Discovering more of Tytus

Playing right before bed one night

It really is a gift to get to uncover things about your kids. Discovering little parts of who they are is such fun! It was Tytus' 5th birthday last week and we had planned a perfect party for him, which in his mind includes lots of people and celebrating with food and playing! Well, the beginning of the week started out really rough with him and Prim spending most of Monday night urping up their dinner. The next day Tytus was not himself at all. Not eating anything for breakfast he had low energy and sleepy eyes from not much sleep, but he remembered that he'd picked out presents for Prim and daddy the day before:
Ian had dropped us off at Target to run in and get two things, but on our way to get them Tytus stopped to eye a cute little fox sippy cup on the end of an aisle. He picked it up (specifically that animal and not any of the others sitting there) and said "Mom, Prim would LOVE this cute little foxy cup! We should wrap it up for her birthday!" It was so thoughtful and not expensive, so I went with it. We went and got our two things and headed to check out when he stopped right before the register and said "Mommy, come here! Daddy would LOVE this for his birthday! He loves Star Wars!" So once again, I went with it and added the little bag of legos to our purchase. He wanted to hide both of them under his shirt while we walked out to the car so neither of Prim or Daddy would see, but he just couldn't contain his excitement. He gave Ian two hints on the way home and Ian finally guessed what the gift was before we were turning onto our street. Tytus reminded him that we'd have to wrap it up and wait for his birthday, though. :)

So back to breakfast the morning after he was sick....I suggested that we should just lay down and read some books or maybe watch a show so his body could rest and start feeling better. He agreed, but then said, "Well, I think I'm feeling good enough to wrap those presents. Can we please?" So we went into the wrapping closet and he picked specific wrapping paper for Prim and Ian. He helped pull off pieces of tape and put them carefully in the right places after I'd folded the wrapping paper. Then we got out my big scrapbooking box and he picked out paper and stickers and different colors of my special pens to write the cards. As we were doing all this it struck me that he truly gains pleasure to give good gifts. He would rather do this than rest or watch a show or anything else right now, even though he feels (and looks) awful. We probably worked for about an hour total on wrapping and making cards and then carried them into the dining room to place them where they could be seen as we wait for the birthdays to arrive. He wrote all the words himself in Ian's card and drew and colored two light sabers to go with the theme of the gift. He also picked out specific stickers for Prim's gift knowing she loves bananas and flowers. Even though it was the week of his birthday, he was able to pick and wrap sweet gifts for others because I think God has wired him that way. Moments like this are such a gift to me. It's like unwrapping a little part of him that I was unaware of until that day. Seeing pieces of each of our little ones come out over time is one of the greatest gifts of being a mom!

On the night of his actual birthday....candles (and a lego
gummy) in ice cream to sing happy birthday!

Oh, and his birthday party turned out to be a ton of fun celebrating him and hanging out with friends. Happy 5th Birthday, bud!