Birthday madness

Contrary to my last post, Stella's birthday was today, not tomorrow. We had her party on Sunday and tomorrow she will get a special birthday song at story time, so in the end I suppose the precision of my post is somewhat irrelevant. It's birthday celebration week!

The party was a success. Stella was a bit less messy than last year (click), but managed to consume a lot more cake. In fact "cake" was the only present she was interested in during the days leading up to the party.

We did have a bit of a letdown for the big candle blow out. It seems our parental tendency toward frantic reactions when children get near things like fire, ovens, or lightening bolts, does in fact make an impression. Stella was not comfortable leaning toward the candles to blow them out. She flat out refused. Fortunately, her cousins like to live on the edge a bit more and were happy to step in and take care of business. As you will see in the last picture below, they were also more than happy to assist in unwrapping her presents. It reminded me of an episode of Wild Kingdom. Children = hyenas. Presents = Antelope at watering hole.



You may notice that Stella does not appear to be on a chair in the picture above. See below for an explanation.



For some reason Stella did not want to be supported in any way that did not involve her Aunt Kris. The more amazing thing was that Kris claimed to have executed this very same maneuver before. Probably with cousin kook - see below.



This is now a standard pose from Nolan. I enjoy his company greatly; a fact which warrants little explanation. Anecdotally, I will mention my admiration for the boy may have peaked last week when I learned that despite having all but mastered the use of the toilet, he has changed course and decided that he will continue pooping in his pants until he is about as "old as his brother." His brother is seven. That type of commitment is hard to find in today's young people.



Team building and cooperation.