Wednesday, April 1, 2009

The Dinosaur, the Little Prince and the Bat-day boy


What you see here is the happy birthday boy. Not so happy was ten minutes before this shot when I ran into our bedroom where Peter was getting a birthday hug from Mama.

'Peter! I just looked at the calendar and we really messed up. Your birthday was YESTERDAY! I'm so sorry! We'll keep the gifts until next year, though, and make sure to pay better attention to the calendar.'

Mama scowled and a lip quivered.

'April Fools'!'

After several shouts of 'not funny, Papa', I stopped laughing and Peter stopped hyperventilating. Hey, it's his birthday that's on April Fools' Day, not mine and he's stuck with me as his dad, so he better get used to this.

Speaking of fools, I ditched further scowling from Mama and went to work. In case you were wondering if I meant Mama when speaking of fools or my colleagues at work, I meant both. Mama just has the added bonus of sometimes looking foolish as well.

As I was fooling around at work, Peter was having some fun of his own. Peter and Dalia took Brian to see 'Peter and the Wolf', the concert. The main character was a wolf named Peter and Dalia was there - Peter was having a happy birthday so far. Is the foreshadowing obvious enough?

I came home from work early because I am an awesome father. Ok, I actually came because Angie had a slight meltdown over the fact that more than two people were coming over. That and the fact that I could beat the traffic home. Oh...yeah, and also because it was Peter's birthday. I'm dreading the years when he can read.

I made it home and tried a few more April Fools' jokes that were not getting by our clever five-year old. That's ok, though. Next year I will regain the element of surprise and I have 364 days to plan for the next quiver.

When Grams and Opa showed up bearing gifts, I snuck out to the baby room to hold one last phone conference that I couldn't get out of. I have to say that in hindsight, it was a well-timed call. At some point during my blabbing to my boss about how incredibly gifted I am, I guess Peter's birthday candle had a meltdown.

Peter, being the quick and bright five-year old that he now is, quickly noticed that only adults were showing up. Despite explaining to him several times that his 'big' birthday party with the eight gazillion screaming kids would not be until the weekend, Peter asked when all of his friends were coming. Mama broke the news to him.

'Sweetie, the party isn't until Saturday - your friends aren't coming over today.'

'Ha-ha. I know that joke already from Papa. April, April.'

'It's not a joke, honey...'

A lip quivered. Again. What was not the same this time around was the 45 minutes of absolute pandemonium that broke out afterwards. Luckily, my phone call lasted 46 minutes. I came in and rescued the day by lighting the candles on the cake. Let's ignore for a second that Mama bought a cake that Peter does not like and did not eat, which almost set off another conniption fit. Blowing fire took his mind off of having neither a chocolate cake nor friends at the party. Way to go, Mama!

When the smoke cleared, various family members tried to take the focus off of Peter's little birthday bash. David chose today to go 'poopy on the toilet like a big boy 'cause I are a big boy'. If anyone remembers the butt-pinching toilet seat incident, you can appreciate how long Angie and I have been waiting for this day. We, of course, had to make a BIG DEAL about this in addition to Peter's little 'turning five' thing.

Tom joined in the brotherly hogging for Mama and Papa's attention. First, his teeth came through. I thought this was great, but apparently mothers who area still breastfeeding don't appreciate this milestone as much as fathers who don't really care about such things. Right on, Tommy Gums!

Tom didn't stop there - oh, no. He also decided to amaze everyone by learning how to sit up on his own. I have been known to sit like that, but it normally ends up with some bartender yelling at me. Peter didn't yell, but he did cast a jealous look at the guests who were dumbfounded at Tom's new and amazing leaning abilities.

Eventually, all of Peter's non-friend guests left and we sat down to read one of his new books. After page two, the phone rang with Opa joining in with the whole 'let's take the focus off of Peter' game.

'Your TV is fixed and ready to be picked up, but you have to leave now. If you hurry, you can still watch the soccer game tonight - Wales vs. Germany.'

'Ba-bye, Peter.'

I came back just in time to tuck the tuckered ones in for the night. David was out before I had even picked out a book, leaving me with a few snuggly moments with my new fiver. There were no April Fools' jokes, no impressive toilet training achievements and no death-defying acts of sitting to distract us. I forgot about Angie, though.

'Hey, Steve, the game is on...'

'Ba-bye, Peter.'
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Ladder Talk:
1) What was the best part of your day?
Peter: When I got a new dinosaur and a Batman car with the Batman.
David: That Dalia come here. Yeah, really!

2) What was the worst part of your day?
Peter: When no kids was there by my birthday.
David: When I want to Mama and Papa's bed and you say 'no'.

3) What would you like to do tomorrow?
Peter: To play with my Batman car mobile with a flying mobile in it and with Batman and with the Dinosaur with the long neck.
David: When I make Dora and Boots in the toy box.

4 comments:

  1. Belated High Five Birthday to Little Prince Peter and have fun with your friends on Saturday.

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  2. Hey, happy birftay to Peter! This means that he's old enough to share toys with Steve! At the very least, it puts him in the same maturity bracket. :P

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  3. Hey Steve,
    Never forget that some (OK, at least one) of your work colleagues may be reading this - so calling them fools (even inadvertently) may be asking for severe trouble in forthcoming meetings!
    ;-)
    From
    "One of Your Fools"

    ReplyDelete
  4. Evil Daddy. Pretty funny though! :)

    Happy birthday to your big guy.

    ReplyDelete