This number has changed

Both girls have celebrated birthdays during my time off from blogging -- birthday parties were yet another thing in the mix of all of our major life changes. Peanut, turning 3, had a musical party that involved drumming, guitar playing and even a duet with her sister. Her party happened before we left Michigan, so it was a nice way to say "goodbye" to our friends there.

Jellybean's 5th birthday was after we moved, so she benefited from all the extra grandparent attention at her birthday. Extra presents, treats and attention helped distract her from missing all her good buddies in Michigan.

Peanut had a great time at her party, but as much as anything, she was thrilled to be "changing numbers" from 2 to 3. Her party was before her actual birthday, but she announced that she was 3, and she could hardly wait for Jellybean's party so that Jellybean could change numbers too.

I've decided I quite like this euphemism for getting a year older. Changing my number. Sounds like I'm in charge of the whole process. And it has an air of diplomacy, like the difference between "global warming" and "climate change." I am changing my number this week, and darned if my 3-year-old hasn't given me the words to ease the sting of adding a year to my age.

Candid camera

Jellybean's big gift from us for her birthday this year was a digital camera. She's only 4, so it was a kid-proof (but functioning) digital camera.
For a couple months, she has been using blocks and Legos as pretend cameras. She holds something that's vaguely rectangular, aims it at us and says, "Say cheese." Well, now her pretending days are over! As we anticipated, she absolutely loves her camera.

Her pictures are so interesting and have provided a great insight into her life as a kid.

For example, here's what I look like to her:Here are L and Peanut:
As she practiced more, she got more accurate with her aim and actually came out with some pretty cool ones.The last one is a picture of her Father's Day gift for L -- her photo in a picture frame that she decorated. I liked the perspective.

We still hear a lot of "Say cheese!" around here, but now we know we'd better be paying attention! We never know what kind of blackmail we're in for when she's a teenager.

Birthday demands

With one child born in May and the other born in June, spring is birthday season around here! Both girls were very specific about how they wanted to celebrate their birthdays this year. It was fun to see them influence each other -- and celebrate each other.
For Peanut's birthday, we had a pretty simple party and invited many neighbors over to play and have cake and ice cream. Not just any cake and ice cream, though. Peanut was adamant that she had to have YELLOW cake and ORANGE ice cream. She told us that for a week before her party. She told everyone at the party, and she told all her grandparents on the phone after the fact. Pretty demanding for a newly minted 2-year-old. Ordering by color is fun, though, and I'll take those kinds of (easily fulfilled, not outlandish) demands while I can get them.
Jellybean also had particular birthday requests -- and hers were also fairly tame. She wanted to have her birthday party at the pool, and she wanted a rainbow cake. I wasn't sure how I was going to pull off the pool thing. We don't know anyone who has a pool, we don't belong to a swim club, she's not really old enough for a big waterpark, and I just didn't know how to make it work. She started talking about her party around the time of Peanut's birthday. As we got closer to June, I thought maybe she would back off on the idea or even possibly forget about it. Instead, she kept asking. So, I decided to, in the words of Tim Gunn, "make it work."
I did some research and checking around. Turns out the city pool allows people to rent the baby pool before public swim hours for parties. Perfect! Jellybean was onto something. The cost was reasonable, the timing worked, and there was just the weather to worry about. Worry, I did (about the weather and about Peanut's health, as it turned out). It was stormy and cool for the two days preceding the party. I refused to make a back-up plan, because I was willing it to work out. Then, lo and behold, about 2 hours before the party started, the clouds parted, the humidity cranked up, and it got downright hot outside. Yeehaw! Add to that that a friend of mine posted pictures of her daughter's rainbow cake a few months back. I had the rainbow cake in the bag to boot.
Although these were requests the kids made, I have to confess that their ideas really did make the parties fun. They weren't things that L or I would have come up with on their own, and it's cool to have kids who are old enough to create their own ideas and articulate them. Both parties were a blast, and I'm already looking forward to what they'll want to do next year!

A rough week

I haven't written for a while. Life got a bit more complicated than it's been in a long time (read: ever), but I think things are calming down.

We were in the throes of planning Jellybean's birthday party, -- more on that later -- her actual birthday day and a weekend away for L and me. As if that wasn't enough to coordinate, Peanut got sick with what turned out to be a pretty serious infection. She's fine now, but she was definitely having a rough time. Just in time for Jellybean's birthday party, of course. (Why do kids always get sickest on the weekend?)

Having two kids is rarely easy, and of course we hardly ever get to give them the attention and recognition they deserve every minute of the day. But when one is having her first-ever school-friend birthday party at a special location and the other is simultaneously fighting a 103.9 fever for reasons unknown, our parenting instincts and abilities stretched in ways we didn't know they could. Jellybean deserved to be celebrated adequately, and Peanut deserved to be cared for, snuggled and loved, not to mention carefully watched.

How did we handle all that? Simple, we picked teams. Other than the party itself, which we all attended, we split into teams for all the party-planning activities, cake baking, medical visits, rest times and play times. One parent with the birthday girl, the other with the sick girl. We ended up doing a great job of balancing both the fun and serious activities, so neither L nor I did all of the same type with the same kid.

Jellybean's actual birthday was a few days after her party, and we had promised her we'd do something fun on that day too (note to self: don't promise this next year). Unfortunately, Peanut's infection didn't clear up quickly, so she was still a pretty sick kid even on that day. So, Jellybean got to pick which parent would take her to the city pool to play and swim, while the other one stayed home with Peanut, instead of all 4 of us going. I was ready for her to be sad that we all couldn't go, bracing myself for her to be bumming a bit. Not at all. She was thrilled to get to go and swim, and she chose me to go with her! Our teamwork went perfectly.

Those 5 days or so were very rough. Lots of activities, worry and stress for Peanut, interrupted sleep from thunderstorms (Jellybean) and illness (Peanut). We're officially done with birthday celebrating, and Peanut is on the mend. For now, hopefully we're back to the status quo -- for the few days remaining until we head on our summer vacation.

What's in a birthday?

Peanut is now officially a 2-year-old. I can't believe it. It seems like just yesterday I could hold a tiny Peanut in one arm while warding off a 2-year-old Jellybean. Ahh, memories.

Peanut's party isn't until this weekend, but of course we made the official birthday day a special day too. She's a very opinionated sort (don't know where she would get that!), so we gave her choices of things she could do on her birthday. She chose the zoo.

We spent several hours at the zoo, indulging her every whim with the animals she wanted to see. She literally talked to every single animal. "Hi, penguins!" she shouted, "Hi elephants!" Oblivious to everyone around her, using her special Dr. Doolittle powers to communicate. Every choice was hers to make all day long, she went first at everything, and of course at the end of the day there were presents to open. It was quite the special day for a 2-year-old.

L put her to bed that night (her choice again), and as he was reviewing her day with her like we always do, he asked her what her favorite thing was from her day.

Her answer: "Chocolate cupcake!"

So apparently, we could've sat around the house all day doing nothing but watching the grass grow, and as long as she had a chocolate cupcake at some point, she would've been happy. I love having kids that are so easy to please! May it always be this simple.