4th Birthday Party

I’ve been MIA for over a week due to work (see post Overworked) and then a family vacation which we are still in the middle of.  More on the family vacation soon, but first I want to finish Mac’s birthday week.

His party was the Saturday after his real birthday.  For many many reasons I was VERY happy that we had planned an indoor party this year.  In the past we have had a water wonderland in my mom’s yard.  It was always fun, but it was a lot of work and it was VERY hot!  A few months ago a friend told me that the local pet store has a party room that you can rent for birthday parties.  I knew immediately that this was perfect for my animal loving Mac!  I went to Petland and learned that for a small fee we could rent the party room, bring in any food and drinks that we wanted and Mac could pick out up to 10 animals to be brought in the room for the kids to play with.  PERFECT!  Party booked, invitations and thank you notes designed by my favorite paper designer Emily O. Holmes, and cupcake toppers and tags ordered from Etsy.

 

   

The morning of the party started with not just a little, but record breaking rainfall in Pensacola.  We got over 13 inches in less than 24 hours.  To say the streets were flooded was an understatement.  Albi was telling me that we needed to consider cancelling the party, but I knew Mac would be devastated and there was no other weekend for which to reschedule.  G and Deeda were on their way from Birmingham and Nana and Granddaddy had come in town the day before.  I heard from a few close friends throughout the day who promised to be there even if they had to swim.  I didn’t care if the party was all family and one or two friends…we were having it!

We got to Petland early so Mac could pick out the animals he wanted to come in the party room.  He immediately told the “party helper” that he was not picking any spiders or hamsters because his mommy would not like that…he was right!  While he picked his animals I set up!

Despite the weather the friends slowly trickled in and by 3:20 the room was full of people.  I have a feeling everyone was tired of being stuck in the house with their kids so they were willing to brave the flooded streets just to get out of the house! 

Mac with his grandmothers (Gigi, G, and Yaya) and great grandmother (Nana).

 

Everyone had to sit in a circle and listen to the “rules” to know what to do when the animals came in.  Copeland wanted to sit in the middle of the circle!  This was the beginning of the party and the friends kept slipping in wet but happy one by one until the room was full of kids! 

 

    

(Mac with his grandfathers (Papou and Deeda) and his great grandfather (Granddaddy Fred)).

I have to admit I was very skeptical about a birthday party at a pet store.  I kept thinking about how loud it was going to be with 20+ kids, their parents, siblings and various animals crammed in a party room.  I was also worried about dirt and germs.  This may sound silly coming form a mom of two boys but boys or no boys I can’t stand super loud, chaotic messiness.  I also have to admit that Albi and I are not the best animal people in the world.  We like “other people’s” pets but neither of us are pushing to get a pet of our own.  Mac definitely gets his love obsession with animals from the Swindle (Albi’s mom’s) side of the family!  The thought of being in a room with animals, food and lots of kids made me nervous panicked.  The party sounded a lot like unorganized chaos!

I was pleasantly surprised.  This was the quietest boy birthday party I have been to…ever.  This had a lot to with the animals.  One of the “rules” was to use quiet voices to keep from scaring the animals.  Also the kids couldn’t run around wild because they were too busy sitting in the circle waiting to hold each new animal.  Although I brought hand sanitizer with me, Petland had a huge thing of it on the wall and the kids had to use it between each animal that was brought in the room (another “rule”). 

I was shocked at how well they all listened, stayed relatively quiet, sat in the circle, and constantly used the hand sanitizer.  Lizards, snakes, birds, cats, bunnies, dogs, etc - Petland we will be back!

    

Overworked

Thank you Laura W. for this shirt you sent me years ago.  I wear it all the time and somehow it makes me feel better when I have it on.  It has done its job today! 

the show must go on

For those of you who read the last post you saw saw that the morning of Mac’s birthday Copeland was looking a little sick.  Well I had no idea what I was in store for with the rest of the week and he being sick was not the worst of it!

