Saturday, February 08, 2014

Birthday Party Angst

Judah will not have another birthday until August but I'm already starting to feel anxious about it.

I feel like this will be the first birthday that actually matters to him.

He talks about it occasionally, but today, driving home from preschool, he really laid it on thick--like, talked-about-it-non-stop-in-vivid-detail-for-10-minutes thick:

Mommy, I'm going to have a Justice League Party.  I want the colors to be blue and green.  And red and blue.  

Judah wants you to have fun at his party...or else.

I don't want to invite anyone from preschool [he hasn't made any friends there yet since he's only been attending this new school for 3 weeks.]  But you're invited, and daddy and Noah.  

Noah will be the only baby.  Only big kids are invited.  [He then proceeded to rule out lots of younger siblings who are actually the same age as him and insist that only their older siblings are invited. Apparently Judah thinks of himself as a 5 years old.]

And it will have a volcano with hot lava coming out.  Two volcanoes.

Mommy, is it going to be the coolest party ever?

And there's going to be a pool, a giant pool.  It will be warm so we can swim.

And there will be lots of pretend animals.  Like at the zoo. But these animals will be just pretend.

And a train ride, like at the zoo.

And a car ride, like at the zoo.

Mommy, it's going to be the coolest party, right?

Um...right...I'm glad his birthday is far away so I can take my time playing the game "Managing Expectations: Preschooler Edition."

Also, don't you love how he speaks in the future indicative, leaving absolutely no room for doubt that this will all definitely happen?  And it's so gracious of him to invite me.

I was hoping to do some low-key thing--you know, bring some fun party cups and napkins to his preschool and give everyone a brownie and some goldfish. But now I'm realizing that's not gonna fly with Judah. Guess this might actually be the first year Judah gets a real, bonafide, at-some-designated-venue party.

Ugh. I hate, HATE party planning. I didn't even want to plan my own wedding. I was so not into planning my own wedding that I hired my close friend to do it all for me, and she ended up doing an AMAZING job while I gave her very little direction or opinions.

I guess I'll start looking at Pinterest pages for "how to plan a birthday party for people who hate planning parties."  There is a page like that, right?

2 comments:

CP said...

If I were you, I would totally NOT stress out about this. I think this is just his big imagination shining through. Every year, Jacob tells me he wants to moon for his birthday. I never promise and just say, "wow, that would be cool!"

You know what? On this acutal birthday he is just so happy it's his birthday, he doesn't start to count whether all his wishes came true. There is so much to take in- cake, presents, friends. Honestly, he is going to be so happy it's his birthday, no matter what it is like. If he tends to get letdown after holidays, maybe tuck away a special gift that you can pull out when he starts to get down.

If you want to make an impression, pick ONE special thing. One thing. That's all it takes. One year, my brother dressed as Spiderman and gave Jacob a gift. He talked about it every single day for an entire year. Pick the ONE thing special you want to do and let everything else be simple- pizza, pin the tail on the donkey, and cake.

BAM. Best day of his year.

I promise!

Alice in Wonderland said...

Thank you CP, that was some good talk-down-from-the-ledge advice! I'm so glad I can just focus on 1 thing instead of the many volcanoes, animals, trains and rides Judah seems to be so excited about. Now to find someone willing to dress up as batman...