Birthday Party

What a great weekend Simon had! First, on Friday afternoon he helped David make cholent. For him, this consisted mostly of tasting the various sauces that David was putting in. Then we went to pot luck dinner at the Roth's. Simon was the only awake kid there, so I think he was a little bit bored. He played with toys and even ate a little bit of dinner and then asked to go home a few times. He stayed awake on the whole walk home and then we sang some songs and he went to sleep after 10:30. Unfortunately, his late bedtime didn't lead to a very late wake up time and he was up at around 8. David played with him and gave him breakfast, including 3 popsicles, and I slept until 11. Then I got up and David went back to bed. Simon and I sat on the porch and played with trains and counted the cars that were driving by. He ate some of his lunch outside and then Charles and Jen came over and we woke up David and we all ate lunch. Simon only wanted Chucky to put him in for a nap, which is the first time he ever requested someone other than David or me to put him to bed. It went very smoothly and he ended up sleeping from 2 until 5:30. That meant we missed Mike Rader's birthday party, but Simon needed to catch up on his sleep.
Last night, Ben and Jessie came over and brought Simon his birthday present. It was many many cardboard blocks that needed to be assembled. Simon loves them, but more than that, he loves the box that they came in and he had fun throwing it at Ben over and over again. Then he cuddled on the couch with Jessie and then he went to bed. Jen came over too and as soon as Simon saw her he said "Where Chucky go?"
This morning, Simon slept until almost 9, which was nice because it gave us plenty of time to set up for his birthday party. He was very excited about the party, but then when his friends got here and they were all playing the den, he got a little bit overwhelmed and went and played in his room with Ben and Jessie. Vanessa, his former music teacher, came and did an hour of music with the kids which was well worth the price. Simon looked slightly confused throughout, like he was wondering why music class came to his house, but I think he had fun. He was very excited to have cake and to open his presents--he got some great stuff!
After the party, he took about an hour to eat a bagel and then he finally took a nap. It took him a very long time to fall asleep and he kept singing "happy burrday to Simon! happy burrday to Simon!" It was very cute. He finally fell asleep and slept until almost 6. He and I took a field trip to the 7-11 to buy some batteries. He walked the whole way there (I should have listened to him when he told me not to bring the stroller), stopping to look at flowers and various other things along the way. When we were ready to leave, there was a train going by and Simon got so excited that I asked him if he wanted to go on the choo-choo. He said yes very emphatically. I warned him that it was only one stop to go home so it would be a short ride. We sat on a bench and waited patiently for the T to come and Simon was so happy to be on it. He was sad to get off the train, but then happily walked all the way home up the huge hill. He stopped a couple of times because there were letters carved into the sidewalk and everytime he saw that he would stop and say "look... S Simon!" He threw a fit when we got home because it didn't want to go inside and he really wanted to go back on the train.
Eventually he calmed down and ate a decent dinner of soup and chicken. Then he had a bath and protested a lot about going to bed because he wanted to play with his trains. I read him a few stories and then turned out the light to sing songs. He wanted me to sing happy birthday, so I did and then he said "I blow out candles now?" And then he pretended to blow out candles. He went into his crib happily, but a few minutes later he was sort of crying and saying "I want Mommy. Please Mommy." So I had to go in. I held him for a few minutes and then he went to sleep.