Fun and Games

I always envied my friends whose older kids cooed adorably over their younger siblings, eager to fetch diapers and entertain the baby. Over the past eighteen months, Jonathan has progressed from outright disgust at his baby brother's arrival to mere tolerance. But in the last few months as he's matured, his relationship with Alex is bringing us more and more joy.

They are two active boys, so of course they still like to wrestle. Alex has mastered the art of the takedown. He'll run up to Jonathan and wrap his arms around him, then push him to the floor. Jonathan is careful to fall so that Alex doesn't bump his head on the floor. These days, Alex likes to sit on Jonathan's tummy and bounce up and down. Jonathan says "Bounce on the. . car!" and Alex bounces. Jonathan says "Now bounce on the. . boat!" Up and down goes Alex and they both laugh like loons.

In the car, Alex sometimes gets a little frustrated at his confinement in the carseat. Jonathan used to tell him "It's okay, Alex. Don't cry." But now he's come up with a game to distract him. When Alex gets fussy, Jonathan says "Here Alex, would you like some money?" Alex reaches out his hand and Jonathan pretends to give him some coins. Alex cries "Money!" and Jonathan says "There you go." I swear I do not bribe my kids with cash handouts - I have no idea where they picked this up.

It's not all wrestling and socialism around here - Jonathan still races to pick up any toy Alex sets his sights on, and cries to be picked up if Alex is on my lap. But he smiles when he does this now, almost as if he knows he's being kind of silly. And when Alex really tests his patience, he shows true maturity. The other day when Jonathan was sitting in his little folding chair, Alex came up behind him, grabbed two handfuls of hair, and pulled his chair over backwards. Jonathan yelled, and then smiled as Alex, delighted to have his big brother's attention, said "Hi Jha-jha!"

Party Animals

For Jonathan's upcoming fourth birthday, we threw his first full-out party. Once again, we held it a week before the actual date so as not to bump into Halloween. Living in Michigan with two boys born in the cold months means that we are going to be searching for indoor party spaces for many years to come. This year, the Curious Kids Museum was the venue.

We started out by decorating treasure boxes. I had picked up some cute little wood boxes at the craft store, and laid out glitter glue, stickers and markers. The glitter glue was a huge hit and the kids loved piling it up on the lids of their boxes. After a while, a trend became apparent. The boys glittered a bit, slapped some stickers on the side, scribbled with a single marker, and called it done - then went off to run around the table. Meanwhile, the girls diligently coated the entire box with carefully selected colors and rhinestones. Alex, too young for a box, stood on a chair to reach the middle of the table. By the time we looked at him, he had eaten half the strawberries and most of the goldfish crackers.

Quickly, we brought out the cupcakes so Alex wouldn't eat all those too. (I became a master of efficiency planning this party - cupcakes require no cutting and no forks.) We put a big "4" candle in Jonathan's cupcake and all sang "Happy Birthday." We also served cheese cubes and what was left of the strawberries. I looked at the clock and a whole forty-five minutes had already passed!

Time for a wash and a trip through the museum. Caden's father bravely offered to supervise the boy's bathroom, while Mac's mom helped the girls. We all went up to pick apples. What nice kids these all were. Everyone took turns loading apples and spinning the wheel. Then we went over to the face-painting station and the toddler room. I managed to draw a pretty spiffy dragon, breathing fire all down the side of Sinjin's neck. Jonathan did his own drawing and gave himself a blue mustache and impressive set of eyebrows.

We took a trip upstairs, but by that time the museum was getting crowded with trick-or-treaters and I was nervous we'd lose one of the kids. I kept counting "Jonathan-Alex-Mac-Caden-Rowan-Sinjin-Olivia-Maya-Anela-Syd." We all piled into the elevator and made it back down to the party room.

Thirty minutes to go! We'd already burned through "Pin the Dalmation on the Firetruck," which went really fast after Jonathan discovered he could defeat the cardboard blindfold by tilting his head way back. The treasure boxes were all done, although with all the glitter glue they piled on, they're probably still drying even now. So I grabbed Jenny (Mac's mom) and asked her if she knew "London Bridge." We started singing and encouraging the kids to line up at the same time. Rowan led them all the way around the room, tables included, so we had to go through quite a number of verses. Each kid got a chance to be part of the bridge, because they stopped under our arms and wouldn't move until we "fell down" on them.

After that, we were home free. We played "Duck Duck Goose" and "Ring around the Rosie" and "Ten in the Bed" (I made that one up from a camp song I remembered vaguely - it involved making the kids roll on the floor.) My voice and ideas gave out right at 4:30, when, bless them, every parent showed up on the dot. We piled all the trash on the two tablecloths, swept it all into the can, packed up the presents and headed for home.

Jonathan tells us he had a really great time at his party. He woke us up at 6:30 this morning to tell us so, and also to ask if he could open his presents. His thank-you notes are in the mail and he's asleep with some of his new toys cuddled in the bed with him. Alex hasn't eaten much today - I think he's still full. Chris is resting upstairs with a beer and the remote. And I'm off to color the last treasure box.