Aftermath of a birthday party and a 10 minute nap... Part I.
Aftermath of a birthday party and a 10 minute nap.... Part II.
Gift frenzy
Someone likes cake like his dad.
Licking the frosting of Mater
Mr. Chuck E. Cheese himself
Blowing out his candle
The 'chaos' room.
A semi driving simulation game. We did not do well.
The cake
I'm finally getting around to posting about Ethan's big birthday at Chuck E. Cheese's the other weekend. I'm pretty busy in case you can't tell. Mostly shoveling cause global warming is dumping 60 inches of snow on us this year. Suck it mother nature or old man winter or el nino or whoever is the cause of this. Don't get me wrong, I love snow. But, when I have to throw snow over my head because the piles at the end of the driveway are so high it's time for spring to get here.
Anyway, Papa, grandma, Uncle Nick and Aunt Carrie made the trek down from Minnesota on Saturday so we spent the afternoon/evening at the hotel. Ethan and I spent a lot of time trekking between the hot tub and the pool because once Ethan does something once and he finds it fun we are going to do it again and again and again until I want to cry. Never seems to phase him though. I've found that to be more and more prevalent with him lately. He's nothing if not predictable. After pool time we played in the room, had dinner and then Ethan helped everyone open their Valentine's Day presents from grandma. He's very helpful.
Anyway, Sunday was the big day. We got there a little early and from the outside Chuck E Cheese seems like a decent place. Nice exterior... decent parking lot. The tinted windows should have been a little bit of a give away though. Hmmm... why wouldn't a company want potential customers to see what is going on inside the store? Would it be because it's complete and utter chaos behind those closed doors and tinted windows and if anyone actually knew what they were getting into before they walked into the building they'd turn and run screaming. Seriously, one step into the place and my blood pressure started to go up. The noise was unbelievable and the number of kids running around with harried parents trying to keep up was incredible. And, it only got worse as the day went on. After getting all of our stuff in I got some tokens for Ethan and we set off to find some games to play to kill time until everyone else arrived. When I spent all the time concentrating on Ethan and not on the chaos around me it was a lot of fun. We found a couple games where he could attempt to win tickets and a couple where he sat on my lap and we tried to work together to either blow up robots or drive a semi. We didn't do all that well with either. At that point everyone started showing up so Ethan moved relative to relative playing games. It included a stupid monster truck game where you can win tickets but it literally lasted like 5 seconds and then Ethan wanted more tokens. I tried to gently nudge him towards other games but he wasn't having it and if I decided I wasn't going to give him a token he took the matters into his own hands and reached into my pocket and got them anyway. For a while Ethan played with his Papas and they got him to play whack-a-mole which he struggled with a little bit. Reaction times were just a little slow. I think he got may 3 of them before they dropped back down. Shortly there after it was time to eat some pizza. I don't think Ethan actually ate though. I don't know... it's all such a blur at this point. Did I mention the crowd kept getting thicker and thicker as we were there? That leads to crowded situations which leads to increased levels of armpit sweat on me because crowds give me anxiety.
Now that I'm done whining about my social disorders I will mention they have a little show with the animitronic Chuck E Cheese characters that don't appear to have been updated since I was Ethan's age. They sing and the employees there 'participate' as well. I put that in quotes because I'm pretty sure a couple of those kids were contemplating cutting their wrists during their performances because they looked so miserable. I can't say I blame them. It's a cramped area with a ton of kids and I'm guessing that's the last thing a 16 year old kid wants to do. To find the silver lining... I'm guessing they're making just a little over minimum wage so I'm sure their big checks every couple weeks make it all worth it... Anyway, Chuck E Cheese himself makes a quick appearance, gives out some hugs and then they cut the cake and inform you that you only have 10 minutes before you have to give your table up. Hey CEC(abbreviation cause I'm sick of typing)... how about you move the performance up so people can eat cake and open presents when it doesn't have to turn into a shovel and tear fest just to get it all wrapped up. Other than that though it really was a lot of fun. Ethan had a blast and can't wait to go back and really that's more important than me whining about overcrowding. He got some really fun presents so thanks again for those who were able to make it and help make it a memorable day for Mr. Ethan Robert. One last quick story... apparently Jim and Ethan have been attending some sort of ninja training because when we were all trying to leave no one could find either of them. We literally had 5 people scanning the entire place trying to find them for close to 10 minutes with no success. Suddenly, they materialized out of thin air. Next time you feel like someone is watching you and when you look you don't see anyone... it's probably Jim.
Let's see... what else. Well, Ethan turned 3 and decided he didn't need to listen to us about anything anymore. His new 'fun' thing to do is totally ignore you when you ask him questions. It drives me absolutely insane. 'Ethan, what do you want to eat?' Silence. 'Ethan, do you have to go potty?' Silence. 'Ethan, do you want me to drop kick you just so you'll look at me?' Silence. No look either. If you do finally get him to look at you often times he'll answer in gibberish. I need things to be logical. I need his behavior to be logical. That clearly isn't. I don't handle it well. This morning I stormed outside after another one of these sessions and shovled instead. Mature, huh? I now have a much better understanding of why my mom used to lock herself in the closet when Nick and I got to be a little too much. Well, mostly Nick... I was perfect.
Lately, Ethan has discovered a new phrase as well. If you try and lecture him, he'll often give it right back to you and end tell you to quit sassing him and he finishes that with a 'I'm not asking again.' It's a new kind of joy when your kid starts using your words against you... and he's only 3.
Ethan has decided he is ready to be a 'Robin' at daycare. That is the next room up. That's about the only thing that I can hold over his head right now to get him to do anything. 'Ethan, that's not how a big boy behaves' is totally worthless. 'Ethan, if you don't pick up your toys you won't get any TV tonight' almost gets a snicker like 'come on, dad... i dare you. see how miserable i make your life if you go THAT route.' I'm really at a total loss at this point for anything else I can hold over his head at this point. Parenting is very hard when you can't reason with kids and they're always willing to call your bluffs. Oh, and according to the 'Parents' magazine I read today you're not supposed to tell your kid they're 'being a bad boy'. WTF? Are you f-ing serious? Good god what is this world coming to? You can't say 'being a bad boy'? Seriously... WTF? Just be happy I'm not beating your arse like they did a couple generations ago. We're going to end up raising a generation of pansies. I wanted to put another word there, but this is a family blog... On the bright side, the number of bar fights that occur in about 20 years should drop dramatically cause this next generation will just be able to talk everything out. I really can't put into words how disgusted that article made me. Same kind of feelings I have about giving medals/trophies to teams that come in 12th place. Guess what... you're really not that good. Suck it up and get better.
Okay... enough ranting for one post. Thanks again to Curt, Carrie, Jacob, Brenden, Brant, Brenna, Jill, Alex, Asa, Papa Brett, Grandma Brett, Papa Smith, Grandma Smith, Uncle Nick, Aunt Carrie(+soon to be cousin), Uncle Ben and Aunt Ellen for coming to Ethan's party. We all appreciate it!
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