I’m nursing a sore throat and am too worn out from the day’s events to reread tomorrow’s readings for class. Short blog post and bed.
We had a birthday party for Ian today. He’s turning six on Wednesday. It was a gymnastics party at the fancy sports club with all his friends from school and his cousin Julia.
Ian has been looking forward to this party for months. Every day this week, he asked if it was his party day. Steve picked up the Carvel cake yesterday and put it in the freezer. Ian kept opening the freezer to check that the cake was still there. I took him to Party City and he picked out a Cars themed plates and table cloth and goodie bags. We spared no expense, because this was Ian’s first birthday party with friends and because he’s gotten gyped out of so many typical kid experiences.
The kids were let loose in a padded room with balance beams and trampolines. For an hour, twelve kids raced around in a circle bouncing off the walls. The party facilitators tried to organize some games, but the kids were too hyper to sit still. Austin came running over to my brother for a hug, and the mom said he needed a deep hug to organize himself.
After an hour, we went to the party room and had pizza and ice-cream cake. One kid tried to pop the balloons, which freaked out another kid. This party of special needs kids was slightly more dysfunctional that a typical party, but not all that different. Though this bad clown party sounds fun.
Ian did well. He jumped and ran around the gymnastics room with a huge smile on his face. He made sure that his friends all had pizza. He didn’t lose it when Justin blew out the candles on his cake. He was very excited about the number 6 candle on his cake. He sobbed when the party was over, because he didn’t want it to end.
Some day, Ian will tell me how much he loved his birthday party. But for now, we have his smiles and his tears and we just know.
Apt. 11d 
Sounds awesome!
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The kids were let loose in a padded room with balance beams and trampolines. For an hour, twelve kids raced around in a circle bouncing off the walls. The party facilitators tried to organize some games, but the kids were too hyper to sit still.
Yes, I’ve been to that party many times. Hey, if the 12 kids are bouncing off the walls and not off of each other, that’s better than most of the Little Gym/ My Gym parties I’ve been to.
We’re doing a “home party” for our 5th birthday party this Summer. I dread not having the safety net of other people’s stuff for neighbor-kids to wreck.
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