Paco's birthday

Whew! Paco’s birthday is over and I now have a 6-year old and a 3-year old. The excitement mounting to Paco’s birthday is akin to that of Christmas. The planning and then the planning and the planning and the discussing and the organizing and the planning and the totality of how it consumes him. Bad enough that I have to get some things organized and planned but Paco gets right into it. Really though he was a big help. Leading up to the party he stuffed the piñata with the goody bag treats and took care of organizing that. He thought it was great that I had a list of things to get done and was very excited anytime anything could be marked off.

I have noticed with him that when he is into something then it really becomes the be-all and the end-all. When he was into construction that was where most of his attention was caught up. I remember driving with a friend of his in the car and how excited Paco would get when he saw a construction sign, and it was summer so there were many, and his friend said to him “You know Paco; there is more to life than just construction.” Paco remained oblivious to that comment – probably because he was looking for more signs of construction.

Now his signs are packed up, he said he no longer needs his construction hats or his wagon with all his supplies in it – he is no longer a construction worker. It is no longer his thing. Now it is guns and swords and pirates and soldiers and bows and arrows and castles and so on. He can play house with Linsy or like today they were playing garbage pick-up but he only lasted a short while before he wanted to play soldier and killing and shooting. Yikes!

So this one-mindedness also comes into play when it is time for another event (so in that sense he is not totally one-minded because he has energy for guns and swords and planning his birthday…).

We were at the dollar store buying some things for the piñata and he insisted he wanted a gun and since I hadn’t any ideas for his b-day I told him to pick one out as his birthday gift. When we got home he wrapped up his gift, decorated it and ‘hid’ it. Though he talked about it almost constantly for the next couple of days. He would say he was going to open it. He was talking about his gun and his party. If he was talking in a certain tone or in a conspiratorial way I knew it was about unwrapping his gift. He finally did that one day before his birthday but on the day of his party. Almost a relief when he finally did because the energy eased up a bit momentarily (though a couple of hours later the energy was as intense as they waited for the guests to arrive).

A friend offered to help me (hmm or did I offer her help to me?) make a sword piñata for Paco’s birthday. I couldn’t have done it without her. She had the idea on how to shape it (paper mache over a table leg with foam bits for the handles) and directed me along the way or shall I say did most of it. When packing the ‘goody bag supplies’ into the piñata they all had to be wrapped in plastic bags as there was Vaseline all over the inside of the sword (had to get the table leg out somehow). The sword was packed tight and we fit in a bit of confetti and a few small balls.

The first few hits were with a plastic bat and each kid got a few whacks. Then Paco was the first to use a real bat and one hit split the sword in half. It was packed so tight that hardly anything came out so each child had a chance for many more whacks as they attempted to dislodge a bag of goodies for themselves. And yes, I was finding bits of piñata and sparkles and confetti for days. We even found a couple of balls in unusual places. All in all I would say it was a great piñata. Looked great and kept the kids busy working off some of the cake they all enjoyed.

The day after the party, the actual day of his birthday we met up with his cousin and some of her family and they celebrated their mutual birthday. This year Paco is twice the age of his sister and his cousin is twice his age. We all enjoyed playing in a pool which was well set up for all ages and included an outdoor area with a water slide, a water swing and a diving board as well as a hot tub. Paco and Linsy had no intention of going near the outdoors in their bathing suits. Just as well I suppose. The indoors was more their speed anyway.

So now life calms down a bit. Well sort of. Still seems like we have too many things planned – I keep thinking that eventually I will feel less busy. But that seems to be one of those elusive thoughts that keeps me going ahead as that day of more time never seems to arrive. Though I must admit I have had a few moments of feeling like things were calming down and that I actually could just take a minute to think about what was next rather than feeling like I am running from one thing to the other. Another one of those life-learning processes…