Thursday is Everett’s fourth birthday, which we are celebrating with family at Bethany Beach.

Happy Birthday Everett!!!

The day went something like this:

Everett got up about 7am and played kick-the-balloons and other games with Dillon and Connor for a few hours while the adults slowly got up, had coffee and prepared for the beach. For a breakfast treat we cooked up a batch of Scrapple, which is about as appetizing as it sounds (note: Scrapple is not as good as Goetta, a.k.a Cincinnati caviar).

We got to the beach about 11am for a couple hours more of playtime. It was a bit chilly compared to what we are used to – both the water temperature and air temperature were 69 degrees, combined with a stiff breeze. Eventually the boys got cold so we bundled them up and fed them lunch.

Then we came inside for Everett to open presents from Grandpa and Grandma Linda, followed by singing Happy Birthday with a Carvel ice cream cake. The cake had blue icing that seemed to stain everything it touched including skin, tongue, carpet, etc. This will come up again later.

The boys went down for a nap and we eventually woke Everett up around 5, but noted that he did not seem like his normal self. He was moving slowly and didn’t seem particularly interested in anything. The boys ate dinner, followed by the adults, and then we gathered around to sing Happy Birthday with cake #2 (devil’s food cake with buttercream icing and a picture of Everett on it).

Still, Everett was acting unusual, which became even more evident when he said he needed to lie down halfway through opening presents. He also mentioned that he didn’t feel good. So we put him in our bed with a large pot nearby just in case, which worked out well because he soon filled it with blue liquid from his stomach (recall the icing on cake #1). After this he bounced back to his normal self and played light saber with his cousins using glow sticks.

By about 10:30 Everett put himself to bed and fell asleep immediately, with his cousins a few minutes behind him. We thought that maybe his sickness was an isolated event, but it happened again around 3am and again around 10am. Ugh. He still wanted to go to the beach, so we slathered him with sunscreen and played for an hour or two until he threw up again, this time on Linda’s feet. It’s now Friday afternoon and he is resting on the couch while watching cartoons. Aside from throwing up we have two big signs that he isn’t feeling good: he isn’t talking much at all, and he told Chris he does not want to roughhouse.

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Everett seems to carefully think through the times when he is ready to expand his capabilities. Some time ago we wrote about how he decided one day to start using the toilet. Since then, one remaining challenge has been sleeping through the night without diapers. During one recent evening when we were getting ready for bed he said “I’m going to wear underwear tonight.” He did, and that was pretty much the end of diapers. On a similar subject, Chris has repeatedly been encouraging Everett to learn to ride a bicycle. Everett tried this briefly during our recent camping trip but otherwise hasn’t taken to it.

Instead, he has repeatedly said that he will start riding a bike once he turns four. We will report further on this in a couple weeks.