True to form – William’s 6^th birthday was an absolute circus for us.  Things started innocently enough, as I got the boys up for breakfast before school.  William’s balloons were waiting for him downstairs complete with a giant number ‘6’ (a yearly tradition for all the kids to get a giant number balloon for whatever age they are turning).  As soon as we sat down to eat, Nathan began complaining he didn’t feel well.  He’s had a tendency to do this lately whenever we are about to do something he doesn’t want to do and then he’ll miraculously perk back up again when he gets to go play with his friends outside or do some other preferred activity.  Needless to say, I was not having it this morning.  We were in a rush, I was expected to read a book at William’s school that morning, buy cupcakes for the class, and had a bunch of other things I wanted to get done.

After getting all the kids fed, dressed, teeth brushed, and out the door, Nathan’s complaints continued.  I pressed on, determined that he was just being dramatic or wanting attention because it was William’s birthday.  After flying through the drop-off line and sending William off to school with an enthusiastic ‘Enjoy your special day at school!’ I continued forward.  I began to have the nagging feeling that Nathan’s continued complaints were perhaps real since he rarely complains this much unless he really is, in fact, sick.  I decided to change the plan and drop off Owen and Colin at preschool before taking Nathan to school since that would buy us a little more time to see if this was just a morning fluke or a real bug.  After dropping off the youngest two, my hopes that Nathan was just complaining began to dwindle.  In one last ditch effort to buy more time to assess the situation, I decided we would go to the grocery store to purchase the cupcakes I needed for William’s school.  No sooner had we walk into the market, Nathan proceeded to vomit all over the floor.  It was horrible.  But the silver lining is that next to the salad display there happened to be a roll of paper towels and I was able to clean the whole thing up before having to notify someone.  The good news is that Nathan seemed to immediately recover from any sign of illness after vomiting.  The bad news is that I still had to buy the cupcakes but didn’t want to risk him vomiting again at that point, especially now that we had blown through the only roll of paper towels in sight.

I did the only thing I could.  I took him to the outdoor table and chairs in front of the market café area and told him to stay there while I went to grab the cupcakes inside.  I figured Nathan was mature enough to wait there for 120 seconds while I grabbed what I needed.  I ran inside to get the cupcakes and checkout.  While in line I noticed a familiar looking woman who had already purchased her groceries, looking around the store rather concerned.  We made eye-contact and she asked me if I was the mother of the boy out front.  I said yes and held my breath, ready to be told that she was reporting me to CPS for leaving an 8-year-old sitting at a table in front of the store.  Thankfully, she just wanted to make sure he was ok and was as non-judgey as you can get.  She did tell me, however, that she asked him if he was alright and he told her that his mom had disappeared and he had no idea where she was – thanks Nathan!  What a way to make me seem like the most irresponsible parent ever!  I rushed back outside only to find Nathan not at the table but across the parking lot waiting in the car that I had forgotten to lock.  Fine.  Everyone’s alive.  Job well done, mom.

On to William’s school.  After getting home and showering all the vomit off my feet (yuck!), we headed back out the door to read at William’s school.  After giving Nathan a primer that he was to behave and NOT try and scare William’s classmates into thinking he was a zombie ( a preferred activity these days), we headed into the school.  I must say that this was a very pleasant experience. William absolutely loves school and his classmates are a very friendly, inquisitive bunch of kids.  I was worried that William would be jealous Nathan got to stay home from school but as soon as Nathan walked through the door, William jumped up and exclaimed with pride, “This is my brother!!!  He’s 8!!!”  The three of us got special seats in front of the class room and started our story of, ‘Jumping Mouse’.  It went well, although the story is a tad long for Kindergarten and their favorite part of the entire book was when I read the words “fat, old mouse” a few times.  After that it was lunch with the class and back home for Nathan and myself.

The middle of the day was uneventful.  I got a few things accomplished at home, got dinner in the crockpot, and made William’s cake.  Then the after school craziness started.  The boys were extremely excited about getting cake that night and stayed in a frenzied state of anticipation of sugary goodness and gifts for the entire evening.  By the time David got home, I was at my wits end and the boys were loud and running all around.  All this was made worse when Colin found William’s presents in the closet. At first, Colin insisted he was just going to carry them to the kitchen table for me but in the craziness no sooner did I turn around than I saw Colin had unwrapped all the gifts.  I screamed and ran over to the table with a blanket to throw over them but all this did was put the boys into a tailspin.  They all started jumping around excitedly and tackled me to try and see what was under the blanket.  David, in the meantime, was standing there laughing at us all (as he usually does whenever I perceive an emergency).  At this point, I just surrendered.  William was entirely unconcerned that his gifts were unwrapped or that we hadn’t eaten any cake yet so I decided to just roll with it.  I flung the blanket off the presents like a magician revealing a rabbit in a hat and let them have at it.  William was happy, the boys were happy, and I had survived.

The end of the night was topped off with a nice, strong margarita for mom.  I earned it, people!