The one about Reed's birthday & growing up

As a female, I was blessed with certain powers.  Women know that there are ways of getting what we want.  There are two gifts we were given to wield as weapons.  Number one: boobs.  Number two: crying.  Naturally we will try reasoning, planning, or any other variety of ways to get things to go our way, but when it comes down to it and we have to resort to our powers, we will use them because… well because we can. 

Well, I found myself in a grave state a couple of weeks ago.  Things have not been going my way and no amount of cleavage or tears is going to undo what is being done.  I cried, but it didn’t seem to help.  I can’t stop my children from growing up.  Reed is a genius child- the memory of an elephant and some serious deductive reasoning skills.  The rate at which he learns is mind-spinning. Decker is supposed to be the baby but he’s getting so close to Reed’s size that he can almost fit into Reed’s clothes and I’m not even joking.  Last month when Mike’s parents were here Decker kept ending up wearing Reed’s clothes and by all natural laws of physics they should have looked ridiculous on him, but they didn’t!

I told Decker, “We had a baby because we wanted a baby. What is with this growing game you’re playing with me? It’s not funny.”  He replies, “Ah-da! Aah-daa!”  I take that to mean “all done”. I think he got the message.

Reed turned two on August 28^th and we had his party the Saturday before, while my mom was still here visiting.  I wanted to have a perfect party of course. I wanted it to be cute and creative and most importantly a blast of all in attendance.  Mike didn’t want me to stress myself out by doing all the little creative things that I was brainstorming about.  The thing is, all those little details that take time, most of which people don’t really appreciate anyway, are really my creative outlet.  I don’t do it to stress myself out and I don’t do it because it’s expected of a two-year-old’s birthday party.  I do it because I want to and because I love to use my God-given creative talents. It’s truly a waste not to, right?

Well, I shopped all over this city to put together a matching theme of choo-choo trains. My mom can attest to my efforts.  There was no convenient package deal at Party Galaxy so I found things to compile for my theme.  I bought a pack of foam sheets and cut out train shapes to string across the window on the patio.  After the party, I hung them over Reed’s closet. Scrapbook paper with little trains was cut and pasted to blue and yellow cups.  Blue and yellow bins held the matching napkins, plates and utensils.  A blue platter presented fresh pineapple and grapes next to rows of individually bagged fresh popped popcorn.  I cut the pineapple, I air popped the popcorn and filled the bags and I sliced lemons and oranges to float in the icy water.  I ran out to pick up yellow and blue balloons, a 12 pack of Stella for the men and ice to chill the ale and juice boxes.  My day was busy! It wouldn’t have been possible without my mom watching over the boys while I chugged on. I borrowed a toddler size inflatable bouncer from a coworker and set that up in the backyard and baked cupcakes, too. Reed chose the flavor- triple chocolate fudge (with buttercream icing and a chocolate marshmallow on top).  His personal cake was surrounded by chocolate marshmallows on the sides and iced with an outline of a steam engine.

The kids enjoyed bouncing and the adults enjoyed popcorn and beer.  I also had an activity prepared for the littles.  Pails of foam bookmarks and a selection of foam sticker shapes and letters for decorating. Everyone was able to create a party favor to take home.  Reed received so many great gifts!  My favorite of course is the one that I created myself.  I came up with the idea a while ago and the purpose was to have a train track without having another piece of furniture to find a place for- and also to avoid having train track pieces scattered and lost all around the house.  So it’s designed to hang on the wall- like art!  I wanted it to look cool and match his room so I painted the board with the matching colors and had Danny cut and stain the wood for the frame with a dark stain to match our house.  After I stained the tracks and glued them down the masterpiece was finished.  I’ve been complimented on not only the finished product, but the idea itself (it looks great on the wall!) I’m happy to do a few more for some friends- for a price of course!  It was a fun project and Reed begs to play with it- daily.  So the plan to ‘hang it on the wall when he’s not playing with it’ requires him to not be playing with it.  Anyway, if you love it and want one, let me know. Like I said, I’m happy to build more!

So my big boy is two and that means Mike and I have been parents for two years.  Mike argues the fact and says it’s questionable if he was a parent the whole two years *wink*  I say, if you count the nights of baby duty it should really add up to more than two years! 

I know it gains momentum and goes faster and faster as the years pass.  I've been warned about the blinking and them suddenly being old enough to drive.  Trust me, I'm doing my best to live my moments to the fullest and enjoy the time I have with Reed and Decker as babies.  

***allow me to make a note here about why I had to do everything for Reed's party before anyone judges my wonderful husband.  We decided to schedule his baby-making-prevention surgery while my mom was here to help.  It turns out, having the surgery the day before Reed's birthday and Mike keeping himself iced- with his feet up, was more challenging than I had expected!  I love him for taking that bullet for me, tho.