Family Matters
Sep. 26th, 2006 11:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothSo, over the weekend my mom was in town for my nephew's 3rd birthday. Saturday was the party -- I came over hours before the party started, since I was invited to spend time with the family and not just for the party. Stevie was really excited about the party, and kept singing 'happy birthday to you!' over and over and over. He was also really excited about some star and moon ballons Alex and Anna had gotten for him. "It's nighttime!"
I got drafted into helping decorate the backyard... I didn't do a very good job of it, though. In thirty seconds I tore one streamer, dropped the other in the neighbor's yard, and got nasty splinters in both my hands. x.x
Of course, when it came time for the party Stevie's mood suddenly shifted from 'happy and excited' to 'temper tantrum'. He didn't want anyone else to see the balloons, because they were *his*. So for the first fifteen minutes or so of the party he was on time out, then he freaked again when he saw some of the balloons tied up outside, and would probably have ruined the party if one of the other kids hadn't taken one of his presents over to distract him. After that, he forgot all about the balloons and just played with his toys with the other kids.
Later on, he got a kick out of the remote control bee I got him, even if he didn't really understand how to use the controls. "The bee destroys everything!" He's really obsessed with destroying things. He has a whole bunch of Bob the Builder Duplo toys, but it's mostly Alex who puts them together, and Stevie just smashes them apart.
Sunday, everyone went to the fair, except for me, because I didn't want to miss the Mutants and Masterminds game... which was cancelled at the last second, because Eric was too busy being retired for the whole two weeks to prepare for the game, and wasn't willing to try to wing it. We played one of Tom's new board games instead, Tempus, which purported to be a quick two hour world conquest game. It took a lot longer than two hours -- closer to four. History of the World is still my favorite simple fast game in that genre. Wish I could ever find it for sale... maybe I should check online.
But anyway, since I wasn't going to be there Sunday and they'd had big plans which I missed for no reason, I admitted that I was taking Monday off work, and spent Monday... doing nothing. Doing nothing with them, at least. We did get out to the beach, where Stevie destroyed a big sandcastle that everyone else was admiring, and some dams that older kids were building, and generally made a huge nuisance of himself, and would have brought shame to our family name if anyone there knew it. Which family name, though? I'm still Mandelbaum, mom remarried and is Bumpus now, and Anna's Chapman.
I didn't tell them I also took Tuesday off, though, so I had one day to myself. }:P Also, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Adventures, for all its many flaws, is a lot better than sitting around doing nothing, after the conversations died out and we were just waiting for Anna to finish doing something or other with the kids.
I got drafted into helping decorate the backyard... I didn't do a very good job of it, though. In thirty seconds I tore one streamer, dropped the other in the neighbor's yard, and got nasty splinters in both my hands. x.x
Of course, when it came time for the party Stevie's mood suddenly shifted from 'happy and excited' to 'temper tantrum'. He didn't want anyone else to see the balloons, because they were *his*. So for the first fifteen minutes or so of the party he was on time out, then he freaked again when he saw some of the balloons tied up outside, and would probably have ruined the party if one of the other kids hadn't taken one of his presents over to distract him. After that, he forgot all about the balloons and just played with his toys with the other kids.
Later on, he got a kick out of the remote control bee I got him, even if he didn't really understand how to use the controls. "The bee destroys everything!" He's really obsessed with destroying things. He has a whole bunch of Bob the Builder Duplo toys, but it's mostly Alex who puts them together, and Stevie just smashes them apart.
Sunday, everyone went to the fair, except for me, because I didn't want to miss the Mutants and Masterminds game... which was cancelled at the last second, because Eric was too busy being retired for the whole two weeks to prepare for the game, and wasn't willing to try to wing it. We played one of Tom's new board games instead, Tempus, which purported to be a quick two hour world conquest game. It took a lot longer than two hours -- closer to four. History of the World is still my favorite simple fast game in that genre. Wish I could ever find it for sale... maybe I should check online.
But anyway, since I wasn't going to be there Sunday and they'd had big plans which I missed for no reason, I admitted that I was taking Monday off work, and spent Monday... doing nothing. Doing nothing with them, at least. We did get out to the beach, where Stevie destroyed a big sandcastle that everyone else was admiring, and some dams that older kids were building, and generally made a huge nuisance of himself, and would have brought shame to our family name if anyone there knew it. Which family name, though? I'm still Mandelbaum, mom remarried and is Bumpus now, and Anna's Chapman.
I didn't tell them I also took Tuesday off, though, so I had one day to myself. }:P Also, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Adventures, for all its many flaws, is a lot better than sitting around doing nothing, after the conversations died out and we were just waiting for Anna to finish doing something or other with the kids.
