All About Jack

 The other day, I remembered that I have a blog.  I realized it had been so long since I'd posted, one of my children was a whole year older.  In honor of my first-born, I decided to dedicate my comeback post entirely to him. 

For his sixth(!!!) birthday, Jack requested "a cake with two layers, blue and white frosting, white flowers, and a bird on a pipe cleaner on the top that looks like it's flying."  The boy knows what he wants.  It came out looking a little more Marie Antoinette than I'd intended, but as far as Jack was concerned I delivered.  His party was the best kid birthday party I've ever thrown; low-key and fun for all.  We started the party off by serving the kids a lunch of tacos and fresh strawberries, with a special birthday treat of boxed chocolate milk.  Next we did cake and presents.

 "I've always wanted this one!"

 Then, my stroke of brilliance: I tossed 25 containers of Play-doh on the table with several cookie cutters, and the kids proceeded to play(quietly, I might add) for about 90 minutes.  Clean-up wasn't even that bad.  And yes, there was a giant mound of gray Play-doh in the middle of the table when they were done, but that was fine by me because they made it by mixing most of the lame colors together anyway.

 This was some time after his birthday.  Jack asked me to take his picture because he was "being a walrus."  I think my favorite thing about my kids is their sense of humor.

And now, Jack is all grown up.  He was due for new glasses quite a while ago, but it's so difficult convincing him to go to any kind of official appointment that I put it off for a long time.  Finally, the guilt of knowing that he wasn't seeing the world as clearly as he could got to me and I dragged him to Wal-mart to get some cheap glasses.  We usually go with Costco, but the last pair we got there for him kept breaking.  I hate Wal-mart and I hate that I gave them my money, but Jack's glasses were a) half the price of Costco b) under warranty for a whole year, no matter what happens to them and c) plastic frames.  Costco only carries metal frames for kids, which is dumb because they bend out of shape so easily.  I can tell that the lens material Wal-mart uses isn't as thin as the Costco stuff, but that really only effects how Jack looks to other people, not how he sees.  And for a six year-old boy who is constantly running, jumping, climbing, wrestling, and otherwise imperilling his glasses six ways till Sunday, cheap glasses are a good thing.