Daddy's Fish BowlA Clear View Of A Father's Family Experiences

Happy Birthday Ty

Today our oldest boy turns 5 years old; well actually as far as he’s concerned, he’s been 5 for the past 3 days already.  Ty was having a tad bit of difficulty grasping the concept that the day we were celebrating his birthday, wasn’t his actual birthday.  After going through a few mental exercises to drive this point home to him, we finally conceded and decided that it’d be best to just let the kid think his birthday was on Saturday; the day of his party.  It worked out pretty well, until yesterday that is, when he went to his “Kindereadiness” class. 

The teacher made a point to make a big deal out of Ty’s birthday being today, she ensured that the entire class knew his birthday was coming up & had them sing Happy Birthday to him.  She kept saying tomorrow you’re going to be 5 years old Ty, and he kept saying “I’m already 5”.  This was a super awkward moment, and it occurred several times.  She asked him if he was going to do anything special for his birthday and he replied that his birthday has already past by and he had a special party.  I think this clued her in to his logic because I could have sworn that I saw a light bulb turn on above her head and just like that, the questions stopped.  The key point to take away here: next year if Ty hasn’t grasped the concept of a calendar yet, his birthday party will be held ON his actual birthday! No more confusing and embarrassing birthday moments for us.

On to the party, and oh what a party it was!  Not as many kids as we had hoped for, but Ty had a BALL and that’s all that mattered.  He was surrounded by people that loved and cared for him and loved being the center of attention ALL day long.  We started off by having everyone meet up at the house so that we could have cake and open presents.  Have you checked into the costs of having an actual party at one of these kid places?  The cost is astronomical, it’s utterly ridiculous!  So we decided to have the “party” at the house and then just take the kids, party hats and all, on to “Monkey Joe’s” to have fun and play.  I pat myself on the back for this brilliant idea because it worked out really well and the Ty had no clue that this wasn’t the actual way that a birthday party at “Monkey Joe’s” works.

Anyways, back to the party.  We sing Ty Happy Birthday and then begin to pass out cake.   Ty, whose eyes are bigger than his belly, requested that he get a piece that contained all of the balloons.  I told him that was a huge piece but he insisted.  I give him credit, because he definitely put a dent in that piece of cake, but the pressure of eating the cake while staring at a mountain of presents started to weigh in.  Once he decided enough was enough, he began to tear into his gifts, and with each present his face instantly lit up with joy.  After opening the gifts, he was a little disappointed to learn that playing with them would have to wait, because “Monkey Joe’s” was calling us.  His disappointment quickly faded once the thought of bouncing around like a jumping bean came to mind.  We spent about 3 hours letting the kids run around and tire themselves out.  Well that second part isn’t exactly true; Fefe & I were the ones tired out.  By the time we got home, Ty was bopping around and ready to play.

I won’t bore you with all the details of our play time experiences, and believe me there are TONS & TONS of play time stories to be shared!  But I do want to talk about two of the more comical events.  One of my friends told me that when I buy toys for the kids, I shop for myself first and them second, in a “hmmm. What would I like to play with” kind of way.  I think he may be correct.  I bought Ty a TYCO R/C Stunt Psycho Vehicle – Green
and I thought it was really cool.  I couldn’t wait for him to open it up and try it out.  The car is capable of doing flips, but whenever it flipped upside down Ty would run to it and turn it over.  So I’m like, Ty, let me see and I’ll show you how to flip it over.  I’m trying to figure it out and as soon as I got the thing standing up, ready to flip, the kid says “It’s my birthday, so you gotta let me play with it anyway I want.” The boy totally deflated me, I was so pumped playing with that car and the minute that I was about the grab the prize of a cool stunt, he burst the bubble, and I had no choice but to hand the controller over.  He was right, it was his birthday and as we had been telling him: today we had to play by his rules.  After the RC car fiasco, we moved on to the Nerf guns and had an all out war.  Ty of course had to get the cooler of the two guns (I was disappointed) and boy did he use it to light me up!  You gotta understand, this gun shoots up to 20 darts in rapid fire succession, it’s lethal.  During one round, he’s firing away and I’m ducking and dodging most of them until BAM, he lands a direct hit and the dart lands directly on my nose AND STICKS.  I’m not kidding, I wouldn’t make this up or stage the below photo.  The kid, at 5 years old had done something that I haven’t achieved in my entire life.  Getting a Nerf shot to the nose that sticks is like getting a hole in one on a par 6 course. But he did it and I had no choice but to submit and bow down to his Nerf greatness. 

Happy Birthday Buddy, Great Shot!