Jack’s Birthday

It seemed that the theme of last nights birthday party for Jack was “can you believe it’s been a year!”. Well, yes I can. Because a year is a long time, 365 days to be exact. And I remember each and every one of those days. Its been that kinda year. A very busy, full of lots of new adventures and a lot of firsts kind of year. Perhaps if we had been at home in Halifax and had some sense of weekly or monthly routine, time would have passed quickly. But we haven’t and I love that about our lives right now. Each month has been completely different from the next. I can mark each of our past weeks with what was a new experience. Either mine, Dylan’s, Jack’s or Cory’s. It’s exciting and not without challenges and I know that in the future it will be truly memorable. As was Jack’s birthday. Or should perhaps I will call it Dylan’s other birthday.

Dylan is a great big sister. She takes her role as Jack’s older sibling very seriously and with great passion. We decided it would be best to open Jacks gifts after his morning nap. This way he would be the most rested and I assumed the happiest. I assumed wrong. But that’s ok because for what enthusiasm Jack lacked towards gift opening, Dylan had in spades. Not only did Jack not open any of his gifts he also didn’t want to play with any of them. Although he received wonderful toys that made music, moved and mooed, Jack only wanted my camera. So while Jack screamed and clawed, yes clawed at me Dylan and Grammy happily opened all his gifts. At last one new toy caught his eye, a nice portable phone which sings the alphabet. I gave the camera to my mom and said quick he’s happy take a photo. At that moment Jack stood up, grabbed onto my lip and smacked the phone into the side of my head. As if to say, call my Daddy I want to get out of here. Receiving some lovely gifts of her own Dylan proclaimed this the best day ever. It was only 10:30am when this proclamation was announced and I knew I had a long day ahead of me.

While down for his afternoon nap Dylan and went off to buy Jack’s birthday cake (that’s right people I bought a cake) and balloons for our 6pm birthday party. The party would be a small, causal affair with some close friends and yummy tapas thanks to my mom. Two and a half hours, three bakeries and one balloon shop later Dylan and I made it home just in time to feed the kids dinner and get dressed before company arrived. We would have been home sooner but Dylan felt the need to tell everyone we came into contact with that it was her brothers birthday and we were having a party.

Knowing that Dylan would not eat any of the tapas for dinner I feed her cereal for dinner. With a supportive look from my mother and a disgusted look from dad, Dylan happily wolfed down Rice Krispies for dinner. Jack on the other had ended up wearing most of his dinner. I hosed him down and dressed him into his new birthday outfit thanks to Grandma Radomsky.

Our lovely guests arrived at 6pm with not only a gift for Jack but also a gift for Dylan. Well, Dylan just couldn’t believe her luck, as each guest arrived Dylan enthusiastically greeted them at the door and was given a present. Again she declared that this was the best day ever. But poor Jack didn’t want more people and defiantly wasn’t interested in gifts so at 6:20pm we thought it best to get the show on the road and bring out the cake. Upon seeing the cake, Jack burst into tears. No happy birthday was sung, Jack didn’t get to eat any of his cake, he only wanted to go to bed. It was 6:30pm and the birthday boy was not in the mood to party.

Everyone else ate cake, Dylan had a slice and ate only the icing, as she does. We also had coffee and chocolate for dessert, Dylan had three pieces and watch a new DVD. Guest left at 8:30pm and I put Dylan to be at 9pm. While lying in bed I was rubbing her back as she said “Jack’s birthday was so much fun, I think he really liked it, don’t you”. Of course I said he loved it, his birthday cake being the best part.