Charlie's Party

As an experiment in Staying at Someone Else's House, it was not an unqualified success. As a Birthday Party, it was pretty good.

Charlie is 4 weeks older than Maia, and this Saturday we went down to Weedon to celebrate with him, his parents, grandparents, 27 of his closest buddies and their siblings, dogs and assorted hangers-on. It was quite a gathering.

We are planning Maia's party at the moment, and Saturday (while fun) definitely confirmed to me the virtue of Keeping the Numbers Down. Policing a tug-of-war over a draught-excluder snake between two dogs, an 8 year old I don't even know and three toddlers is not the way I wish to see in Miss Maia's 3rd year.

Maia and Charlie haven't seen each other since The Havell Boys were christened a couple of months ago. They were a bit standoffish with each other at first (probably swamped by the numbers) but after everyone had gone, they spent the best part of two hours running back and forth, excitedly bossing each other about.

Bath time was hilarious. Charlie has an extensive collection of little squirty toys. They are tricky to work, but he is a pro. The shark, in particular, was Maia's favourite. She tried to make it work, failed, got bored and put it down. At which point Charlie picked it up and squirted her. Interest piqued again, Maia picked it up, tried to make it work....failed, put it down again. At which point...

They did this back and forth about 4 times. After the fourth or fifth time getting squirted with something she had proved to herself didn't work, she took the low tech approach and splashed him full in the face. Then ensued a full scale water war with a soundtrack of excited giggles.

Bed time was less successful. Maia is pretty good about going to sleep in her own bed now, but it still takes a good 1/2 hour before she is asleep. Charlie only has to look at a pillow and he is off. So, in a strange room, hyped from the day, she wasn't going to go down easy. In the end, Pat lay down with her. From the contented snores that emanated from the room the 3 times I went to check, I don't think she was the only one sleeping...

Next morning, we were woken by Lisa and Austin's puppy, Milligan, snuffling around our heads. Maia had been collected, blearily, from the top of the stairs to join us downstairs in bed at about 3am and was annoyingly perky for it being a mere 4 hours later. As the Sunday was Charlie's actual birthday, she spent the morning 'helping' him open his presents. At times she was far more interested in the opening than he was, but when the bicycle came out, she was all about the present. He wasn't that fussed, but she almost pushed him aside to get at it. We had a word about sharing, and how it was Charlie's bike etc etc, but by that time she was off!

So, mantra for Maia's birthday - Keep The Numbers Down, Buy A Bike.