Happy Birthday, Sweet Sophie!

Solemn Princess Sophie in her tiara that she wore all day. Not the dress she wore to Mass, however, but the one she changed into while we ate chocolate chip pancakes.

Today my sweet Sophie turns four! She wore a tiara to Mass along with sparkly shoes and a ribbon at the end of her braid. After mass we had chocolate chip pancakes.

This afternoon we made sugar cookies. Her birthday request was for “sprinkle cookies” instead of a birthday cake. I was glad to oblige. After nap I rolled out the dough and cut a bunch of shapes and then handed the three “big” kids several bottles of sprinkles and watched them decorate to their hearts’ content.

Naked cookie baking! She was too hot in the fleece dress so she took it off.

True to form Bella began to name all her cookies. One was Esther, because we read the story of Queen Esther this morning. I think the star sprinkles reminded her of the fact that “Esther” means “morning star”. Other cookies received names like “little spirit.” Sophie followed suit, decorating her cookie person (I have a hard time not saying “gingerbread man” even though it’s not made out of gingerbread.) and naming it Little Catherine. Ben had to be stopped from simply upending the sprinkle containers onto his cookies; but he did greatly enjoy the process.

We were going to go out to our favorite nearby Indian bistro but Sophie put her foot down at the last minute so we ended up at the same restaurant where we celebrated Anthony’s birthday a few weeks ago. Halfway Cafe is at least a high-quality, locally-owned chain and I had an amazingly good baked haddock with vegetables while Bella and Ben had mac and cheese and Sophie had a hamburger.

Silliness at Halfway Cafe

We came home for cookies and presents. Sophie was actually quite surprised about the presents. Although I had asked her many times what she wanted for her birthday, she didn’t seem to remember that she was going to get presents from one time to another. She was very fixated on the cookies; but the presents weren’t very much in her mind. Still, she loved her new nightgown—she’d been upset at one point that Bella has a nightgown and she doesn’t—and insisted on putting it on immediately. She loved the dolly and me pajamas too and we dressed Bella’s rag doll in them because Sophie has suddenly taken a dislike to her own dolly. She was relatively indifferent to the book; but that’s just as well because Bella compulsively gloms onto any new book that enters the house and insists on looking through it before she will surrender it to the rightful owner. Lastly, Sophie got a cool rocket ship puzzle whose pieces can be put together in a variety of ways so that there isn’t one correct solution. She’d mentioned that she wanted a rocket ship puzzle on one of the occasions that I asked her about what she wanted for her birthday. I think it was merely a whim of the moment; but not knowing what she really did want as her answers changed radically every time, I decided to look at what Amazon had under that description and was very pleased by this one that I found. Sophie does love puzzles and this one will offer repeated challenges.

By bedtime she was overtired and overstimulated and insisted that she wasn’t tired and didn’t want to go to sleep. After cuddling with her for a few minutes, I insisted that she get in bed and then went off to chivvy Ben, whose insistence that he doesn’t want to go to bed is an entrenched part of our bedtime ritual. By the time I’d read Ben a few pages out of his car magazine, Sophie was snoring away. I knew that once she was in her bed sleep would come fast and hard. She’s almost always out before lights out.

I wanted to write a post that was more reflective but a blow by blow account of the day wanted to be written more. Still, we sent about an hour looking at all the pictures and videos of Sophie from when she was a baby and a toddler. A nice birthday ritual, a way to remember and reflect on all the wonderful memories of Sophie that I cherish and to share some of my memories with her, my sweet, cuddly four year-old girl.

Sophie and Ben. Sophie said she was a queen not a princess. The Queen of the Birds.