Big Brownie's 3rd Birthday Adventure...

I hope to start a new tradition of giving each of my boys a special day, hopefully more than just one a year, but especially around their birthday. A day that is separate from the birthday party and a day for them to do whatever their hearts delight, within reason of course. Tomorrow is Big Brownie's big day...he will be 3 years old. I can't believe it. My heart skips a beat when I think about how fast these 1,094 days have passed. In light of all the "Big Boy Changes" of late, I decided he and I needed a special Mother/Son day out. I asked Daddy Brown if he could hang with Little Brownie this past Saturday and Big Brownie and I set out to have an adventure together...just the two of us.

We started out a little later in the day than I had anticipated, so rather than having breakfast together, we had lunch. Lunch at Big Brownie's favorite restaurant...O'Charley's. He ordered a salad, chicken tenders, fries and lemonade. The waitress brought us our salad and rolls and Big Brownie dove in. Towards the end of the meal, she brought him his own special birthday dessert and he giggled as that was the most awesome thing in the world to him. He waved to other patrons, exclaiming, "I'm on a special adventure with my mom and I'm 3 years old." Several people stopped to wish him a Happy Birthday and that made him giggle even more.

We headed to one of our favorite spots these days...The Dollar Tree, to purchase a few goodies. Big Brownie picked out a hoola hoop (which I proudly and not to cleverly demonstrated the hoola hoop technique in the store), a big bubble hoop, a smiley face balloon and a strawberry shortcake ice cream popsicle. We ate our ice cream in the car and boy was that a mess. Next, We headed to the train tracks and train car just down the road to walk the tracks, pickup rock, look at the cows, play on the stationery train car and share the sunshine. Amazes me that we can have a full 2 hours of fun just talking, laughing, exploring, running and loving. We both had so much fun.

There was a huge cow...maybe a bull, it didn't have horns, oh I don't know. I do know that it was the biggest cow I had ever seen up close. Big Brownie and I went to the fence and perched to talk to the cow. The big "bull cow" ventured closer and closer...and closer to the fence. Big Brownie was so excited, he wanted to "pet him". However the closer the "bull cow" got, the more nervous I got. I kept thinking, "this rickety fence will not hold his 'bull cow' in if he decides to charge". So, once the cow got within 3 feet of the fence, we backed several feet away. As we were getting close to leaving, it started to sprinkle. So back to the train car we ran to climb on one last time under cover. Big Brownie got to take some pictures with my camera and boy, he snapped 50 pictures in a few minutes. He especially liked taking pictures of our car.

After the rain subsided, we went to the convenience store to get a drink and a snack. As this was Big Brownies special adventure day, I told him he could get 1 beverage and 1 snack. Out of all the junk food he could have chosen, without a fight from me, what does he choose? A yellow apple, 1 orange and a big water. WHO IS THIS CHILD? I was so proud of him. When he asked for both an apple and an orange, of course I said, "YES!" After a little hydration and snack, we headed to the playground to conclude our adventure. We played and played and played some more. The ball field was just feet away from the playground and before leaving...why not run around the bases for a HOME RUN? So, we did. The day was perfect. Big Brownie was allowed to snap off another 100 pictures on the short drive home from the park. He thought that was "COOL".

I'll admit, I teared up several times. For sure at O'Charley's when I looked down to see my son choose his meal and eat with very little assistance. As we ate together, he slid next to me in the booth and placed his hand on mine. I choked back tears as he looked up at me and said, "Mom, you are my best friend." I almost lost it at the train tracks when I remembered the pictures of my Big Brownie at 16 months old. Aunt Berry brought him there and took pictures of him walking down the tracks. How much he has grown. And on our way home, he thanked me for his special day. Oh me, 1,094 days and counting and our first Birthday Adventure is in the books.