The weeks leading up to our son’s fifth birthday has been all about dinosaurs and Pokémon. Ever since we went for ice cream at the local shopping mall last summer and my son saw the Pokémon ice cream cakes they had on display, he has been taking about wanting to have a Pokémon birthday cake when he turns five. So last Friday before soroban class, we went to look at birthday cakes. And while he was at his class I ordered the cake he chose to be picked up at his birthday, and asked them to write his name and put a numer 5 candle on it.
The next step in preparations was for him to dig up all the old birthday ornaments we have kept from previous years, hidden away deep inside a drawer – he remembered exactly where we had put them and instructed me how to decorate. Previous birthdays must have been happy memories since he wanted to do the same kind of decorations this year, and the day before his birthday he helped me hang happy birthday messages on the walls and fill balloons with air. Birthday morning our sond sat happily down for breakfast under the number 5 balloon and opened his morning gift with a big big smile – inside the parcel was a toy dinosaur. It is a spinosaurus, he exclaimed, just as I wished for!
Unfortunately the spinosaurus could not come to kindergarten, but for the ballet lesson in the afternoon he came along. While my son was dancing, I picked up the birthday cake and then we headed towards his favorite udon restaurant close to where grandmother lives. We should let spinosaurus ride in the backpack, I tried but my son insisted that he wanted to hold the spinosaurus in his hand while on the bike as well. Since it was his birthday I indulged him, but imagine the distress when we arrived at the restaurant where mom and grandmother were waiting, and there was no longer any spinosaurus in his hand. Undoubtedly the trip had been too exciting with a patrol car, a train and two helicopters to look at on the way, so spinosaurus had made an exit at some pint and now we were left with a crying boy.
After promises that I would make sure the dinosaur (no, spinosaurus) would reappear at home later, we managed to eat both udon at the restaurant and Pokémon cake at grandmothers place. While my son went home with his mom in the car, I took the bicycle the same way we came, trying to locate a missing spinosaurus in the dark. Of course I came up empty (I hope another toddler found the spinosaurus and made a new friend), so I stopped by the shopping mall to buy a new one for him. Fortunately they had one in stock, so both me and spinosaurus came home to an eagerly waiting five-year-old. I am sure it will be a fun birthday story to share with him as he grows older.
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