To celebrate, we thought we'd dedicate an entire post to the glory of the Turning Four...
And in case you missed the past few years of updates, this is what you've been missing on Finn's development since 2011:
How time flies!
Finn knew that his birthday was coming some time in advance. It was a conceptual knowledge some time before - that he would not be three at some point, but instead four - but the week or so before the Big Day he was very much aware that he was to have a birthday very shortly. However, his idea of just what a birthday meant was rather vague: a few days before the day he told us the story of how we would have to be sure to open the window so that he could be sure to hear it when "all the people" shout happy birthday to him, as he wasn't going to hear otherwise.
Overall, it wasn't too stressful before the day and it was all very lovely on the day to have him wake up delighted to have it as a birthday day. It meant that he got a new shirt to wear (and show off about his birthday in) to nursery (Finn is still very interested in bones and skeletons these days. Lucky his birthday is near enough to Halloween to make a skeleton shirt easy to find!).
And he got a chocolatey treat at breakfast (an unheard of delight!), as is evidenced by the tell-tale smudge by his lip in this pensive shot here:
But the real chocolate treat came in the form of the cake that came at dinner:
The observant (and keen-eyed) among you will be able to tell what Finn chose as his birthday meal here: beans, fish fingers and stuffing. We tried to reason him into a more reasonable choice, but then we figured that it was probably right to give him what he asked for on his birthday! After the meal came the mound of present opening!
As we were going through it, we realised that we had overdone it somewhat and quietly put some to one side for another occasion (but don't tell Finn that!) - we never seem to learn the lesson that one well-chosen something is better than the heap of stripy-paper-wrapped gifts here! (Though, to defend ourselves, a lot of that had been built up over a long time, and some of it was just wrapped up stuff he needed anyway, like socks and pants!). But his main gift from us for his fourth birthday was this... this... monstrosity!
It is a car-carrier thing made by the people who do the Matchbox/Hot-Wheels cars, and it will fit no less than 40 cars when the top layers are up, as per Finn's excellent modelling. Finn had seen it in a shop in America and had really wanted it there, but Cori had said no as it was far too big, especially to bring back in a suitcase. But he mentioned it a few times after coming back which gave Cori the idea of getting him that. We discussed it for a long time, with the pros and cons including the following: Pro #1. Finn loves cars; Pro #2. Finn loves ordering stuff; Con #1. It's massive; Con #2. It's ugly. Sadly, we admitted that the first two reasons concerned Finn and the latter two concerned us, so we got it for him... But although he was thrilled to see it when he opened it, since then he hasn't liked it that much and hasn't played with it sufficiently to justify its being in the house, the ugly thing!
He did enjoy plenty of other presents though, including this beautiful thing that we were surprised to have Finn ask to put on and then enjoy wearing (and we put in the picture just because he looks cute)!
And, it should be added, this oh-so-cute suit also worked out to be very useful only a week or so later when our electricity meter broke, cutting off all all electricity and heating (since the gas meter runs on electricity!). It was a very cold few days before that was fixed, thanks to a great deal of telephone call making (none of which was actually done by either of those photographed here):
(You will note the tasteful use of an adult onesey here by Finn's father, very helpfully borrowed from Cori's wardrobe).
But, to return to the birthday story...
So, after the Birthday Day was over, the next part of our Birthday doings was the Birthday Adventure, which happened on the Saturday, the day before his party.
Very excitingly and decadently, we took Finn on a trip to York to the National Railway Museum.
For all four of us (two of us paying), it was the sort of expense that we would not ever even consider for an outing, not least because so much is free and within a bus-journey of our home. But we've been to a number of kids parties over the past few years which included the hire of some venue or other, which justified this as a very cheap treat for Finn. And we knew that he would enjoy it. And this was mainly because we did it for his birthday last year and it was a great success.
The lesson we learnt last year was to not assume that there would be time enough to go anywhere else in York, no matter how much we might feel it a crime to go to York for six hours and see nothing but the inside of a Museum built on a siding off the train station! We stuck to the plan this year and reaped the benefits: a great time, at the end of which Finn was happy to leave, and without any wrench of tears and tantrums.
