Ro's birthday turned out great! We invited all of the kids in his daycare class and dropped off a few invitations at his preschool. We also invited a friend of ours who brought four out of five of her own kids to hang out, too. The only family members who arrived were my sister, B's grandfather, and B's aunt, but that was okay because it gave us a lot of time to talk to the other parents. I even managed to exchange phone numbers with another mom to maybe have some playdates! Unfortunately, we've been pretty busy every weekend since so I've been dropping that ball. I am pretty excited about that prospect though because then there's a good chance that Ro will have lifelong friends from his diaper ages. I enjoy time with all of my friends, but I've found that those are pretty special.
After waking up, B left to go biking for the morning and we started the day off with a Starbucks breakfast. Ro loves getting an everything bagel with cream cheese whenever we go. We then waited for Ev to arrive before going to Ro's ninja class. I left Ro there to stop by Party City for table cloths and a new Happy Birthday banner. When I got back, Ro was waiting on the sidelines next to Ev and refused to go out onto the mat to practice. I told him that if he was going to sit on the side, he had to watch the class and cheer on his friends. I don't know what this means for his practices because he knows the stances and likes to practice them at home, but he doesn't seem to be too interested in joining the rest of the class on the mat. I asked his teacher if that meant we just started him too young or if it's a sign he's just not interested in the class very much. She said he was just being a toddler and being in the class would help him be more still and attentive. His teacher does have a toddler daycare and understands toddlers very well. I just wonder if some of the advice is to keep him enrolled in the class.
We left and on the way back, Ev and I counted with Ro in Spanish just to see what he knew. I intended to just have him repeat me or count with me, but we ended up repeating after him because it turned out that Ro knew his numbers in Spanish from one to ten!
After ninja class, B and I took inventory of what we had. We were actually able to save money by using old decorations from last year and by letting Ro choose an Oreo cake from Save Mart. (Everyone ended up wanting small slices so I was able to stretch the cake for twenty people pretty easily.) We also bought the party favor snacks early while they were on sale at Costco.
We all then went to the Mad Duck near our house for lunch. We sat out on the patio and there was a very big group near us with a lot of kids who were tired and wired from their soccer games. As usually when there are misbehaving kids around, Ro acts really well because he's either too busy watching or he doesn't have a need to be disruptive. I did have to turn on his Kindle because he did get bored, and he likes watching shows because he knows how to ask Alexa to control functions on his Kindle. Everything went great until after we paid the bill and tried to tell Ro it was time to go home. He got super upset because he was in the middle of watching a show on his Kindle. We finally had to pick up Ro and his Kindle and hustle them both through the restaurant to leave. As we left though, Ro was screaming, "Alexa! Turn on the episode! Alexaaaaaaa!!!" He eventually did calm down when we got to the car and made it home. B and I then escaped upstairs for a quick nap while Ev entertained Ro. I think he actually forgot we were there once he realized he had his very own captive audience.
Around 3pm, Ev, Ro, and I left to claim some space and decorate while B waited at home before picking up the cake, drinks, and pizza. There was a luau birthday party going on in the gazebo area away from where we staked out near the bathrooms, but it turned out we didn't have to fight for any real estate. Ev went to watch Ro play on the playground equipment while I got to kick back, still drowsy because my nap was either too long or too short. Everyone started arriving around 6pm and the rest worked out great. We found out from the parents of Ro's preschool friends that he's doing really well learning Spanish in his dual immersion class. I was worried that Ro would be stubborn and refuse to get involved. I think he does a little of that because a lot of the kids come from Latino families and are at least a little familiar with the Spanish language and maybe that makes him feel a bit like an outsider. I have noticed since whenever I drop him off that there's always a few girls who smile shyly at him and want to say hi in the morning, and so it's not like his classmates are unfriendly.
