Birthday Party Planning

    My big boy is about to celebrate another birthday.  Boy, where has the time gone?  Seems like just a few years ago, I was in the hospital, huffing and puffing through labor…wait, it was just a few years ago!  Cruz will turn 2 next month.  Luckily this year, his birthday falls on a Saturday.  I always love that…when you can celebrate a birthday on the “actual” birth day, not three days before or after.  But unfortunately for Cruz, his mommy seems to be a procrastinator.  Every place I’ve called to set up a 2nd birthday bash is booked!  And no, I don’t want to check the next weekend or on a Sunday! (see previous sentence)  So it looks like we’ll gather at a state park eat some cake and pet some farm animals.  Hopefully, he won’t miss jumping on massive inflatable slides, or seeing the exhibits at the science center.

    Before I had Cruz, I would have never put off planning a party or event till three weeks before.  I was/am an organized person.  Even though my home doesn’t reflect that right now.  I believe everything should have a place, I can bend a little on whether everything has to be in its place all the time.  But I love list making, and then running errands and checking those items off my list.  I love the planning often times more than the actual event.  So why did I put this off for so long?  Well, I’ve learned since Cruz’s birth that I am no longer on my own time.  My time belongs to Cruz.  For a couple of hours a day, he’ll allow me to do something I need/want to do.  But for the most part, he pulls my finger and leads me through the day from room to room, toy to toy, even demanding that we “go bye-bye” when he decides he needs to get out of the house and go for a car ride somewhere.  So for all my good intentions and “mental planning” I just let this one slip by.  I know it’s not that big of a deal right?  When I was a kid, I don’t remember having a birthday party at all until I asked for one when I turned 13.  It was a good one, one of those “hang out in the basement playing spin the bottle” kinds of parties…but I digress.  Back in the 70’s parents didn’t throw a party every single birthday…or was that just my parents?  So is it necessary to spend a few hundred bucks to throw a party that admittedly Cruz won’t even remember?  I guess it’s more for me than Cruz.  I like to see him interact with other kids.  He doesn’t attend daycare, so outside of his three cousins who live next door, he gets absolutely no other child to child interaction.  And it’s for the pictures….I’m sure we’ll take hundreds.  And someday, I’ll put them in a scrapbook…that is when Cruz gives me the time.