November 4th, 2010

Rachel is officially 5 now. Yesterday was her birthday. She came up the stairs and the first thing she said was "is it I am 5 now?" Birthdays at our house are a big deal. Rachel got to pick whatever breakfast she wanted, and she settled on French toast, her new favorite. She did not have to perform her usual chores. I didn't even make her get dressed until we actually left the house (2-ish). After breakfast she watched How to Train Your Dragon, her new favorite movie. It was a day of "yes". I let her have candy whenever she wanted, watch whatever she wanted, go wherever she wanted. After she was done playing at home, she wanted to go to the park. Then it was off to the store to buy her presents. She played at the Fred Meyer play area while I shopped. We had dinner at Chuck-a-Rama, because there, she could eat whatever she wanted. She made a modest choice of one chicken leg and some macaroni and cheese. Then ice cream with M&Ms for dessert. After dinner we met uncle Cody at the Discovery Center. It was Rachel's first time there and she loved it!

All of this birthday stuff was hard on Lilly, even though she benefited greatly from the festivities. She ate candy when Rachel did, got to watch movies, got to play at the park, and got to eat what she wanted at Chuck-a-Rama. Unlike Rachel, she took advantage of the buffet, trying pretty much anything that looked good to her. Still, the attention was all focused on Rachel. As a result, Lilly had a few breakdowns. At one point, she was downstairs crying because she was all alone. I told her to come upstairs, and through her hysterical cries she said "are you going to spank me?" "Of course not," I answered, a little surprised. "Then what are you going to do to me?" Trying to be reassuring I said "I just want to talk to you." Well, this was not reassuring to her. "No!" she screamed "it will hurt my ears!" It was obvious there was going to be no appeasing her at this point. We decided to pretend it was her birthday too, but just for pretend. That seemed to help a little.

Overall, I think it was a successful day. The problem with having a birthday so great is the next day can be sort of a let down. Rachel had a hard time adjusting this morning when she learned that we were having eggs for breakfast, and that she was once again responsible for getting dressed and cleaning her room.