Hot Stuff

 

To be 6 years old and so cool……

Sleepover

Since the day these 2 friends met, I knew I should start planning for this day. Niamh had her first friend sleepover. A friend sleepover is totally different than a cousin sleepover. (Not that there isn’t a lot of excitement when Cousin Emily sleeps over.)

Thank goodness Jaya’s mom understands little girls so well. When they showed up to our house for the drop off, they had their arms loaded with bags of girlie stuff to make it a real party. The 2 girls had matching heart shaped pillows with hearts on them, blankets with hearts, mailboxes for love notes to decorate with glitter and cupcake cutouts, face paint, nail polish, matching T-shirts that said “LOVE”, and a tub o’ candy. They would have been very disappointed with my prep. I just cleaned the bathrooms and put clean sheets on Niamh’s bed. Shout out to you, Mel. You Rock!

Finn shed some tears about not getting his own share of the frilly pink loot so he got a race car painted on his cheek. He also did his best to be involved with all the girls did for the next 24 hours. They were so good about not telling him to “buzz off”. Who could tell Finn to “buzz off”?

Movie Night!

Jaya is perhaps the smartest girl I know. I listen to her read in such amazement I feel as though I need to apologize for gawking. Steve and I feel really lucky that she hangs out with Niamh. I don’t think I could have hand picked a better kid for Niamh to have as her bestie. She is smart, has a unique sense of style, is kind to her sister and Finn, shows her parents respect, is appropriately shy with me and completely uninhibited with Niamh, and her family completely jives with ours. We will work on the dog phobia some time in the future so that we can some day adopt her as our nanny for Niamh and Finn.

Sometimes I outdo my own expectations. Pancake art is going to be my “thing”. Mel can be the face painter. Steve can be the dad that plays XBox with the kids and builds cool LEGO cars. Ben? What you got?

 

The morning after, we took the bus to the zoo. I’m brave, I know.

  

THE END.

Wow! I did it. I wrote the whole post without mentioning Niamh’s behavior toward me while attempting to show off to her friend. That took a lot of restraint on my part.

You’re Guess Is As Good As Mine (or maybe even better)

Remember this from Finn’s Birthday post? The bit at the end showed up the next day. Yes, it was written by Niamh. Yes, I really thought it read, “And you regret the beer.” We had a lot of beer at the party but I didn’t think that Niamh could tell when I or Steve “regretted” drinking a few too many. I thought, “Wow! Niamh, you really know how to just lay it out there for Mommy and Daddy. Message received, Miss.” When I finally asked her what she wrote and she told me what it really says….well, I guess it just shows that a guilty conscience (for drinking at a 4 year old’s party) comes to light one way or another, even in reading your Kindergartner’s chalk wall.

So, without cheating and reading the answer, what do you all think it says?

Answer: ʇsǝq ǝɥʇ ʇɐǝɹb ǝɹɐ noʎ puɐ

Dear Tooth Fairy

Today, Niamh’s Pal lost her first tooth. Talk of the Tooth Fairy has been big around here since we received the news. Just in case the Tooth Fairy pays our house a visit, Finn wanted me to write the note seen below.

Hewwo Mistew Fudd

Party Like You’re 4 Years Old

FINALLY, we celebrated Finn’s birthday with a proper party. Since Steve axed all of my suggestions for party ideas…all outside the home so I didn’t have to a) clean, b) buy furniture for people to park their patoots on, c) organize, d) clean up the after party, e) clean, f) update framed photos of the kids…..I left the party planning up to him. As the first date we chose for the party approached and Steve had not yet sent out any invites, a second date had to be set to give him time to accomplish task #1, Tell people they are invited.

Aside from the small details like put toilet paper in the bathrooms, clean the bathrooms, clean the house, purchase more than just juice boxes and beer to drink, get dip for the veggies, and have forks for the cake, Steve planned one great party! We had plenty of beer.

There were definitely elements that only Steve would come up with. We played Toss The Chicken, where each kid threw a rubber chicken at a big basket that Steve maneuvered to the destination of each throw, ie each kid got the chicken in the basket and won a prize. The prizes all came from Archie McPhee. Squirrel Underpants was just one of the prizes won.

Finn #1 Tosses the Chicken.

Cameron Tosses the Chicken.

Finn #2 Tosses the Chicken.

Fynn #3 Tosses the Chicken. We had THREE Finns under one roof…All tossing chickens. Weird.

After the kids had their fill of sugar, Steve gathered them in our empty living room for a round of Whack The Dragon (get your minds out of the gutter, People). He set up a Dragon Piñata on a pole and gave a group of kids under the age of 7 a second pole to hit it with…..IN MY HOUSE. Yes, there was potential for disaster. Only one kid got hit, so I’d call it a success.

 

We had Rule Breakers. There is always one in the group, in this case there were 3. The invite stated NO GIFTS. Finn was pretty pleased a few chose to ignore that instruction.

Then, after the party ended and I was cleaning up, I found this on the chalk wall, from Niamh. Love Her, Love Him.

Sick Day

Before Finn went to bed last night, he came to me rubbing his stomach and said, “I have a tummy ache.” I thought to myself, “4 year old seeking drugs. I’m not falling for it.” So, I said, “That’s too bad. You should go to sleep so that you forget about it. Nighty night!” *Niamh and Finn both love Tylenol, Motrin, Benedryl, Syrup of Ipecac….if they swallow their spit the wrong way and cough, they want medicine.* Between the hours of 10:00pm and midnight I paid for doubting him. He barfed the largest quantity of barf I think I have EVER seen. Need I remind you I am a nurse and I have seen more barf than the average Shmoe on the street? From the looks of what was all over his face, PJs, and bed, he had a lot of oranges at school earlier in the day.

I called in sick to work and Finn called in sick to preschool. “Yeah, hey, Mary Jo, this is Finn. Not the Finn in the Transition Room, this is the Finn in Preschool 2.  I’m not going to make it in today. Seems that the bushels of oranges you guys let me eat yesterday didn’t agree with me. If I don’t spike a temp in the next 24 hours, I’ll see you guys on Friday. Give Cameron a fist bump from me and let him know I’m ok…but have some self restraint with the citrus. Yep, see ya later, MJ.”

After my shower, I found Finn asleep on the couch with a PBS special running on the Rise and Fall of the Incas.

 

Unfortunately, he did become febrile later in the morning. I remember my mom giving us the choice of either an ice bath (literally the bath tub filled with cold water and ice cubes), or ice cold towels laid over us when we had fevers as kids. What the heck was wrong with Tylenol? Finn got some good old fashioned acetaminophen and a popsicle….ironically, he chose orange!

We did finally get dressed and made it out of the house for groceries but he stayed rosey cheeked until dinner time. He sure was snuggly and subdued all day. I have to admit, I liked it. Sweet Boy.