Birthdays are fun...only when they are for Grumpy!

We had a whole lot of family fun Saturday. We went to two different birthday parties and had actually been invited to two others. I’ve got some popular children!!! I really like the all or none rule our school has for allowing invites to be passed out there. It sure means that at least for a while all of my kids (those with 47 and those with 46 chromosomes) have an equal chance of getting an invite.

At the first party I enjoyed watching my children interact with all the guests. Colin was shying away from the girls (it was a princess party) and hanging with the guys…course all the guys were actually making over my baby Jordan for awhile….go figure.

It really is fun to go at talk to other parents too. This party is always one of my favorites, because the little girl has an older brother with Down syndrome and it gives me hope to see how much an integral part of the family he is and how much fun he is having. He told me all about his new school and all of his new friends. I really hope that Colin can get that animated and talk to me about stuff like that someday.

The actual coolest part of the first birthday party for me was watching Melea play the “musical finger nail painting game.” Melea was just so excited every time one particular shade of pink got to her that she would hide it and wait for the music to stop so she could paint with that one! It really was a great game and Melea had so much fun getting her nails done with her little girl friends. She even really was attempting to communicate and play with the girls and ignored her sisters…. Oh how age appropriate… And like all little girls I know who had to bring their little sisters to a friend’s party.

Some days I really have to look so hard to find something different between mine with the extra chromosome and those with the typical number. Most of the girls were in Melea or Colin’s kindergarten classes, but we took all the kids. I thought Adrian would have fun too, and we had to attend another party afterward for the children of a family friend. It was actually amazing for me to watch my very talkative and outgoing little Adrian become shy and reserved. I think most of this was due to the new location and the fact she didn’t really know anyone but the party girl. It is interesting to actually sit and see how she interacts with “typical” children in a strange situation.

Adrian just seemed out of her element there though. I really would have thought that she would have enjoyed the fingernail painting game…but the next thing I new she had disappeared Of course this “shy and quite young lady” disappeared and was replaced by the gregarious little Princess Grumpy when we got to our friend Max’s house….Adrian was so ready to see her best friend Max!!! She loves this little guy!!!! He is one of her many “boyfriends” and she seems to plan on marrying a different one of them each day. But for our poor little Princess the rude awakening was not over yet.

Her best friend Max has a few other friends to celebrate his birthday with …..Besides our six children….and why not he is one cool little guy. They were also celebrating his little sister’s first birthday. Of course my kids all had ulterior motives by this point in the party game! Colin & Eliza wanted to eat dinner (Kimberly’s famous spaghetti), Jordan wanted mommy (oh the ironic surprise there), Melea wanted to jump in the bounce house, and Miranda was just really tired (she has another ear infection). Of course Adrian just wanted MAX!!!!

Max is her friend and she really was excited to pick out his presents. We brought him a boring present….flash cards….but to Adrian these are the coolest things and she loves them so much she thinks everyone wants them. However Adrian was really surprised to see her BFF with others from his school. It gave her a start…but then our little princes…just put Grumpy into overdrive!

She put on her “one volume” only, she kept inserting herself into everything he was doing and trying to get Max’s attention no matter what she did. Sounds bad…but remember they are five and four years old….. So in her case she chased Max and his friend with a toy claw that had a hand pincher at the end ….she threw toys at them….she took his food… pretty much wanted him to play with just her. But at this party she was her normal Princess Grumpy self. Not the little shy girl we had experienced several hours earlier.

As her mom…I liked seeing her a little out of element earlier…and believe it or not I really do love my Princess Grumpy!