we’ll have to cancel at last minute but we don’t want to raise Wes’ expectations only to have to disappoint him -cancellation means at best he’s home sick, and at worst he’s in the hospital, so we haven’t hyped him up about his birthday party to avoid any change of plans being harder on him than necessary.

This morning was perfect. Wes wanted to go out almost from the first moment, so he accompanied me on my morning walk with Archie. By the time we got to the end of the block he was babbling about french fries, which I pivoted into croissants so we headed for Starbucks. With dog and toddler in tow I ordered ahead, but when we arrived Wes through open the door and made a grand entrance. Being a neighborhood Starbucks in a small town, the whole staff knows him – and us – well and it was a really warm moment. Our drinks and food were ready and we sat outside in the perfect weather and enjoyed the morning.

The rest of the day went as well. On the way back Wes declared he wanted to go for a ride in the truck – informing me that mommy would drive, not nonny (me). We had arranged to pick up a used piece of exercise equipment this weekend, so I texted the seller and the timing was perfect. We loaded up and made the drive, picked up a very heavy, very nice, and very cheap elliptical, and brought it home. At some point Wes decided we owed him a “queen present”, by which he meant something featuring Lightning McQueen, and being his birthday, and in a completely indulgent mood, we got back in the truck and drove out to Target in New Jersey.

Once there he dragged me into the toy section and set his eyes on exactly what he wanted – a model “Mack”, the Mack truck that Lightning McQueen travels in. It has a loading ramp, the whole cargo bay opens up, it does things. Just his kind of perfection. While we were there we also looked for something his physical therapist recommended – a new ride-on car – and found the perfect one… Lightning McQueen, of course!

After Target we went to the sushi-burrito place nearby. They make an awesome poke bowl – I’ve been craving one for weeks – and excellent ramen for Stephanie, and Wes got a huge bowl of plain ramen noodles that he dubbed “heavy noo-noo” because of the relatively difficulty he had in getting them from bowl to mouth. It’s always a pleasure to watch him devour noodles.

We finally got home mid-afternoon and we were all a little spent so we puttered around the house, watched the new Apollo 11 documentary (rockets!), and then Wes enjoyed a birthday bath before having more french fries, more noodles, and finally bed.

All things considered it was a perfect day. It’s been a rough year but I couldn’t ask for a better crew to get through it with.