Winding down the birthday week

We had birthday parties #2 and #3, and they were also just fine and dandy—days and days ago, weren’t they? I have been frantically running to class and meetings and grading papers and finally resorted at work to throwing everything on my desk into big piles on the floor because I lost a couple of important things. Poor William. His birthday comes at a rather busy time of year—the research paper and my sweet William. Laura’s not much better off with her just when classes start birthday. Maybe it’s just as well neither of them have summer birthdays, because maybe I’d turn into one of those psycho clown-hiring moms then. : )

Will’s three now (although he still says he’s two if you ask him). He seemed to feel that the festivities were over after his big party last weekend—he walked around the whole afternoon of his actual birthday telling anyone who wished him happy birthday: “It’s not my birthday. I already had my birthday.” So evidently the cupcakes and candles were not sufficiently convincing.

Laura had her overnight field trip and came back unscathed. She was in the school musical tonight—they have this huge production where every grade sings about three or four songs and the kids introduce the music (very scripted) and it lasts about an hour and a half. I just couldn’t make it through the whole thing. Laura’s part was first, and the whole fourth grade did great, and then those kids marched offstage to the upstairs of the church (it’s so big they can’t have the musical at school) and then I sat there with a squirmy William for another grade or two’s songs before I just had to bail. Chris stayed to pick Laura up at the end, and I got to come home and grade papers instead. Long day.

Chris wins the vote for funniest remark of the week. We were driving home from eating out the other night, about a thirty minute drive, and Laura decided that she would recite The Incredibles to amuse William. So she literally started reciting it, I swear word for word (and the worst part of this is that I am pretty sure I knew enough of the words myself to know she was right on). For practically the entire trip. While I internally bemoaned how I have handed my children over to Disney capitalist culture, Chris was sitting over there just laughing. At the end of her monologue, here’s what he says to her: “I’m so proud of you! You do have a memory and now you can use it for things like multiplication tables.” Or perhaps finding her tennis shoes in the morning? I think Chris and I enjoyed that rather more than Laura, but we certainly had a good laugh.