Lesson in Not Being the Center of the Universe

Henry woke up this morning announcing "I want restitution!" That was pretty much the theme through breakfast.

I braided Miss R's hair and it looked great. It took about 1/2 an hour b/c Miss R was not being helpful. Henry, Miss R, and Jeff took the dogs for a walk. Then, we got ready and headed over to Monkey Business around 11:30AM for Miss R's birthday celebration. We got there a little early to set up the balloons and Elmo table cloth.

In attendance were: Grammy, Poppy, Aunt Erin, Uncle Brian, our neighbors Yvonne and John, and our friends Carolyn and Elisabeth with her cute infant Stone (born in July).

The kids had a great time, but Henry wasn't thrilled at the presents not being for him. It was upsetting to learn that not everything is about him (although almost everything is about him). Miss R really liked her gifts.

According to Jeff, Henry made a 5 year old girl cry. In Henry's defense, she started it. But she couldn't handle the heat. Henry had an orange balloon from our table. He was walking around with it, and she took it from him. He wanted it back. Jeff asked her to give Henry his balloon back. She said it was her brother's (which it wasn't). A Monkey Business employee intervened, and Henry got his balloon back. Later, Henry saw her with another balloon and chased her around. He swatted at her, and she cried. I don't mean to sound like the kind of mommy who thinks her son walks on water (b/c I can identify when Henry is up to no good and correct him when he is being a turkey), but goodness, the gal shouldn't: (a) take things from 2 year olds to begin with, and (b) quite so wussy when a 2 year old acts like a 2 year old; a five year old should know better.

Monkey Business had a "monkey" walk around the restaurant. The monkey was a HUGE hit with both Henry and Miss R. Henry followed the monkey around. Miss R hugged the monkey. We left some time after 2PM. The kids fell asleep in the car. Way past their nap time.

Miss R got up before Henry. She had fun playing with her new shoes. We got her five pairs of glittery shoes in pink and purple colors. She had a breakdown when Jeff announced that it was time for a walk and she had to wear sneakers and not her fancy shoes. He woke up Henry b/c Henry was still sacked out. We had a family walk around dusk. Ran into Yvonne, John, Hal, and the canine gang. John mentioned how sweet Miss R was and asked if she ever acted up. Jeff and I chuckled. Even Miss R's teachers are under the delusion that Miss R has a perfect temperament. She saves her special toddler tantrums for me and Jeff apparently.

We went back home and had dinner. Then it was time to carve pumpkins. Henry didn't want to touch the insides, but he enjoyed playing with my pumpkin carving spoon. Miss R really wanted to wear her new shoes after dinner. When I brought them to her, Henry became upset b/c he wanted "pink" shoes too. Her glamour pack had five sets of shoes in them, so I brought Henry my favorites. He had fun walking around in the shoes, but we suspect that heals don't discourage his toe walking.

Our pumpkins turned out pretty well. Henry likes them anyway. It was then teeth brushing and bed. It took Henry well over an hour to go to sleep. Miss R has woken up a couple times too.