12/16/07 The holiday party

That is, our third holiday party, and my favorite one since it's with the 2002 group, with friends I've known the longest. And it was at a house, which is very pleasant, and makes dealing with creepy-crawly Katrina much easier!

Katrina had a grand time with this ATV toy, climbing on it again and again and pushing it around. She played with it pretty much the whole party, though there was a lot of competition for it from kindergartners at first. Too bad she didn't discover the easel with a magnetic whiteboard until later -- she loved it. I had to plan my exit so that I was prepared for the protest when I had to whisk her away.

The boys had a great time too. It's striking how different they are socially. Gabriel had a great time during the running games, but later found a little video-game sort of toy and wouldn't be wrestled away from it. He was either on his own, or in the midst of some or other fray.

Julian, on the other hand, will play games that involve more cooperation and exchanging -- he'll do his share of running too, but it's more about actually playing with the other kids than trying to prove he's faster.

I caught an adorable moment during which Julian and Andrew were "playing" CandyLand together, and then he and Cassie had made up some jumping-falling-down game on the bed. I didn't catch a photo, but he and Allison also had something going on in which they were following each other all around. He'll lead a game, but he's not nearly as dominating as Gabriel.

The mayhem! The chaos! It was really a lot of fun - I hope the hosts feel the same way!

I wish I could have enjoyed getting ready for the party more, since making cookies is the ultimate for me these days. But Katrina was demanding and difficult, constantly crawling to me and pulling on me. She has a new trick in which she winds one leg around me, apparently trying to scale my leg. I had no idea what was wrong.

Somehow I got it all done and it was worth it, since I had a great time, largely thanks to other moms and the nanny who helped me a lot with Katrina. Once we arrived and she had a pretty good dinner (including her first blueberries, first goldfish crackers, and first apple juice, all huge hits), she was in much better shape, though still needed a fair amount of attention. It wasn't hard to keep track of her though, I just had to listen to the shrill screech signalling that someone was trying to play with the green ATV!

12/16/07