Colleen mentioned that Monday of Mac’s birthday that Copeland had been fussy most of the day.  He had been running a low grade fever since Sunday night but he often does that when he gets a new tooth so I wasn’t worried.  Colleen also had a really bad sore throat which she was blaming on sinus so we thought maybe he had the same. 

That night Copeland (and I) slept about 3 hours.  He would only sleep touching me.  I would rock and rock and rock until he was practically snoring.  Then I would very slowly get out of the rocking chair and gently lay him in the bed.  The second I moved my hand off of him, he would pop his head up and start screaming.  It was not a little whimper either.  It was full blown screaming.  Something hurt, but I didn’t know what.  I gave him teething tablets, milk, water, etc.  I was giving Motrin ever 6 hours but the fever would come back before it was time for a new dose and that was always the worst hour.  Finally around 4am we both passed out in the trundle bed in his room and slept until about 6:30.

I took Copeland to the Dr the next morning and came out with a real clear diagnosis of what he did NOT have and no diagnosis of what he did have.  Not his ears and not this throat, maybe teeth, maybe a cold, maybe just doesn’t feel good.  Despite the lack of sleep he was doing ok after we left the doctor.  I had Mac with me too because Colleen had decided to run to the Urgent Care to see if she could get her throat looked at since it was still killing her.  I had already gotten my assistant to clear my calendar for the morning so I could take Copeland to the doctor and I hoped I’d be in by 11ish as I was already behind in all I had to do and didn’t know how many late nights I could pull working since I was starting the week sleep deprived.  While waiting for Colleen to arrive and rocking Coe to sleep for his morning nap, I got a text from Colleen saying she has strep, its contagious and the Dr said she couldn’t come back to work until Friday.

WHAT?!?!  I thought it was bad when my kids were sick.  I think its worse when the nanny is sick!  I scrambled to find childcare for the rest of the week, while drinking coffee like it was going out of style, responding to 800 emails from work, and entertain a very bored 4 year old!

The show must go on though.  I had in laws and grandparents coming in town at the end of the week, Mac’s birthday party to get ready for and a busy week at work of which I had already missed a full day.  We all got through the day and eventually the week.  Copeland’s sleep was hit or miss the rest of the week which meant mine was as well.  One night I stayed up late working and when I finally crawled into bed Coe decided to wake up screaming.  Albi did his best to help but Coe is going through an attachment phase and as much as he wants me when he is well is is 800 times worse when he is sick! Overall by the end of the week he was doing much better.

The best sight of all was Colleen walking in the door feeling much better that Friday morning.  We were all glad to see her…me the most!  I have learned when the kids get sick I manage, but when the nanny gets sick there is no organization to my chaos and that can quickly spell disaster.  Thankfully we all survived!

*FN – My kids are great sleepers and are rarely sick for which I am very grateful.  Re-reading the draft of this post I realize that I sound whiney.  I don’t mean to complain.  Having a sick child is part of being a mom.  Plus I did embrace the quiet still moments when I was rocking Coe, and he was sweetly laying his head on my shoulder.  I just wished those moments occurred at 7pm instead of 3am and that his body didn’t feel like I was holding burning hot heater!  Oh well.  Can’t have it all.

Finally 4

For those of you with young children, you know how the days and weeks before a birthday are counted down.  If Mac asked once, he asked a million times if he was 4 yet.  Having a June birthday means the vast majority of his friends turned 4 before he did.  While on a beach trip 1 week before Mac’s birthday, I kept hearing his best friend (who turned four 2 weeks earlier) say things like, “I can do that because I’m already 4!”  Comments like that added to the constant questioning by Mac of whether it was his birthday yet.  He also asked several times if next year he could turn 5 first and how come everyone else gets to have a birthday before him.

