Eight.

Josiah turned eight today. Eight.

    

   Eight?

- As in: too old to be called "Josiah Papaya" any longer, really.

- As in: two years shy of double digits.

- As in: seriously??! the baby we brought home from the hospital barely a blink ago? 

Goodness, he's growing up so fast. Just because practically every parent has said it before doesn't make the passage of time feel any less remarkable. 

I miss the little munchkin who would put both hands on the pantry door and demand " 'nack!" when he was hungry (which is to say: all the time). I miss the cheeky toddler peeking through his great big glasses, which made those ginormous chocolate drop eyes look even bigger. I miss the train-loving preschooler, the kindergartener climbing bus stairs that came to his knees, the little boy scampering around the house. 

But...

Goodness, I love having the privilege of a front-row seat as he grows. 

I love the big brother who is so patient with his younger sibling. I love the happy kid who laughs at the drop of a hat. I love the confident second-grader who has skipped (literally skipped!) off to school each morning these last two weeks in a foreign country with unfamiliar kids speaking an unknown language doing unfamiliar activities. 

And goodness, I still melt at those chocolate drop eyes (with eye lashes so paintbrusherly long that they sweep the inside of his glasses). 

So today we celebrated Josiah's birthday in style. Thouars was good to us and had a "Fête de la Gare" this morning—that is, a party/festival at the train station. It involved a big community yard sale, a couple of bouncy houses, a painting exhibit, and a free kiddie quad course. Fun!

 

From there, we came home and had a birthday lunch. 

Then it was time to open the cards that have been arriving all week...  

to read (scrutinize?) cards....

...and to be excited about cards (and about the Euros some of them enclosed!).

From there we moved on to opening presents

and showing 

(a) affection for presents:

(b) affirmation of presents:

and (c) utter delight with presents.

There was also plenty of laughing...and a bit of "cool dude" posing. As always.

In the afternoon Josiah went straight off with Daddy to spend the birthday money at a nearby shop, then returned to play with his new treasures. 

Soon enough it was dinner, outdoors again.

Josiah's meal request for the second (third?) year running? A big meat pie.  :) 

Then cake time. William was adamant that instead of getting Josiah a traditional gift, he wanted his gift to be the birthday cake. A "very, very, very, very sugary cake, with lots of chocolate." In addition to dictating the sugar content, William helped with the decorating. It was the fudgiest, richest cake ever, layers of buttery frosting, a thick ganache top. Mama Caz and Pop Pop joined us by Skype for the candle blowing and happy birthday singing (we could have used their help eating, too!).

There was just time at the end of the day to read the newly-arrived chapter of Nannan's amazing adventure book. And then it was bedtime for one happy, happy little big, 8-year-old boy.

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Post-script:

I was just poking through photos of birthdays past, and I thought I'd include them here for fun:

The original birthday, moments after Mr. Wedged In Breech Baby emerged.

Ummm...I'm wearing the same shirt here on Josiah's first birthday that I wore today for his 8th...

A hot and humid birthday #2.

Still loving trains at 3.
(I remember this day for the endless Braxton Hicks contractions it brought,
with William's birth just a couple of weeks away).

Hooray for 4! We had celebrated outdoors with family but moved inside for cake as darkness fell.

Turning 5...

Apparently zero family pictures at 6. (Recognize the crown from today?)

Last year, turning 7, wearing the crown his teacher gave him at school that day.