Ro and his friends had so much fun that they really didn't want to go home. The main wrench with this plan was that that Saturday turned out to be the first cold evening in Fresno after this summer and also that the park lights didn't turn on as soon as it was dark! One of the parents turned on the headlights of his car to light up the playground equipment enough for the kids to play (and for us to make sure one didn't wander off). We ended the party right at 8pm because we all were tired from the day and my sister still had to drive home that night.
After waking up, B left to go biking for the morning and we started the day off with a Starbucks breakfast. Ro loves getting an everything bagel with cream cheese whenever we go. We then waited for Ev to arrive before going to Ro's ninja class. I left Ro there to stop by Party City for table cloths and a new Happy Birthday banner. When I got back, Ro was waiting on the sidelines next to Ev and refused to go out onto the mat to practice. I told him that if he was going to sit on the side, he had to watch the class and cheer on his friends. I don't know what this means for his practices because he knows the stances and likes to practice them at home, but he doesn't seem to be too interested in joining the rest of the class on the mat. I asked his teacher if that meant we just started him too young or if it's a sign he's just not interested in the class very much. She said he was just being a toddler and being in the class would help him be more still and attentive. His teacher does have a toddler daycare and understands toddlers very well. I just wonder if some of the advice is to keep him enrolled in the class.
We left and on the way back, Ev and I counted with Ro in Spanish just to see what he knew. I intended to just have him repeat me or count with me, but we ended up repeating after him because it turned out that Ro knew his numbers in Spanish from one to ten!
After ninja class, B and I took inventory of what we had. We were actually able to save money by using old decorations from last year and by letting Ro choose an Oreo cake from Save Mart. (Everyone ended up wanting small slices so I was able to stretch the cake for twenty people pretty easily.) We also bought the party favor snacks early while they were on sale at Costco.
We all then went to the Mad Duck near our house for lunch. We sat out on the patio and there was a very big group near us with a lot of kids who were tired and wired from their soccer games. As usually when there are misbehaving kids around, Ro acts really well because he's either too busy watching or he doesn't have a need to be disruptive. I did have to turn on his Kindle because he did get bored, and he likes watching shows because he knows how to ask Alexa to control functions on his Kindle. Everything went great until after we paid the bill and tried to tell Ro it was time to go home. He got super upset because he was in the middle of watching a show on his Kindle. We finally had to pick up Ro and his Kindle and hustle them both through the restaurant to leave. As we left though, Ro was screaming, "Alexa! Turn on the episode! Alexaaaaaaa!!!" He eventually did calm down when we got to the car and made it home. B and I then escaped upstairs for a quick nap while Ev entertained Ro. I think he actually forgot we were there once he realized he had his very own captive audience.
Around 3pm, Ev, Ro, and I left to claim some space and decorate while B waited at home before picking up the cake, drinks, and pizza. There was a luau birthday party going on in the gazebo area away from where we staked out near the bathrooms, but it turned out we didn't have to fight for any real estate. Ev went to watch Ro play on the playground equipment while I got to kick back, still drowsy because my nap was either too long or too short. Everyone started arriving around 6pm and the rest worked out great. We found out from the parents of Ro's preschool friends that he's doing really well learning Spanish in his dual immersion class. I was worried that Ro would be stubborn and refuse to get involved. I think he does a little of that because a lot of the kids come from Latino families and are at least a little familiar with the Spanish language and maybe that makes him feel a bit like an outsider. I have noticed since whenever I drop him off that there's always a few girls who smile shyly at him and want to say hi in the morning, and so it's not like his classmates are unfriendly.
Ro and his friends had so much fun that they really didn't want to go home. The main wrench with this plan was that that Saturday turned out to be the first cold evening in Fresno after this summer and also that the park lights didn't turn on as soon as it was dark! One of the parents turned on the headlights of his car to light up the playground equipment enough for the kids to play (and for us to make sure one didn't wander off). We ended the party right at 8pm because we all were tired from the day and my sister still had to drive home that night.
Comments
Post a Comment