A 3-Year-Old Day

Today was a great day. I went to my niece's third birthday party, got some laundry and dishes done, and then C made me a delicious dinner of salad, buffalo chicken, and pesto pasta. I watched the Red Sox beat the pants off the Yankees 9-2, and now I'm catching up on my blog. It was a good mix of relaxing and checking things off my to do list.
My niece's birthday party sticks out in my mind as the most writable part of my day, simply because kids can be so delightfully entertaining, especially to those of us who don't have any. :)
There were 8 kids total at the party, with me being the only sane one, I mean, person without one. (Just kidding, all you parents out there, on the sane comment). :) This meant I was basically the only one without responsibilities, allowing me to fully observe the child dramas unfold around me (and be the first adult to eat!).
First there was my niece (we'll call her E), who either was unaware it was her party or was just not interested in her party. She and my other niece, (we'll call her J), spent a good chunk of time by themselves at the beginning in E's bedroom, playing with her Thomas the Train set. This prompted my sister to put on a Thomas DVD, cleverly drawing them out into the living room without any understanding of her exploitation of their love of Thomas. (Ah, the innocence of children). :)
That is, until, "the cup incident" occurred. J was collecting some of the plastic cups sitting around the coffee table, and I asked her if she would throw them away. She agreed, but then E decided that she, in fact, wanted to be the one to throw them out instead. Well, J wasn't having that so I suggested they throw them out together. But silly me forgot that this would involve them sharing in an activity, something the girls were still "practicing" every time they were in the same room. So instead, J gave one of the cups to E, who promptly did her "throwing out" by tossing the cup past J. That's when my brother-in-law came over to try and smooth things out between the two (since, as I said before, I had no responsibilities whatsoever). :) Pretty soon, everyone could hear the commotion over these plastic cups, and my sister, in her infinite wisdom and obvious oblivion to the situation, said from the kitchen, "You can both throw them away." Yeah, uh, we TRIED that already. But as children are prone to do, E quickly dropped the subject after her father told her she couldn't have any cups if she was just going to throw them, and she and J wandered away like nothing had ever happened. If only adult disputes could be settled so quickly (or forgotten that easily), with only minimal temper tantruming.
One of the cutest parts came when their friend, we'll say B, was watching over one of his sons, N. N, who seemed to be practicing for an upcoming marathon the whole time, was walking around with a crayon when he stopped in front of my sister's entertainment center. Slyly, he looked around to see if anyone was watching. All of a sudden we could hear B's voice off in the distance. "N, what are you doing?" N looked over at his father lovingly, smiled, and walked away. Bright boy. :)
The second cutest part also involved those two. While my sister opened E's presents (as I said before, she didn't seem too interested in her own party!), N slowly made his way through the crowd and over to the coffee table. I was looking at my sister and she was throwing something away, when all of a sudden N, the mini mountain climber, appeared at the top of the present heap in triumphant defiance of the numerous boxes that stood in his way. And just when he started his slide over the other side (apparently the climb up took everything out of him), B swooped in, snagged him by the back of the shirt, and lifted him over everything like a human helicopter. Priceless.
All in all, the birthday party was a big hit with the kids, especially when they received their goody bags and discovered a slinky among their prizes. You'd think they'd never seen a shiny, stretchy, piece of plastic that climbs down stairs before (although when we went to an arcade for my birthday, C had the same reaction when all of our tickets together were enough to purchase one, and he just had to try it on our back stairs since they curved). :)
I guess some things never get old.