birthday boy

Daniel's birthday was last Saturday, and it was grand(issimo). Eventually, according to my now four year old. I'd wrapped all his gifts the night before, arranged them for maximum impact, then tossed a blanket over the lot. Camoflagued! And in the morning,. dude was yoinked out of bed way before he was ready, handed a banana and tossed into the car because I had, uh, things to do. Then there was swimming, then there was the obligatory communl showering after swimming (him, not me) and then when he'd effectively lost an entire half day of being four, I took him home, wished him happy birthday and (with flourish) removed the Gift Containment Device ie the blanket, and Daniel was staring RIGHT AT THEM when he asked "but where is mah present?".

I think he missed them because he was expecting A gift, and he was given a PILE of them. Or maybe he couldn't find them, what with them being right under his nose and all, because now he's (almost) A Man.

Kind of related Daniel factoid: dude thinks gifts are prettily wrapped boxes. He wrapped a couple of boxes himself (HIM. SELF) a few weeks ago and is still getting mileage out of them and .he carries them around and says "these are mah presents, mummy" and...that's it. Content irrelevant.

Mum sent him a parcel too, and I'd hidden it in plain sight (What? This box? Oh it's just a *mumbles*) so I kicked that over to him too and he thoought the BOX was his gift, imagine his surprise when I showed him that the box contained things.

I felt sad then, because it's a reflection of How Much People Who Don't See Him know him ie NOT AT ALL, not because I wanted better score for him, she gave him things that don't hit him in the Happy Spot. I feel sad for him that no one knows him like I do. He should have more people in his life, more people that would do anything for him, would drop everything for him, and who WANT to be with him, not because of what he represents, but because of who he is.

But! It meant I blitzed the Best Gift Evah stakes and Daniel LOVES his metropolis of Thomas paraphernalia. It's Track-o-rama at the Casa De Bee! And I'm expecting to be tripping over this shit until he moves on to girls and boobs and stuff.

We futzed around at home for the rest of the afternoon, because you don't give a four year old a bunch of Thomas stuff then suggest we go out to have some fun. We went for a walk late in the day though, and then planned on hitting Macdonald's for a rousing birthday dinner which kind of backfired because THINGS HAPPENED BEFORE WE LEFT STAY TUNED, and I'm staying in The Happy Place for at least this and maybe another paragraph.

Sunday we had a school picnic which was AWESOME. I love that after, what? Two months? We're making friends and are hanging out around a picnic table and sharing food. The kids all ran around, free-range style, and were looked after by everyone, so it felt less like a school picnic and more like what I'd imagine a a family picnic would feel like.

By the time we left, we had another kid on board and were running late for Daniel's MacDonald's Birthday Extravaganza, and still no cake! so I drove and Extra Kid told me HER mummy says bad words when SHE drives and I was all "Really? Not only me? *powerfist*", because Daniel yelling to that cyclist the other day "YOU'RE AN IDIOT" was a) TRUE, b) a lesson in ShutThe(Eff)UpOlogy, and c) a total PHEW moment when he didn't call the guy a FUCKING idiot.

Daniel's party was awesome. There were around 3o kids all running around, and not one (NOT. ONE) bit of fisticuffs broke ut. There was about that many grown ups too, and word is they all had a good time too.