On April 28, at around 7 a.m., Lucas peeked out the blinds and exclaimed, “Daddy! The shed turned into a play structure!”

So, at 7:05 a.m., we all trooped outdoors in our pjs to play on it for the first time.

Ian had finished the whole project the previous day, while Lucas was away at the Bs’ house. Instead of bringing him home at 4 p.m., we kept him away all evening until after dark, so that he wouldn’t see it until the following day.

The reveal was a glorious moment. Ian really outdid himself on this project, and impressed the hell out of me. The Domi Lama’s still got it!

We are really grateful that we have the play structure now. It was very expensive, possibly the most expensive b-day present I’ve ever heard of, but worth every penny, I think. (RoRo and my parents all pitched in to help pay for it. Thank you, family!!) I think Lucas and Asher will both get tons of good play out of it. And it has an attractive design, so I don’t mind looking at it in my back yard.

So, thank you, Super Dad. You’re the BEST!!!!

Here’s the picture from Adventure Playsets.

Lucas enjoyed having six friends over on April 29th to celebrate his fifth birthday. The party was three hours long. We played on the new play structure, organized an impromptu game of “baseball,” beat up a pinata, ate cake and icecream, and generally behaved as silly as possible. The mommies and daddies of Lucas’s school buddies trusted us with their kids and split. It was loads of fun after tons of work. The healthy carrot cake I made from scratch out of the Waldorf-friendly Birthday book pretty much sucked, but it was pretty and the kids didn’t seem to notice. Lucas was sufficiently impressed by the decorations, which included a hotwheel race car and a trophy, that he later bragged about his birthday cake.


Left to right: Maximillian, Andrew, Arwen, Samuel, Devin, Lucas, and Charlie, with Daddy in the back.

See no evil. Hear no evil. Speak no evil.

“Mmmmm. Carrots,” says Arwen.

Devin’s usual antics.

Sweet Andrew.

Playing baseball.

Charlie wacks the pinata.

Lucas’s usual antics.

Maxi.

Mommy and Asher.

Charlie playing.

Present time!

Andrew again.

Arwen peeks through.

Samuel up high.

Lucas LOVES baseball now.

“The museums in children’s minds, I think, automatically empty themselves in times of utmost horror, to protect the children from eternal grief.”

–Kurt Vonnegut, in the prologue of Slapstick, which I read and enjoyed yesterday.

Actually, Lucas was completely fine yesterday. But Mrs. Klocek told me to keep him home, so I did. A child with a fever is supposed to be given a “day of rest” before he goes back to school.

It was a hard pill for me to swallow. I was so disappointed to not be in his RRK class with Ian; I’ve been looking forward to it all year long. He, however, was happy as a clam to be home.

“Mommy, am I really 5 now?”
“Yes, starting today and for a whole year!”
“I’m catching up with Natasha!”

Lucas must have asked me if he was “really 5 now” at least a half-dozen times yesterday.

I realize I was in a funk because his birthday didn’t go the way I wanted it to go, and because I didn’t get to do the things I had planned. I was mad, but not at Lucas. And I spent a fair amount of time inwardly trying to adjust my attitude. It was, after all, his birthday. And it’s no fun to have your mommy pissed off at you on your birthday, especially when you didn’t do anything wrong.

He spent part of the morning outside hitting balls off his new T. I resented that he was outside having fun instead of being “sick.”

Gradually, though, I came to see the fever he had the day before as a manifestation of the birthday. Lots of excitement, lots of anxiety, lots of pressure. Truly, he was most comfortable spending his birthday at home, in his own space, with me and Asher. I asked him if he was sad to be missing school and his friends. He said, “No. But I do miss my dad.” Perhaps his body coped with the pressure by running a fever, effectively engineering the perfect birthday: one that was low-key, quiet, and safe. Perhaps he needed some time to make the transition from 4 to 5, to let the knowledge that he’s “really 5 now” sink in.

We made banana muffins together from a mix and added in dried fruit. Then we made frosting and frosted them and added all the sprinkles we could find in the cupboard–stars, green sugar, and multicolored balls. It was fun. He stuck with the project from start to finish and even helped me clean up. We dipped strawberries and bananas in the leftover melted chocolate too.

He also worked happily and quietly in his new “homework” book (a preschool skills book we gave him for his birthday). He played outside on the new play structure. We ate leftover shrimp tostadas for lunch. He was perfectly well behaved the whole day.

When Ian got home, we went out to dinner at the Spaghetti Factory and finally got to eat in the dining train car! They serve ice cream there, ya know.