The one downside to having children that get older is that they begin to request themes for their parties. This year, Gabe wanted Transformers (partly because his best friend Finn had a Transformer cake that Gabe obsessed with for the last few weeks and partly because he has an unhealthy fixation with the toys).
Actually, the Transformers thing is a little weird. He got into them--VERY into them--without ever having seen any of the cartoons. It's like his little boy mind was naturally attuned to the robot-into-vehicles concept without so much as needing to know what they were actually about. They existed and he was into them because of that. And I'm pretty OK with him being into them. Actually, it's pretty cool.
It probably comes as no surprise to anyone that most of my tastes in entertainment tend to gravitate towards the juvenile. I like science fiction and fantasy, I will choose to watch a channel showing cartoons over just about anything else (even pre-K cartoons, now, just so I don't have to watch commercials--and if I'm not really watching, as it's on for background noise or something), and part of me really likes to spend at least a little time with each of Gabe's new toys.
But even in the world of kid's entertainment, there were a few particular brands that I have maintained an especial bond with--my favorites growing up. And the two that ranked the highest in my mind were Star Wars and Transformers. Star Wars was my thing for nearly a decade, and if it hadn't been for those unforgivable prequels, it still might be. I will likely resist the urge to let Gabe get into Star Wars for as long as possible now because, when he does, he'll be inundated with all of the contemptible Clone Wars garbage and will have little exposure to the GOOD Star Wars stories. Which makes me sad.
But Transformers are another story. And, even better, they are showing the first generation shows again on The Hub. Gabe loves them and I love that he loves them because these are the same shows that I was watching in the mid-80s when I got home from grade school. And I debated whether or not they were entirely appropriate for a four year old to watch, but, then I compared them to what I was watching at that age--Bugs Bunny and Tom and Jerry and Super Friends--and realized that there is just about the same level of "shit blowing up" in Transformers as there was in those other earlier generation shows. Sure there's other things he SHOULD be watching, but if he's got to be watching stuff with explosions, it might as well be something that I want to sit down and watch along with him. So far, it's been great remembering all the old shows and trying to remember the names of the various toys and characters.
But I digress wildly.
How about I just post some pictures and shut up instead.
The preamble to the party. The problem with following themes is the cost. Little packs of plates and napkins are ridiculously expensive. And, more than likely, Gabe didn't even notice that he had Transformer plates and napkins. But I suppose this way we don't have to feel guilty about being cheap bastards later in life when they are looking back on these pictures.
Norah with Nana, Poppa, and Grandma Albers.
This was just who could cram into our living room. Our dining room was also pretty full. It's great having so many friends and family who want to celebrate the kids' big days (but I wish we had a bigger house to do it in sometimes). Gabe is opening "Stinky the Garbage Truck," a giant truck that turns into a sort of robot and talks and kind of eats garbage when you put it in his mouth. Of the things that we got him, that was probably his favorite. Though, that's not really saying much because on the list of his favorite presents it probably falls somewhere around fifth or sixth. We did a little better with Norah. The Dora the Explorer Backpack that we got her was a bit more of a hit (still, probably only third best, though).
This helmet is a 3T. When we first opened it and tried to apply it to her head, we were afraid that it was too small. It felt like I was forcing it onto her enormous head. But, as the day went on, either the swelling in her head went down, the helmet grew slightly, or I just wasn't pushing hard enough because it started to more or less fit. Still, I doubt it will fit for more than a few months.
Norah kind of got the short end of the stick on the cake. Because we special ordered Gabe a Transformer cake, and it was a pretty big cake, we didn't NEED to get another one. So we got her some princess cupcakes. Really, though, she doesn't like cake, so it's not like she cared what we got her.
Gabe's Transformer cake. The same one that Finn had at his birthday party. We got it because the day of Finn's party, Gabe was most disappointed that Finn got to keep the two toys that were on top and Gabe didn't. He talked about it daily for nearly two weeks and every chance he got he mentioned that he wanted a Transformer cake so he could have the toys off it. After he blew out his candles, we pulled the toys off, washed the frosting off them, then gave them to Gabe. He looked at them, had us identify them as Bumblebee and Optimus Prime, then put them on the floor and hasn't looked at them again since. Kids.
Gabe's big present from Nana and Poppa. Probably we should have gone with the slightly bigger model, but the store was out of them at the time and we decided just to go with what was available. It should last him a year or so, and then Norah can use it. We'll just put a pink basket or something on it. That's girly enough, right? So far, he's enjoyed playing on it, but because we don't have a paved driveway, he really doesn't have any GREAT places in our yard to practice.
Norah's new trike, also from Nana and Poppa. I THINK there is also a baby doll that she got stuffed on there somewhere with her. There is a little "trunk" on the back, and she had the baby crammed in there head first for a little while.
Their best present. Our friends Jason, Mel, and their son David arranged this for the kids. It's a tire swing of the awesomest caliber. The problem was, our yard, though full of trees, is all but devoid of good branches for hanging swings from. Eventually they found ONE candidate that had the required strength and straightness, but it was way the hell up in one of our oak trees and there were a half dozen smaller branches between it and the ground. But that didn't stop Jason. Without the benefit of a prehensile tail, he climbed up the tree and started hacking off branches with this lightsaber he conjured from his shorts (that sounds a little suspect--and it wasn't an ACTUAL lightsaber, it was called a Silky Slicer or something and was like a ginsu knife for trees, but it might as well have been a lightsaber because it was about that effective against the branches of our oak tree). Really. The guy has some stones. I'm not terribly fond of heights, but even if I was, I seriously doubt that I would climb a tree, hacking branches along the way, to hang a swing for our kids. And for that type of dedication, Jason wins Number One Friend/Neighbor for the next few months at least.
The end result. This has, by a wide margin, been the kids' favorite present. Every moment we're outside they are wanting to be pushed in it. And they're both going to have to learn some important lessons about sharing along the way, so even that is a positive.Warning: the next picture has a naked little boy butt in it. If you're offended by cute little butts, then look away. Also, you've probably got problems.
I'm not sure if you can see these well enough on the downsized picture that Blogger puts up, but Gabe's back is COVERED in scrapes and scratches from his birthday celebration. Honestly, he looked like he was in a fairly major accident. Part of me wants to chalk this up to "Boys," but, really, I think it has to be chalked up to "Gabe."
And, finally, a picture from last night. Norah, grooming her mother. Picking out nits and eating them. Isn't nature mysterious and wonderful?
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