Birthdays have always been about cake, and always will be.

Birthdays have always been about cake, and always will be.

Recently my adult daughter was looking through old videos on her phone and came across one from her 12th birthday. Her little brother, Ryan, was 5 and so excited. Of course, after she blew out the candles, we re-lit them for Ryan to blow out by himself. This has become a tradition at all birthdays. Everyone shares the candles with Ryan.

“Mom he was soooo cute!” That was at age 5, now as a freshman in high school she described him one day as a “little Schnitzel” as he can be such a stinker of a little brother sometimes. Yes, it’s totally normal to splash your big sister in the pool, throw sand at siblings on the beach, laugh at you when you do something foolish and let’s not forget one of my favorites, supervise big sister and her boyfriend in the basement rec-room when she was in high school. It’s true. He never let them be alone!

Ryan was so excited to be invited to a birthday party recently. He has not had many invitations to parties. I was nervous not really knowing how it would go. When we arrived, he lit up and was so excited to be with friends. I saw my shy, quiet boy step out and be a teenager ready to party. What a change in him this past year. A lot of social growth. GiGi’s Playhouse has made a huge impact on him. The programs helped him with his confidence for sure.

I picked him up from the party and asked what he had to eat, and his response was “cake”. If you did a word association game with him, he would reply to “Birthday” with “cake”. In the past, if you told him, it was a family member’s birthday he would get upset if there wasn’t cake for breakfast. Waiting for the celebration all day was just too much for him. Because for Ryan, birthdays have always been about cake, and always will be.

-Ann, Ryan’s mom

—After I wrote this it was Grandpa’s bday.  We said after dinner we will call him and sing Happy Birthday.  He stopped chomping his chicken to say “cake”.