Birthday Party, Conversation, Dating, and Pics

I've been stressing out Sidekick's 3rd birthday coming up in July.  I'm not one to do big bashes and have gone back and forth with the whole birthday party thing.  He's been to a couple of birthday parties the past couple of months, and he's had so much fun!  He knows what they are, so I feel pressured to do something, but seriously, he's THREE!

I looked into to renting out a cool indoor playground at a church (crazy, huh?).  I made a list of all the kids we would invite, some are his best friends and some are just acquaintances.  Where does one draw the line?  Then I had the challenge of trying to figure out the right time of day. July sucks to have a birthday.  Between family vacations, sports, activities, etc., I was worried that very few people would be able to attend his special day, and that would make me sad. I realized that although he knows all of the people who we would invite, he doesn't hang out with them on a regular basis. And then after a couple of hours obsessing about it, it dawned on me. Sidekick doesn't need a big bash. He doesn't know the difference between having five people or 25 people at his party.  He doesn't need presents (I was going to ask for donations to a charity in honor of him in lieu of presents anyway).  He just needs to have a celebration, a small celebration.  So, what did I decide to do? 

I'm inviting five of his close friends to go to Build a Bear Workshop with us.  He'll always remember that day as long as he has his bear.  I'm hoping the other kids haven't gone, so that it'll be a new experience for all of them.  I'm excited about it!  It's right up his alley and it's with his best friends with whom he will closely spend the time.  It's perfect, and I'm happy.

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The other day out of the blue I had this conversation with him:

Sidekick:  My daddy is dead.
Me:  Really?  Who is your daddy?
Sidekick:  Grandpa Jack.  He's in the sky (he passed away last summer and Sidekick was there).  You need to find me anudder Daddy.

Ugh! I explained to him that Grandpa Jack was his grandpa, not his daddy. He didn't buy it. Now he keeps telling me he needs a new Daddy. 

Shortly after that conversation, he told me that God misses him.  That kind of freaked me out!  I sure hope that God doesn't miss him and want/need him anytime soon.  Yikes!

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Dating... I'm back on an online dating site!  Crazy, I know.  I joined before Sidekick told me he needs a "annuder" Daddy.  Ha!  I've been emailing a guy who has a great sense of humor and from what I can tell, he has his shit together.  He prefaced our emails with the fact that he is super busy with work the next few weeks and doesn't have time to date anyone, but that he hopes that I am not taken by then.  Hmmmm... I'm not sure how I feel about the timing of the possibility of meeting him because regardless of how busy we are, we make time for people if we want to.  Anyway, I'm not stressing about it and am just going to see what happens between now and a few weeks.  Who cares!  The idea of dating with a child scares me anyway.  How does that even look?

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Sidekick and I had some family pictures taken.  Here are a few:

This boy never lets me kiss him, and when I'm successful, he wipes it off.

I love this boy so damn much that is hurts. I count my blessings every day.  Maybe one day, we'll find a man to love both of us.  

Easter Wrap Up

I feel like Easter was like the eight nights of Hanukkah... it just never seemed to end.  It literally lasted eight nights!  It started the Sunday before Easter with an egg hunt and breakfast at my friends' house.  Since Sidekick was the youngest there, it was predetermined that he was the only kid who could get the purple (his favorite color) eggs. He could also get other colors, but he was following the rules that only he gets purple, so when I would encourage him to get other colors, he would tell me he couldn't.  If I slipped a different color in his basket, he would take it back out.  He totally got into it though. I was also amazed at watching his confidence with being away from me and playing with the kids while the adults were in another room talking.  It was so great to be a grown-up without Sidekick being at my side.

Later that day, the two of us dyed Easter eggs.  I swear this process took hours when I was a kid.  It did, didn't it?  A dozen eggs took us about 8 minutes and we were done.  Despite the fact that it took longer to boil the eggs (which Sidekick helped), it was fun to see his excitement about choosing his color and watching the eggs "change" color. 

The rest of the week was spent talking about the Easter Bunny and reading books about the Easter Bunny.  Sidekick's excitement was just contagious all week long!  On Friday we went to see the Easter Bunny after school.  Sidekick was not a fan of Santa.  At. All.  The Easter Bunny was totally different because he was Sidekick's BFF!  He tried to photo bomb many kids' photos whenever he had the chance. I just had this love for him as he experienced the joy and excitement of this big fluffy human dressed as a bunny.

Saturday he had his last day of soccer.  We also went to church and put the Easter basket out for the Easter Bunny before bedtime.  Sidekick didn't know what exactly this meant until Sunday morning...

When I went into his room, he excitedly asked, "The Easter Bunny come??!!"
I replied, "I'm not sure, buddy, your Easter Basket isn't there anymore."

He had such a confused look on his face, but he was so excited when he found his Easter Basket in his bathtub when he went potty!  He went potty, grabbed his basket, looked at what was in it, and took it all out to make room for the eggs.  As he went down the stairs, he saw some eggs on the stairs, so he quickly put them in his basket and continued on his hunt.  He was so giddy picking up one egg after another.  He hid each one under the grass in his basket because since the Easter Bunny hid them from him, I think he was hiding them from the Easter Bunny.

We were invited to join our friends at their country club that morning for brunch followed up by an Easter egg hunt.  I had a very serious conversation with Sidekick about the importance of good behavior and manners.  After we went to see the Easter Bunny two nights prior, we went out for dinner, and Sidekick was a dream!  He's always been good when we go out to eat, but of course that was not the case at brunch.  He was just not good. I blame it on the excitement and anticipation of seeing the Easter Bunny again followed up by finding more eggs on the golf course.  See that sweet little face to the right below?  That sweet looking boy was not the boy who joined us at brunch that morning.  He just wouldn't sit still and wasn't eating very much.  I was embarrassed and had to walk him out and talk to him about good behavior.  Ugh!  I'm so grateful that that behavior is not a typical behavior when we go out to dinner. 

When he got to see the Easter Bunny again, he was like a pig in shit.  Really. The joy on his face was priceless as he once again got to sit on the Easter Bunny's lap. He was of course perfect after that.  The kids got to hunt for ten eggs.  Sidekick decided to pick up the egg, open it, and then put in in his basket.  His little friend would gather as many as she could and carry them over to her basket that her mom was holding.  I looked over and found that her mom was tossing them over her shoulder back in the grass. Why?  To make the hunt last longer.  A lot longer.  It was brilliant!  So, the Easter egg hunt which should have taken five minutes, took almost an hour. We all loved it and enjoyed the beautiful day. 

The day resulted in Sidekick not having a nap which is never a good thing because it makes the day really long since he's not the most fun to be around.  Fortunately, he went to bed at 6:30 that night and was passed out within minutes.  Phew! 

It was an exhausting weekend filled with a lot of activities, but slowly I am finding myself enjoying the holidays more than I used to.  How could I not when my little boy is just so excited about it all?