Barking Baby Stories and other Mommy Tales: Calling All Pin Pals to BB's 4th Birthday!

My Barking Baby turned 4 years old a ~~few~~ several weeks ago. FOUR. How did that happen?

BB will be starting preschool in four weeks. I had two mid-conversation burst-into-tears episodes just trying to get him registered for preschool, so I can't imagine what a mess I will be when I drop him off for the first day of preschool. Away. From me. Doing things that I won't know every detail of every minute about. Weird.

BB can't wait.

Yesterday I asked him if he was nervous to go to preschool, and he gave me a confused (and somewhat pitying) look and shook his head, no. Oh, Mama.

But back to turning four...

At his four year check-up, BB measured to be of average height......of a 5 1/2-year-old. My big boy is BIG. Tall, to be exact. After years of teetering on the edge of the weight growth chart, it was fun to hear:

43 inches tall - 95th percentile

40 pounds - 90th percentile

We celebrated BB's fourth birthday with a party at the bowling alley.

Calling All Pin Pals to BB's 4th Birthday Party!

Our party guests - the fam, including cousins B and K of course, and his two besties Little C and E and their fams, and B & M, who are some of BB's (and my) fave grownups.

(Ignore B and Auntie's Seen's sarcastic enthusiasm for photos - giving them attention will only encourage them.)

BB asked for a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, and anticipated his "chocolate chocolate cake" anytime his birthday party was mentioned.

BB had a little behind-the-scenes help from Daddy blowing out his candles.

Bowling with help from Daddy

When BB went bowling for the second time, around Christmas time, he cheered and clapped on each person's turn - his enthusiasm was so genuine and precious. At his birthday party, BB traded cheering in for dancing - BB used the bowling alley as his own personal dance floor while his ball rolled toward the pins. Here are some shots of him gettin' down:

Ever since we decided to do a simple, bowling birthday party, I have been dreaming of taking a photo of BB with his cousins and best friends, grinning, overjoyed to be with his favorite people, so that I could blow it up and hang it in his bedroom.

Can someone please tell me what I was thinking? HOW? How did I think that it was actually possible to take a perfect, smiling, posed photo of five kids, including a 5-year-old, a barely-almost-four-year-old, and a 3-year-old? What a rookie idea.

This is the best I got.

What can I say? I'm a dreamer.

I love this daddy-daughter bowling photo - Uncle M and B have almost the exact same bowling "form" in it!

BFF Dr. A came! She is, after all, Little C's mommy.

BB opened gifts

Candyland from E and Z, which he had just played for the first time with them.

Here he is opening our gift, homemade aprons. The boys love to play with toy food and a toy grill, and BB has been watching cooking shows with J. A few weeks ago, he told me, "Okay mama, we're makin' wunch. The timer is stawting now - let's do dis!" A little too many cooking shows, apparently. Whenever he helps me cook, I put him in my extra apron, which is a flowery, ruffled one, and at his cousin's he wants to wear a pink one, so I decided it was time to make some boy aprons for my little chefs-in-training. BB, SS, and I actually picked the fabric together, and BB had been waiting and waiting for his birthday so that he could see his apron.