Sumbirth day fun

Swimming lessons were going strong through all this time in our lives. Eli LOVED them this year. There was no crying like we had last time. After a long talk with my mom the night they stayed over, I started doing "standing in the corner" with Eli when he wouldn't listen or was acting disrespectful toward Tim or I.

Very difficult for a little one to listen to Mommy telling you to listen to the teacher and sit while you are waiting, when 7 other toddlers are not. We spent a few minutes in the corner, but ended up having even more fun. I'm thinking that this is the same cycle we'll hit when he becomes a teenager. He's beginning to reason for himself and develop more concrete thinking- and is pushing any and all boundaries we have ever set to see just how far he can go. Only now, he is young enough that I can put him in the corner and teach him respect. Wow. What would you do with this attitude if they never learned to respect you?

Well, the day of his birthday, Eli and I headed off to Columbus. Papa had to work all day, so my wonderfully romantic notion was for us to go to COSI- the Columbus Science Center- and play in the morning and then drive over to the playground if he was still awake and then to the fire station and have dinner, cake and sing happy birthday with Papa and his second family- the guys on his crew.

We traveled to Columbus, stopping at the fire house to drop off Eli's cake (didn't think it would be edible if it sat in the hot car all day......or at least not very presentable), and caught Papa just as he was coming back from a run. So we said hi for a few minutes and then left for COSI.

He had a blast!! We played in KidZone- an area just for kids under 1st grade. We went from item to item, splashed in water, played in the little houses turning on and off lights and the sink, made sound and noises with electrical currents, played in the little kitchen making at least 2 full meals, slid down the slides, jumped around the tree house, looked at animals, read a book, balanced balls on streams of air and then did it all again. Then, after the first 15 minutes when we did all that..... hehehe just kidding.....

We went outside for a little snack and I got my first damper for the day. (Amazing how hard it is to separate your feeling apart from what you are doing, isn't it?) I had a message on my phone that I had been rescheduled for the next day to work at a different store. So, while he was finishing his snack, I was trying to call the store I was to be working at to see if they could contact all the patients I had lined up to meet with me that day. It was hard not to let the frustration be a little cloud cover on an otherwise sunny, magnificent day.

So, we drove back toward the fire house and Papa. He fell asleep after only a few minutes, so we skipped the park and went to see Papa. I had hoped to be able to lay him on Tim's bunk for a quick nap, but when we arrived, the knowledge that we were at the fire house, a mere minute away from the fire engines and medics, was just too much to contain, and his sleepiness dropped like a dead weight.

Long story shortened, Tim had over 23 runs that day. So we spent more time waiting there by ourselves than we did with Papa. We did take a little trek over to a play ground nearby around supper time and played for a little while- Eli loved that!!

Finally, around 8, we were able to light the candles, and several of the guys sang with us, it was very cool. Eli blew out the candles and then attacked his cake- this time a backhoe loader. If I can figure out how to upload the video, I'll put that segment here.

So, on a beautiful summer day, Eli was able to spend time doing things he loved, in a place where he was loved, anticipating and then being rewarded with Papa there to sing and eat cake with him. We slept well that night- Papa is still trying to catch up on his sleep- with only a little over 2 hours for him.......