*On a side note my MIL told me a story once about how she overheard Albi and his brother older brother Shaw talking one night before bed.  Shaw kept telling Albi how he was always going to be older than Albi, that he would be 10 first, he would get his driver’s license first and he would get to go to college first.  Albi quietly looked over at Shaw and said “and you will get to die first too.”  And we wonder where Mac gets some of his off the wall comments…     

Since Mac’s birthday was on a Monday, Yaya (my mom) had us over to swim the Saturday before.  She had a little dog cake and gave Mac his presents that say.  Unfortunately on this day I still couldn’t honestly tell Mac he was 4.  Although he was confused as to why we were celebrating but he still wasn’t 4, it didn’t stop him from eating all his cake and opening his presents!

 

June 4 came two days later and I was finally able to tell Mac that yes indeed he was 4!!!  Since school was out the plan for the day was for he, Colleen and Copeland to spend a fun day together including lunch at Chick-fil-A and then a baseball game with mommy and daddy that night.

Because daddy left for work super early that morning, Mac wasn’t allowed to open his birthday presents from us until that night when daddy got home from work.  That is torture for a three four year old boy.

I agreed that he could at least open his present from his brother that morning. 

(This picture should have been my first sign that Copeland was getting sick.  Those eyes look so pitiful.  More on that later.)  

Everything else had to wait hidden in the guest bedroom

Thankfully mommy and daddy got home from work early and there was time to open presents, test out the new bike, play with new animals and still make it to the baseball game on time.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the best 4yr old boy I know. 

the back porch

We got a covered porch put on the back of our house so the boys had a place to play outside and still have some shade.  Anyone who knows our family knows we can all use some shade!  This past Saturday we spent the day on the back porch.  Albi and I cleaned old toys, threw away broken toys and organized all the outside toys into bins for bubble stuff, painting supplies, balls, water toys, bats/clubs, etc.  While I organized, Mac finger painted.

Unbeknownst to me Copeland decided to join in the finger painting session!

 

 

Copeland loved painting HIMSELF!  Thankfully after a long soak in oxy clean the red and purple paint came out of everyone’s clothes.  Unfortunately Copeland now thinks that painting himself is the way to go and of course Mac isn’t going to let his little brother have all the fun.  After I shared the above pictures with Miss Colleen, she decided that finger painting in as few clothes as possible was a smart idea.  I don’t think she had any idea that the boys would get more paint on themselves than on the paper.

   

(Pictures strategically cropped.  Trust me when I tell you everything was painted!)

The picnic table Yaya got Mac for his birthday is perfect for all our outdoor picnics. 

We love our new porch…naked painting and all.  Toys stay covered, clean and fairly organized which keeps the OCD people in our family (me and Mac) very happy, and the boys can now go outside and be as loud as they want which keeps daddy and mommy happy!  Now If I can get cable run to the porch and a tv hung on the wall, I should be able to keep all the gilmer boys (young and old) outside for the better part of summer and into football season!

1yr old photos

Around Mac's first birthday (3 years ago!) I started thinking about how much I wanted to document the first walking stage. You know the one where their stance is still a little wide and the steps are hesitant. I wanted professional photos but didn't want to spend a ridiculous amount of money. That is when I first discovered Deanie Sexton. Deanie took some great pictures of Mac while at the same time giving us some of my favorite photos of our family of 3.



Fast forward three years and again I was looking to document that precious time of learning to walk. I was also in desperate need of some updated family photos since we didn't have a good one since Copeland was 5 days old. I called on Deanie again and I am so happy with the results!









Of course big brother Mac couldn't be left out



And finally some updated family photos…which I LOVE!


This picture is one of my favorites mainly because I so rarely have a good picture of me with the boys. I'm almost always the one taking the pictures so I'm not usually in them. I will treasure this shot for years to come!

Last but not least…the gilmer boys

Wow what a difference a year can bring. (this pic by Evelyn Laws Photography. Another AMAZING photographer who I highly recommend!)