The youngest grandson had a birthday party this week. He was three, and is proud of it, although he loves to hold up four fingers and grin mischievously as he tells you how old he is.
The party for him was held outside and the guests were mostly three year old friends from Day care who had brought their parents with them. There was wine and cold drinks, juice for the kids,fresh water , and lots of snacks to munch on.
I had three sons of my own back in the day and I mused on the idea of how little parties have changed in 45 years! There were balloons and whirlygigs. There were bikes and trikes to ride. Chalk to draw on the pavement. A rope swing and a swing set. And, thanks to the wonder of life in Florida, fresh air and sunshine in April.
The #1 favorite thing was the swing. "Push me higher , Daddy". There was also a plastic water/sand table which was the second favorite thing. Sam, the "big brother" tried his best to organize the reckless and recalcitrant pint-sized participants to no avail. Undaunted, Sam went into the house, and in his own best first grade printing, made a sign that said:
WARNING!
LAW # ONE:
Do not put water in the sand table.
LAW # TWO;
Do not put sand in the water table.
This dire warning went largely ignored. Sam moved on to bigger things. He and the several other big brothers found great glee in racing at breakneck speed around the driveway , narrowly missing the feet of parents and occasionally flattening an innocent bystander.
At one point, I went into the house and found, off in a corner, the birthday boy, playing happily with an old , favorite toy....all by himself.
I gave him emergent reading books by Eric Carle and he has memorized them already.He spends all day Monday at my house and we read lots of books together!
What a joy it is to be a grandparent!
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