Saturday, 14 May 2011
Today, my son is six years old.
He came into my bedroom a few minutes after 7:00 this morning, and woke me up in an annoying way (he calmly lifted one of my eyelids). After hobbling out of bed, we both stopped to use the bathroom. We reconvened in the living room. I looked at the clock and saw the precise minute of his birth had just passed, so I said, “Hey, you’re six years old as of right now!” And then, despite the fact that my parents always asked me this question and I never had a coherent answer, I decided to say, “How does it feel to be another year older?”
This afternoon, a party in my son’s honor was held at his grandparents’ home. Owen had a few family members present, and some of his peers – friends he has because Jennifer and I are friends with their parents, friends he has from preschool last year, and, of course, his two (non-cult-member) cousins and his baby sister.
Owen’s party had a Star Wars theme to it, which matched perfectly with the rest of his life lately. The majority of his gifts were Star Wars-related, including a puzzle, two Lego sets, and a Lego video game. Owen also received a bicycle from his grandparents. It’s funny, because he just didn’t seem to be able to take a hint. He opened one gift that was a bag to attached to a bike. Then he opened a gift of a bike horn, then a helmet, and then knee pads. My wife kept saying to him, “Oh, that would sure be nice with a bike, wouldn’t it?” Finally, she asked him, “Do you have a bike?” He thought for a moment and then mentioned the bike he received as a gift over 5 years ago – a bike that’s so small for him he hasn’t ridden it in over two years. Then my father-in-law brought in the bike, and (I think) Owen put the pieces together.
We drove home for the evening having had a great day, but I gotta say, it was quite difficult to set up. For one thing, Owen had initially said he wanted to invite some of his friends from Kindergarten. This is trickier than it sounds because usually parents just drop their kids off for a party like this and, well, we didn’t have room to have the party at our small apartment, so we decided to hold it at my in-laws’ place. But their house is so inconveniently located to everything, that we didn’t want to make parents come drop off their kid so far away. So, we figured we’d nix the idea of having his Kindergarten friends over. But then, guess what? The day after we sent out invitations, we received an invitation from one of Owen’s best friends in class inviting him to her party. So then we felt guilty for not inviting her. But guess what else? He party was scheduled for the same day as Owen’s…so, even if we had invited her, she wouldn’t have been able to make it.
Yeah, so really frustrating.
In the end, I took Owen to his classmate’s party (which started two hours earlier than his). I took an hour and a half to go buy Owen a birthday card and then sat in a cafe’ and studied for my upcoming final exam. I picked Owen up then sped on to his party. Today was a cold, dreary, overcast day – a far cry from his 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th birthday celebrations, but right in line with the day he was born. We dined on ice cream cake and a free 6-foot party sub from Subway Sandwiches. After we arrived home, it took over two hours for our kids to unwind. Owen played his new video game and Isla just laughed maniacally at everything even after we were all laying down in bed. It was a good time.
Happy birthday, Owen!