Last Day of Five

Today was Delphine's last day of being five, and also the day of her birthday party. There almost was no party; Delphine has been laid low with some kind of puking and fatigue disease. She stayed home from school on Friday and I warned the party invitees that the party may be off. This morning Delphine woke up feeling better, so I made a bunch of calls to summon the troops. One of the kids had already changed her plans, so in fact of Delphine's original list of six, only three children were able to come. (Two of her list had previously declined.)

The weather wasn't conducive to small-child-partying. There were intermittent thunderstorms all day, which meant all our fun outside games were transferred inside, smaller and darker and less fun.

I don't know if the children enjoyed themselves; they certainly aren't shy about letting you know when they're not having fun, when they don't like a game, when they don't like any of the food, when someone isn't playing the way they want you to, or indeed when anything isn't rocking their little worlds. But nobody screamed and demanded to be sent home, so I suppose that's a win. You might guess I didn't particularly enjoy hosting today's party.

Delphine didn't have a great day either. It started with still being a little bit sick, complicated by bad weather, missing friends, and a party that didn't go as smoothly as she wanted it to - Cordelia didn't play the games properly and nobody listened to her. By this afternoon she didn't like any of her presents and nobody loved her, and by 7:15 pm she was begging to go to bed. Tomorrow is her birthday and I hope it goes better.

(It's now 9:47 pm, and Delphine is crying in her room. Blake went upstairs to comfort her, and I just heard her say, "I want chicken!" Turns out she wanted Chicken her buddy, not chicken the food.)