A Birthday To Remember

I'm a bit behind posting this, but what else is new?

There's also another reason I am posting this late and I'll get to it in a bit.

So April 19th is usually a day of celebration in this house. April 19th is Nathaniel's birthday. This year he turned 4. I still don't know how 4 years went by so dang fast, but they did.

We don't really party it up on the kids birthdays. For the older kids we'll usually take them to dinner or something and have gifts. For the little kids I try to make a favorite dinner and give them their gifts.

This year Eric had somewhere to be ON the 19th, so we decided we'd give Nate his gifts on the 18th. As much as I didn't really like to do it - I joked around saying that he SHOULD'VE been born on the 18th, but the hospital got so crazy busy that day so I didn't go to the hospital until like 7 at night. And because I WAS in the hospital on the 18th, I thought it'd be kind of fun to give him his gifts around the same time we got to the hospital.

Nathaniel had other plans and decided to take a nap around 5. He wasn't up until 8 or so. Which would've been fine except that then Eric had to do a push for work (ask him what that really means) and so we'd have to wait until about 9.

Well this push encounters all sorts of errors and just IS NOT working the way it should so Eric doesn't finish until close to 11. We had told Nate he could open his gifts tonight, so he (and the other kids) were waiting somewhat patiently until Daddy could join us.

He finally joined us and this is what we got:

-- He was excited about this gift, he really was. But he DID NOT want to wear it for a picture... --

-- But it's okay. Eric modeled it before we bought it. We had to make sure it looked good! --

-- He loves these superhero guys and so we bought him a play place for it. He loved it! --

-- He had just a few dollars left in his bday account, so we decided to go for a few cheap little dollar actions figs. He loves these as well. --

-- Sadly, Mommy didn't pick very well.... --

-- Of course we had to let him play for a few minutes before bed! --

The next day Nate got a nice card from his best friend, Landon and I made his favorite meal of mini corn dogs and french fries.

We had Nathaniel's birthday party the following Sunday and were happy to have almost all our invitees come. We even had a party crasher! My little brother, Donovan, was in town for some reason and so he was able to grace us with his presence. Sometimes I send him invites, other times I don't. This year I didn't and it was one of the times I should've. Oh well, it makes for a funny story anyway.

On Sunday things were going fine until Eric received a call from work. There were major issues going on. Eric works with the unemployment benefits website for the state and there were tons of issues where people were filing claims and it was filing them under another person's name or something like that. In short people were getting credit for things they didn't do and other people weren't getting credit for what they did do.

Eric was working like mad for a good 3 or so hours from home debating whether or not to go into the office. Because we live so far away, he was worried the problem would be fixed by the time he got there or they'd have decided to work on in on Monday. Well, nothing was changing so he finally went in.

We knew there was a chance he'd be late for Nate's bday party, so he took Lex with him (to help ease my load) and then Nate really wanted to go. He didn't understand about having a party and being the guest of honor, he just wanted to go with his Daddy. He was really upset and went as far as to tell me to drive him to Daddy AND THEN I could take a shower. This was stressing me out as I still had to take a shower and get the last minute things done for the party. But Nate was a sad little boy and needed some love.

-- See, attitude... --

I'd love to say the night got better, and it did in tiny ways, but for the most part Nathaniel's attitude didn't change. I didn't get any pictures! You read that right NO PICTURES because he refused to leave my side. Thankfully my Mother In Law is about as obsessed with pictures as I am and became our unpaid photographer! I am so thankful for her! But this is the reason this post is so late.

My Mother In Law put all the pictures on a disc for Eric's Dad to give him on Wednesday. (They work in the same building) Well, Eric works from home on Wednesdays. Then Eric was sick on Thursday. Eric went out with the guys until late Friday night, Saturday was spent out and about, so I didn't get a chance to look at the disc until yesterday.

-- Eric's on the phone telling me they found the problem, hopefully fixed it, but had to wait around for an hour or so to make sure it really was fixed! --

Anyway, after Nate finished opening presents, he had relaxed quite a bit and let me do what I needed to. Until it was time for singing and cake. He didn't much like the attention people placed on him then, either.

-- The frosting on the cake made for very fun tongue colors! --

We finished the night out by watching Nate play with his cool rocket launcher from Aunt Kami and one by one people left. And just as most people were packing up to leave, Eric gets home!

What a birthday this was. I'll always remember it, but thankfully Nate was too little to really understand what happened. As soon as people started showing up he forgot about Daddy and enjoyed his night. I didn't relax very well at all. I was stressed and highly emotional. When everyone had left and it was just Eric, the kids and I, I really broke down.

I DO NOT recommend doing a birthday party on your own. Even when it is just family...That being said, I am grateful for my family and am glad they all showed up so that my mind was eased just a bit!

Happy Birthday, Nater Gator!

He even spent the next morning (right after the older kids left for school) insisting that I build his sand and water play set and then him and Ailey just had to play with it.