Birthday Party Overload = Successful DST

Saturday was a marathon birthday party day…one for John Hudson at 1:00 in Midtown and then one for Remle and Daily Mattice at 3:30 in Nesbit…both of which were during nap time. I was very nervous about how this was going to go down, but although we had a few ‘moments,’ she really did pretty well.

Little John’s first birthday party was at the University Club. As we drove up, Helen Grace almost came out of her car seat- there were THREE jumpies in the front yard. We had to drag her inside, telling her we had to go in and say happy birthday first, and then we realized that the jumpies weren’t for the party but for the Club’s fall festival later that afternoon. Eek! Soon enough, Mr. Joe from Music for Aardvarks pulled out his guitar, bubbles, drums, and shakers and made her completely forget about the jumpies. Whew! After watching John eat his cake, during which he picked the whole thing up and shoved his face in it, we slipped out to make our way to birthday party #2. Outside, we found that the jumpies were unsupervised, so we let HG duck in and jump for a minute. We thought she’d surely be so exhausted that she’d conk out in the car, but NO SUCH LUCK. She did that crazy, high pitched talking the whole ride home to keep herself awake.

We dropped off John at Spiffer’s to get his car and found Bubba was there to watch the Rebels’ game. (Are they still playing football??) We went in to say hello, and she caught her second wind; however, a few minutes later on the way to Remle and Daily’s party, her eyelids started fluttering. I hollered and woke her up, and as soon as she saw the PETTING ZOO, she was up and at ‘em. She LOVED the animals, although I never could get her to feed the goats. (To her credit, they were hungry little monsters and were pretty ‘active.’) She would hand me the food and wanted me to feed them. But she did get the pen with the bunnies and loved to feed them and the guinea pigs. After some more cake and ice cream, she was starting to show signs of meltdown. She was playing out in the yard with some boys, swatting leaves with sticks, and she came running to me with tears running down her face. I never could figure out what had happened (not sure if she got swatted or if they hurt her feelings), but regardless, it was time to GO. She cried almost the whole way home wanting juice instead of the water she had in her sippy, but by the time we got home, she was calm- and still awake. We got some dinner in her and then put her to bed around 7:30.

Daylight Saving Time happened in the middle of the night on Saturday, and I woke up with a start at 7:30 old time/6:30 new time this morning. The house was quiet. Hmmm. I laid there for about thirty more minutes, and around 8:00 old time/7:00 new time, I heard the pitter patter of little feet in the hall upstairs. I slipped out of bed, through the house, and up the back stairs. I peeped around the corner of the playroom, expecting her to be playing in her kitchen, but I found nothing. I turned to go down the hall, and there she was, peeping through the crack of the door to the playroom! “Go away!,” she said. I had to go back downstairs and wait on her to come down on her own. Little Miss Independent! 

John, the birthday boy She’s finally figured out how to do these things. And she thinks she’s pretty cool because of it. Having a BLAST!! At last, the jumpy! On to the petting zoo… When she saw the bunnies were out of food, she insisted on refilling their bowls. She thought it was pretty neat to watch the guinea pig eat the food she brought it.  Riding on the train Pardon the Crystal Lite face (and shirt) This was as close as she’d get to the pig. And the closest she’d get to the goats. I finally got her to put the food on the side of the trailer, but she never let them eat out of her hand.