I felt good for a minute there…

But it passed. Whew! I was frightened that I would be malady-free and without physical complaint, but luckily a tension headache came in to take the burden of my discomfort from my fading cold. No downstairs computing for me tonight. Why? Well, my computer ‘desk’ (salvaged wooden banquet table) is wildly unsuited for this purpose, and my chair is uncomfortable and the arms are too low. These elements work together to strain my neck and pinch a nerve in my back. I’m done complaining for now. Moving on!

Max’s friend Bryson came over for another playdate today, and things went well. Bryson is getting more accustomed to paying attention to me when I talk, instead of assuming I’m just a noisy piece of scenery. The boys spent over half an hour chasing each other through the kitchen and living room. Our main floor layout is really suited to running tiny laps, and they had a great time circling by me. I am struggling a little bit with restraining my urge to correct language errors. Bryson has a little difficulty with his verbal skills, and he’s already receiving  speech therapy for it. I am compelled to meddle in the  situation and try to give him my untrained help, but I think it might be better if I avoid focusing on it. It’s hard to let it slide though. He uses ‘me’  instead of ‘I’ so there’s a lot of tarzan talk: ‘Me want to help”. The important thing is that his speech is much, much better than it was 6 months ago, and he’s a great kid who Max likes.

This company does not produce wisdom

I mean myself, of course. I have a cold, either again or still, depending on how you define ‘healthy’. My nose has been running heartily since yesterday afternoon, and in a fit of laziness I have been using the closest paper product near my computer as a nose wipe. What is it? Oh, paper towel. Good old abrasive paper towel. The folly of pummicing away the skin of my nostrils is becoming painfully evident.

For those waiting for an after-party report, I can say that things went well. Fantastically, in fact, once you take the surprise snow storm into effect. Light flurries my big white hiney. Everyone we were expecting to show up did show up, even if the snow made them a little late. The venue was great for the kids; I can recommend the Boys and Girls club to anyone with a kids party to throw.

It was great to watch Max in a pack of excited kids, all of them running and squealing and laughing and occasionally crying. My worries about his socialization are now officially put to rest.

And if you ever want a harrowing experience, try being in charge of the presents at a 3-year-old’s birthday party. We waited until the end of evening, so the kids were already crazy from the proximity to bedtime and the excitement of the party. They circled around me and Max to ‘help’ open the presents, and it felt like a swarm of zombies reaching out to grab me and eat my brains. Max was too wound up to even look at the presents as he opened them, and he just wanted his loot bag. By the next morning he was calm enough to actually look at the gifts and play with them. The wife and I needed at least 2 days of recovery. Unfortunately, we got about a day each, and I had this cold roll back in to bother me.

You say it’s his birthday?

Well, happy birthday to him! It was Max’s third birthday yesterday. I am a little surprised at how big a milestone this one felt like. Birthdays 1 and 2 were steps along the path to maturity, but both were still clearly within the baby/toddler era. This birthday really feels like the entrance into the next phase of his life, the phase that contains going to school, learning to read and write, and other mind-blowing achievements.

It’s funny that this birthday is triggering two opposite reactions  the wife and I. I am entirely consumed with thoughts of the future and the amazing things he’s moving towards, while she is (understandably) remembering the lead-up to his birth and his arrival in this world. I tend to avoid thinking about that time. I’m trying to encourage old man time to blur my memories into a hazy, stress-free and vague recollection of the hospital, the waiting, the chaos of the first few weeks.

I am so jazzed by the little dude’s continually improving communication skills that I can’t wait for each new breakthrough to happen. It is only 19 months until my little guy heads off into the big new world of junior kindergarten. Sniff.

Particulars of the party yesterday?  A small family affair of the people who have lived with Max during his three years: me, the wife, my best chum Ryan and my sister-in-law (who brought the extra gift of possible illness contagion with her. Thanks!). I made a chocolate cake with peanut buttercream icing, with gummi worms and crumbled cake on top to make it a dirt and worm cake. The taste was good, but I didn’t mix well enough again, and the cake was rather dense. I swear that I will someday produce a fluffy cake. IT WILL HAPPEN. There is a second party today, the big kids to-do. It turns out this is another event type that I had no idea how to plan, so things are a little rough, but enough pizza and swimming should cover up any social gaffes.