4| Trade Birthdays
This idea came around the 4th year in a row that my husband was going to miss our son’s birthday. Our son was so devastated that it was going to happen again and my husband flippantly commented that he could “switch birthdays” with him (since my husband was going to be in town for his own birthday). The idea took off like wildfire. We’re lucky that it’s only 2 1/2 months between their birthdays, but you could also modify it so you traditionally celebrate half birthdays as well instead. So, the year they switched birthdays, we informed family that we were making the swap and we proceeded as though that was completely normal.
Our son’s grandparents came into town to celebrate his birthday 2.5 months early and we ate our aforementioned birthday breakfast cupcakes. We celebrated by taking him to the closest thing to a theme park we have around here. He got presents from his extended family members that weekend too instead of waiting for his real birthday. All in all, we truly treated that day as though it was his. And, his dad was here which he still talks about how much he enjoyed. The flip side of that coin is that his dad graciously postponed his birthday two months to our sons original day. His extended family played along well too and mailed presents to him when he was deployed and postponed his birthday wishes until then too. It sounds like a really silly decision at first, but when we watched how much our son appreciated having his dad here for a birthday celebration, it made it completely make sense!
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