spoken for

Saturday, after the Civil War Encampment, we took a short break then headed to my parents’ house to have a little birthday party for Elijah. It wasn’t really anything special, nothing more than we do each year except that it was both my immediate family and Steve’s immediate family. Usually we have (very) small things with each side. I think it’s great that my parents and Steve’s parents are friends and that our siblings are friends, it really makes for a nice get-together.

There were a few people missing but most were able to make it and we had a nice evening of pizza, presents, cake and ice cream. Elijah picked out his cake months in advance and was really excited about it. Blue and orange with a big Star Wars picture. Steve pointed out that it was “dark” – aka, the Dark Side – but I can’t help it if the kid loves Darth Vader! For his piece he just had to have Darth Vader’s face and for her piece, my niece just had to have “people,” so she got two storm troopers. The little things make them happy. :)

From us, he got all 5 of the Star Wars movies that he was lacking, on DVD. Sounds expensive but I made out like a bandit, as they say. I was able to get Episode I on amazon.com used for next to nothing and I had credits on swapadvd.com to get Episode III for nothing. Episodes IV, V, and VI are a box set but it was cheaper because it doesn’t have the added stuff that they put in later, and the cases are those thin small ones. Who cares as long as the DVDs play, right?

From me he also got a Spiderman blanket. He picked out the pattern several months ago, I guess he was a little left out that I was making blankets for K and for other babies. But then again, even though he’s never carried a “blankie” in the traditional sense, this kid loves his blankets. He has been known to pile them on at night. Often I pull some off when I check on him. He likes to bring them out to watch TV with, too, sometimes even in the summer. So I thought this would be a good one for that. I’m still not finished, though, I am going to go until I run out of yarn. I started with a pound of each in red and blue. I just ran out of time before his party.

Then from his aunts, uncles, grandparents, and a special set of family friends, he ended up with some birthday money, 3 of the “regular” Transformer toys*, two large Transformer toys that don’t transform but make a lot of noise, temporary tattoos, adorable set of PJs, a Nerf dart gun, another bubble gun (he keeps breaking them and my sister keeps buying them!), etc. It’s hard for me, at the moment, to even remember everything. It doesn’t help that he absolutely TEARS through his presents until they’re all open, and then shows just how excited he is about all of them. I’m going to have to stop taking video of him opening presents because he looks like he’s only mildly entertained by everything and just wants to move on to the next thing. But he is really excited about everything he got (except the PJs, of course), he just doesn’t show it until later when he can play with things. Even now, several days later, he’s still jabbering about everything.

* Regarding the Transformers, he actually ended up with two of the same one. Because of the way he tears through presents, I didn’t realize it at the time and by the time I did, they were all open and the packaging long gone in the trash. I made a comment to Steve that we should have paid attention so that we could have exchanged one for another one he doesn’t have and E said, “No! I like them both!” And it’s true, I’ve noticed that he is playing with them both, doesn’t seem to bother him that they’re the same bad guy!

It turned out to be a great evening and I’d like to do it more, but I don’t want people to have to feel like they have to buy him something every year. His grandparents always get him something, and so do we, my brother often does, but, really, I don’t want to spoil the kid! We will just have to find other excuses of having both families together in the future.