Of birthday parties and turtles

My son is barely three and already he has a much better social life than I do. He gets invited to numerous parties and outings, is fairly popular at playgroup and his smile, well, his smile can get him pretty much anything. This means my social life has become greatly tied into his. He is not old enough that I would dream of leaving him at a birthday party by himself (like the parents of the birthday child don't have enough to deal with) and his father tends to leave such things to me, not being a social butterfly himself. Let's face it, there are always a lot more females at any such event and even if there are some dads there, they are usually one half of a couple. You don't see many dads on their own there (but it does happen, I know, don't get pissy with me now if you are some super-dad who makes balloon animals and bakes the cake for the party--just my own observations). So, I wind up at lots of birthday parties and see what the landscape is like. Which places have more bang for their buck and the like.

I say this because, as I told you on Friday, I went to McDonalds for a birthday party this weekend. I also mentioned that I was surprised it was the first one Sam had been invited to. Now, I am not doing an ad for McDonalds or anything and I am not saying any of the other places you can have your kid's birthday party are bad or anything. Each and every one was enjoyable (if my little guy is having fun, I am having fun--repeat ten times a day until you believe it). But McDonalds was a blast. I had fun. Sam had a ball. He got food he loves (don't worry, I ordered the apple slices instead of fries and milk for his beverage), he got to play around in the playroom--climbing and sliding and having a blast. And me? Well, except for the scattered time I had to go in and talk Sam down from a tunnel he was having trouble with or the odd screaming match disagreement he might have with another child in said tunnel, I got to sit down with the other moms (and two dads) and shoot the breeze. I even had a cup of coffee. And drank it! As they say at McD's, I'm loving it.

So, that went well. Then there's Franklin and his Franklin's Family Christmas Show. This is the second event I took Sam to at Mile One Stadium. The other one was a Little Bear performance. (Again, a predominance of estrogen over testosterone at these events too.) He was a bit younger then so I figured the screaming "too loud, too loud" thing might have passed him this time. Nope. But he was right. I wanted to scream "too loud, too loud" and I am still partially deaf from my ear infections and was in a seat fairly far from stage. It actually sometimes hurt my ears and Sam's hands clamped over his seemed to mean the same for him. Plus, it was a Christmas concert and, this still being November, and me still being in denial that Christmas is less than one month away, I still feel a bit like Mr. Grinch around the whole idea. Sam's best friend (and fiancee) Lauren enjoyed it a bit more than he did, although she agreed "too loud, too loud". Maybe Sam is just not the musical theatre type. Now, put monster trucks in the same stadium and he'd probably squeal "yay, it's so loud, it's so loud". Anyway, we'll think about that the next time some such kid's event (or monster truck rally) comes to town. For now, my date with Franklin is over, I didn't stick around for the Downtown Santa Clause Parade, and I am waiting for December 1st, when my heart will grow three sizes.