Wow! My son just turned 15! One more year he’ll be driving! Yikes! Pretty soon he’ll be old enough to vote! Now every birthday seems like a bigger and bigger milestone.
The irony is, the older he gets the less he actually cares about birthday celebrations. When we asked him if there was anything at all he wanted to actually do for his birthday, he said, “I dunno. Order pizza?” That was about it.
It got me reminiscing about past birthday parties over the years….
First Birthday: He had no idea about birthdays yet. We were on vacation and he got a cupcake from the hotel staff, which made him happy. Easy!
Second Birthday: He could talk, and ask for things. He asked for a house party with his friends and they spent the afternoon happily trashing the basement playroom. When it was time for cake, he blew out the candle like he was supposed to… then removed it and took a big bite out of it! I managed to convince him to eat a slice of the cake instead. Later, we discovered that the blue icing had some staying power (the famous “Blue Poop Incident”).
Third Birthday: He asked for a Mutant Ninja Turtle party theme. Then, after I bought all the party supplies, I learned that none of the supermarket bakeries in my area could do a Ninja Turtle cake! I wound up going to an expensive bakery for the darned cake. Lesson learned: check cake availability before committing to the party theme…
Fourth through Sixth: Chuck E Cheese, Pump It Up… The kids were happy and sweaty, but we parents kept wondering if any of those places would ever, ever get a liquor license!
Seventh: We’d just moved to a new school district, so we booked the YMCA and gave invitations to everyone in his class. Half the class RSVP’ed. Then the day of, the entire class showed up! The party room was busting, they demolished the cake and then licked the remaining icing off the platter. But the party supervisor was a trooper and they had a great time! I gave her a very, very big tip (which I think went towards a nice bottle of wine).
Eighth: Too cool for the little kids parties… but not too cool for birthday parties yet! Laser tag and arcade it is.
Ninth: Last birthday party! After debating whether or not he was too old for a party, he finally caved and we took him and some friends to a water park. They came back exhausted and happy exclaiming “Man did we party hard!!!”
Tenth, Eleventh, Twelfth: The tween years. “Guys my age don’t do birthday parties. That’s for little kids!” But not too cool to have grandma and grandpa come visit…
The Teen Years: “So, what do you want for your birthday?” “I dunno, money? Money’s nice…”
Happy Birthday Sweetheart, however you want to celebrate it!
But no, we are not buying you a car next year…
