This past week we celebrated the second birthday of Sharp baby number four – the Jedi. Technically, his birthday was a few weeks ago, but one of the pros of parenting a two-year-old is that they are not generally aware of the calendar so you can get by with things like moving birthday parties around willy-nilly. There are also cons to a child being two, but I am trying to keep this column positive.
Since the Jedi’s rapidly expanding vocabulary is still quite small when compared to an older child he also didn’t get the option of choosing what kind of a party he wanted. This is also another notch in favor of two-year-olds, because once a child learns to express an opinion it also means that said child will formulate opinions. For whatever reason small humans rarely choose the “I could have an opinion, but I choose not to” option in life. We had the Jedi’s party at a splash pad near our house, which we assumed would be a lot of fun for him.
Unfortunately, there were a number of things we didn’t count on. Parents, take heed, you would do well to learn from our experience.
First, we didn’t count on gale-force winds. Parties at a park typically include tablecloths and some cheap decorations to make things festive. Due to the excessive wind gusts the number of decorations we used for the party, and I’m rounding up here, was zero. This was rather disappointing to the Wonder Woman who always does her best to try to make parties fun and festive for the kids.
Second, we didn’t anticipate another child at the splash pad, how shall we say, dropped a log in the small pool at the end of the slide. Since all of the water at the splash pad recirculates, this seemed like an opportune time to pull our kids out of the water to eat cake and open presents.
Third, I personally did not foresee how quickly a large group of balloons, which is one of the Jedi’s favorite things in the world, could ascend in strong wind. Because of the wind, the balloons along with the other decorations, stayed in the van for the party. After the party I used the button on my keychain to open the van door so that it would be open when we got there. Apparently, those balloons really wanted to roam free because in just a matter of seconds they poked out the van door, caught a gust of wind, and made their way across the park to the top of a very tall tree where they have been ever since.
Wind gusts and bodily functions aside the Jedi had a good time. He got toys and cake, and it turns out he didn’t miss the decorations. We will tell him about the balloons one day, probably when he turns 22.
