Dolphin Party

My Baby J turned five whole years old a week ago Thursday.  I started writing this post on the Friday after, but a tummy bug struck our house and I am only just now emerging – hands rubbed raw from multiple daily hand scrubbing, sheets nice and soft from being washed three times a day, and every single doorknob in the house glistening from its fresh coat of Lysol.

Jack’s birthday on Thursday was, of course, under Murphy’s law and all of the other laws of physics that occasionally make working parents crazy, the due date for an absolutely enormous doc review project that took over my life.  I pulled almost-all-nighters on Tuesday and Wednesday nights in an attempt to assure that I would spend at least five minutes with my baby on his birthday.  Thursday morning when I woke up at 5 am after just 2 hours of sleep, I billed another hour, and then gave myself a couple of hours off to spend making Jack feel special.  I went upstairs and taped streamers and balloons in the boys’ bedroom doorway.  Liam woke up first, of course, and ripped some down in his glee, of course – but Jack was still impressed.  I carried him downstairs and plied him with his favorite breakfast – yogurt and fruit snacks.  I let him open a few of his gifts, including LIGHT-UP SHOES MOM!  OH MY GOD THESE ARE SO COOL!!  (Thanks, Aunt Amanda!)  Then I played a video from his birth,* which the boys wanted to watch three times.  I wept quietly behind their jaunty little heads while they chatted about the cute baby on the screen.

(I had forgotten how black Jack’s hair was at birth.  It all fell out immediately and turned white-blond, but when he was born his hair was the color of charcoal, and his eyes deep blue.  He was peaceful, contemplative, as brand new babies tend to be.  His first name is actually John, and his middle name is Calum, which means dove – we’d struggled with a picking middle name for him, wanting one that was unique (since John is so common) – we chose Calum because he was so peaceful, so quiet, with that newborn air of wisdom and calm.)

I went to work for a few hours and then met the Professor and Jack at his new big boy school, which happened to host kindergarten registration on our little future kindergartener’s fifth birthday.  We had to fill out umpteen forms, and I kept dating them 4-25-08, instead of 4-25-13.  (*insert parental anguish about WHERE DID THOSE FIVE YEARS GO*)  I like the school.  I think he will, too.  After pre-reg I went back to work and the boys went home for Jack to take a nap.  I was getting close to the end of my project but not quite there, so I enlisted a handful of paralegals and secretaries (all mothers) to help me.  All I had to do was say “It’s my kid’s birthday and I gotta get this out before I can leave,” and they jumped on my requests.  Together, we got the thing finished by 5:45 and I was out the door.  (I bought them all little $5 gifts the next day.  I know it’s not required, but I appreciate the support and I wanted them to know it.)

Anyway, the kid wanted to go for pizza on his birthday.  So the Professor told me he’d meet me at the Mellow Mushroom on my side of the bay.  So I went to a Mellow Mushroom on my side of the bay.  He went to the OTHER Mellow Mushroom on my side of the bay.  Long, frustrating story short, my big boy’s birthday dinner was over by the time I got to the right restaurant.  Luckily, he didn’t really notice – just said “Hi mom!  Look at this present I got!”  Thank heavens for small children and their poor concept of time.  And now we know there are TWO Mellow Mushrooms within a few miles of my workplace (but twenty minutes’ drive apart from each other!)

Liam and I swung by the grocery on our way home, and bought a tiny white frosted cake dusted with rainbow sparkles, and a helium birthday balloon.  I told Liam to pick out a balloon for Jack, and he chose the pink “Congratulations!  It’s a Girl!”  If I wasn’t worried about visitors getting the wrong idea, I would have just bought that one.  But we were having a party Saturday and I don’t want rumors going around, so I steered Liam toward a more appropriately-messaged balloon.  We bought it all and took it home and ate a bit of cake, and then put the boys to bed.

Saturday was Jack’s party.  We invited his whole class, plus a few friends from church and my coworkers’ 3 small kids.  We had it at our house, in the backyard – and were blessed with glorious weather.  I put out every toy the boys own, including a water table and a hose spraying thing, and then we parents milled around on the back porch while the kids picnicked on beach towels and tortured the dog with the water hose.  Jack wanted a dolphin party – he’d consistently requested this theme for several months – so I bought a few undersea decorations from Party City, and found a dolphin balloon ring toss game online.  Voila.

Jack greeted every guest with charming enthusiasm, racing up hollering their names: “ADELAIDE!!! Adelaide’s here, Mom!!!”  “OHMYGOD IT’S ANNAROSE!!!!” “Joe!  JOE!!!!!  It’s Joe, it’s Joe!!!”  Etc.  They all played well in the yard, we ate PB&J sandwiches shaped like fish, “under the sea” fruit salad, and “seaweed dip” (spinach and artichoke dip).  He opened presents, we sang Happy Birthday, and a few slices of cake later, everyone went home and the Professor and I were cleaning up, then napping heavily.

The next day, both children were caught up in a deathly grip of a miserable tummy bug that kind of wrecked everyone’s week.  I had a mediation on Monday, I was teaching an offsite seminar on Tuesday, and arguing a dispositive motion on Friday, and continuing to do the doc review project from hell in the in-between times.  In the end, the husband took off all the days but Tuesday – I ended up sending a colleague in my stead to the seminar.   Luckily it’s the end of the year for him, so he didn’t have to cancel any classes.

Anyhow, it was a good fifth birthday.  Since then, Liam has kept asking if it’s June fifteenth yet (his birthday).  Conveniently, he wants an octopus party.  So I’ve got all the decorations – we’ll just see if we can find a blow-up octopus balloon.  I’ll make an octopus cupcake cake. I’m already looking forward to it.

Meantime, I leave for Texas for the work-week.  Normally I love doing offsite trips – I get a little break – and I’m looking forward to this seminar, but a week is kind of long.  I’ll miss my sweeties – all three of them.  And the dog, too, I guess.  😉  I’ll make sure to bring them little pressies from Texas.

OK, this disjointed post that I wrote in snatched minutes here and there over the course of 9 days can, well, just go ahead and END.

*not the actual birth – that was not filmed! – but my exhausted punchy self holding him in the hospital room in his first few hours.