First, some other things happening around here. Bonne Maman brought a gift from our longtime family friend Francoise, a book titled "Ou est Charlie?" -- the French version of "Where's Waldo?" I had NO IDEA this would be such a hit. The boys LOVE it. Here's why neither of them bothered Katrina this morning:
Bonne Maman also got Katrina the world's most adorable socks from a nearby store in NYC. The brand is Little Miss Matched and they came up with the most clever idea of putting three socks into a set!
OK, now that's cute.
Now, onto the big stuff. Gabriel's party was a smashing success, at least in that no one actually got smashed (which is more than I can say for many of the other parties going on around the country today). I loved it, the kids had a great time, and it was exactly what I wanted: low-key, fun, under control, simple.
It helped that the first hour, they were all under the control of a highly capable gymnastics teacher. And, that most of the kids had done this sort of class before.
The one thing I felt terrible about is that siblings couldn't join -- we were limited to 8 total kids. Andrew had been coached carefully about this ahead of time by his aunt (Betsy was out of town), but he was really upset about not being able to participate. Meantime, I was busy setting up when the teacher lined up the kids for the class, and didn't notice that Julian had made his way into the mix. Whoops.
I let it go at first, since two kids were late and one didn't want to join in right away. But after about 10 minutes, the latecomers arrived and the other kid decided to join in, and now we were over capacity. But Julian was so well ensconced and having such a great time by then, I just couldn't bring myself to pull him out. The teacher let him stay and he didn't hold up the class or anything, as he's done this before. Still, it hardly seemed fair to Andrew (whose aunt had wisely taken him to go do something else).
Actually, the teacher had seemed greatly relieved when she asked me what the age range was before the class, and I told her the kids were all within months of 5-1/2, except the 4-year-old brother who wasn't supposed to join (eeps). (Come to think of it, maybe she let him stay since she knew he was the brother of the birthday boy.) She later said it was a really good group, easy to handle, overall calm, everyone participated and listened. Whew!
One of my favorite moments was when Gabriel's little pal from class, Anushka, kept giving him hugs, and he good-naturedly pushed her aside, rolling his eyes. He didn't want to be bugged at the moment, but he took it really well.
Then Parth joined in the action, and the three friends all laughed together.
It struck me seeing Gabriel interact with Parth in particular, a really nice boy who I talked to a lot at Gabriel's class party. Gabriel has his own friends now, not just friends he makes because I'm friends with their moms, and his own games and interactions with people I don't know at all. Gabriel and Parth and Anushka spend every day together in class and then at the CDC, more time with each other than he does with me. All part of the daily miracle, with a touch of tragedy, of growing up.
After the gymnastics class, the kids sat down and had some fruit cups, juice, popcorn and .... never mind -- don't I know enough by now that no food is of any interest after popcorn? So much for the sandwiches that Bonne Maman worked so carefully on cutting out in shapes!
(Notice who is the only one who didn't ask for a hat, and indeed refused to consider it.)
After a snack, we played musical chairs twice. A little advice about musical chairs: bring songs that don't already have stops in them! Andy Z doesn't work well for this. And, bring a boom box with some volume, instead of a wimpy little clock radio. And an extension cord!
Other than that, it worked well. Gabriel and Parth were the last two both times, with Gabriel the winner once, and a tie the second time. These two have played musical chairs at the CDC many times together, so apparently they've developed strategies. Gavin was my button man after he got eliminated, helping me turn the clock radio (urgh) on and off for the rest of the game.
Finally, the cake. More singing, more junk food. And, another Giant Cupcake cake.
By now, I should have some experience with my tricky Cupcake cake pan, but this one gave me by far the most trouble. First I made a Devil's Food (mix), split the batter across both pans. NG, the cupcake top was too small, but the bottom salvageable. Inexplicably, I used another flavor to make another top, but put too much batter in, overflowed the pan, and started a fire in my oven!! It took my Mom and I a few minutes to frantically scrape everything aside to put out the fire. Then, I had a hard time decorating the cake, using yellow frosting with yellow M&Ms, but all that did was make it look drab, and it just ended up looking like a lopsided tutu. The final straw was that I didn't use toothpicks to fasten the top to the bottom, and the top slid off in the car ride to ghe gymnastics place and one side got all smushed!
Of course, the kids didn't notice, they just wanted to eat the cake. Julian thanked me for putting candy on it. Mom and I were both intrigued that the two kids of Indian descent didn't want any. There's an Indian bakery nearby - I wonder what Indian kids have for sweets?
I've always suggested no gifts for parties, so as not to put any pressure on guests and because we really don't need MORE STUFF. But, something happened this time that makes me reconsider: the kids themselves want to give the birthday honoree gifts, they want to see the birthdayer open a gift that the guest picked himself. I had to pull Gabriel away at the end of the party as he'd started opening things because his friends wanted him to open things they'd brought. Next time, I will work in gift-opening, as it's so nice that his friends are so generous and want to enjoy the giving. And it's time Gabriel learned gracious gift-receiving too, instead of being handed a giant anonymous pile of loot later.
Score three for me -- all three kids' parties this "season" worked out great. I will definitely do a gymnastics party again, and 8 kids total is a perfect number. They all had such a great time, and it felt like such simple clean easy fun.
And good news on the sick baby front: Katrina's lung capacity is still nowhere near normal, but her behavior was on track tonight. She bopped around much more happily, played, scolded brothers, snuck upstairs, pulled things off shelves, and acted much more like herself, just "de-barked" as Dave called it (a reference to barky dogs who've had their vocal cords surgically altered so they're not impossible to live with). She even ate a little dinner tonight, so I think this strange episode is past us. I'm glad my Mom got to see a little of the normal Katrina tonight, and the normal interaction between her and her brothers (constant pestering, much tenderness and love).
I'm bringing Bonne Maman to the airport tomorrow, with joy and sadness. What a wonderful visit! It's been only a few days, but such full fun ones, rewarding and relaxing and intense all at the same time. We had lots of time to be mother and daughter, and grandmother and mother too. I can only hope for such wonderful times with my own children when they're all grown up.
2/3/08
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