This added amount of time also meant that we could be very relaxed about allowing Finn to investigate it in his own time, and even discover the play area and make the most of that. This did, however, meant that he rather dashed by things like Stephen's Rocket...
... to fix "Stephen's Rocket."
It was, however, a great place for Orry to also hang out:
This was especially appreciated since Orry was otherwise in the wrap on Cori:
But the good thing about "The Train Museum" is that, despite having a lot of people in, it doesn't ever feel as crowded in as your typical London Museum - hence being able to let your kids sprawl out as you gather your things thus:
Our (grown-up) treat was having a lunch there in the cafe, of real food not at all made by us at home with children shouting at us. It was a delight, especially since both the boys were in a good mood:
After food we even did something new there, which was to go on a ride on the mini-train.
I have to admit that it was not nearly as exciting as the ones we'd been on in the Isle of Man or Wales, it made no difference to Finn, who was delighted to go one the thing. This was only partly lessened, we have to admit, by our probably taking our joke story a little too far from when we were distracting Finn as we queued up: Since the train set off with people on, passed by once, (then dropped them off just out of view round the corner) and returned empty, we told Finn that it was probably because they were dumping all the children in the lake at the other end of the track. Finn informed us earnestly that we were "teasing him," but he was then delighted when we passed by a small pond on the way round and shouted out that we were wrong, because we had said that we'd be thrown in the lake and we'd seen the lake and we'd not been thrown in. "Ah ha!," we replied, "but it's on the second time round that the children are thrown in!" ... We didn't push it though, and we didn't actually pass the pond the second time around... which is probably a good thing.
We have no pictures from the train, but we do of the queue:
There was then just the right amount of time to take Finn to the shop to spend some of his birthday money and to sit down with a well-earned cup of tea before getting on the train home again. Phew!
The final part of the three-pronged birthday was the Birthday Party, on the day after the trip to York. We had pre-cleaned the flat etc. so it wasn't as terrible as it sounds, and so we could relax a little in the morning and take some pictures of the newly-four four-year-old:
Those were the ones that Cori took, because she was aggrieved with the ones that I took. I still rather like my lot:
As ever, Finn insisted on posing a family shot, which worked out quite nicely:
Regardless, the birthday party was, like previous years, a group of friends coming round to ours for cake etc. It was very relaxed (but for the marauding mob of kids looking for reckless fun) and Finn had a good time. The children who came were: Lily (With the Yellow Hair), Lily's baby brother Conrad, Lily (With the Black Hair), Gabor and Floré. The last two came a few hours early as their parents were moving house and so we looked after them for a few hours extra. As Floré is the older sister, this was actually a lot of help and a good deal of fun in the end, as it meant that she was on hand to help with the preparations for the party (and of the beans-on-toast lunch too before!), which was a pleasure. It is almost a shame that their parents aren't moving more often!
The mob of party-goers are nearly all seen here represented in this hot-dog-eating picture:
In case you are unclear of whether you are correct in seeing Finn again in the frog/monster/dinosaur costume (Finn himself hasn't really decided what it is yet), here is a close-up of the all-important cake moment:
For some reason we thought that the party needed some central activity. For some extra-special reason Cori thought that tie-dye would be perfect. It wasn't. It was a disaster. Anyone who has done tie-dye will know that one child tie-dying will generally take 20 minutes of complete parent concentration, after a clear 30 minutes set-up and the same afterwards in the clean-up. Multiply that by five, in a small and crowded flat, and you have a lot of stained children and a big mess. For the sake of not staining the camera too, we have no picture of this anarchy, but we do have a picture of the riot of bad taste that was born of this bad idea:
And, in case you were unsure how 90s children can look in this day and age, here are Finn and Orry to style them:
It is pleasing to think of this hardy crew of Finn friends sporting their bad taste in T-shirts and bags across North London now, baring witness to Finn's being four. It's is probably a fitting memorial to the milestone.
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