Whoo-hoo, Let's Party

Ian had his two year birthday party last weekend. The morning of the party, he came down the stairs and saw BALLOONS. Oh boy, was he ever excited!

"Mama, red balloon! Dada, red balloon! Mama, blue balloon! Dada, blue balloon!"

Then he noticed the table where the cake would go.

"Mama, Thomas! Dada, Thomas!"

Obviously, we had a Thomas the Tank Engine theme. Before I had kids, I thought people were kind of crazy buying all that party themed stuff. Now that I have two kids of my own, I completely understand.



Ian ran/danced/flew (literally) through the house, pointing out all the decorations. He just could not contain his excitement. I don't think his feet ever touched the ground as he bounced from one area to the next.

Once people started arriving, Ian transformed from hyperactive boy, to coy and shy. He likes to run up to the window by the door to see who's there, and then run away as soon as the door opens. He'll come back nice and slow, sidling the whole way, head cocked to one side and a big grin spread across his face. That's just his way of trying to look so cool. Good luck with that one little man!

Paul helped Ian open presents while I took pictures. There was some kewl stuff to be had, but the all-time favorite was the GARBAGE TRUCK! Ah yes, Papa and Grandma did awesome with that gift. It even had a trash barrel on the side that the truck hoists up and dumps its contents into the back. As soon as the garbage truck was out of the package, (kudos, by the way, to Mom and Dad for having the truck already unwired and untaped so it would slide right out of the box!) all the kids, girls included, swamped around Ian hoping to play with it. It took some doing to get the mob to break up and to pry the truck out of Ian's hands in order to open the last gift.





Then we made the mistake of wanting to light candles on the cake and sing Happy Birthday to Ian too soon after the presents were unwrapped. Now that I think about it, maybe we should have reversed the order of the activities. At any rate, Ian didn't want to stop playing with his newly acquired toys. Who could blame him, they are all so kewl! When Paul and I dragged him over to the cake, he was extremely upset and crying. Thanks to our camcorder, we now have footage of a very unhappy Ian on the very day he should be happiest. Not that I feel guilty or anything.

But wait, the best is yet to come. Paul and I had noticed earlier that Ian's eyes were red. His nose had been running nonstop, along with an occasional cough. We thought his allergies had kicked into high gear and gave him some Benadryl thinking that would do the trick. The day after the party, Ian woke up with his eyes so crusted over he couldn't open them. I rushed him to the doctor to see what was going on. You guessed it: PINK EYE! Ah yes, the birthday gift that keeps on giving. We warned our party guests about what could possibly be in store for them. Oh so sorry, to anyone suffering. Hopefully everyone will luck out and not get it.



As for Ian, his eyes are already looking better, and he happily plays with his new toys every chance he gets. I just have to convince him that it is necessary to eat once in a while.