Keegan's Birthday Party...the Prelim...

I thought maybe when Keegan hit five or so he might want to invite some friends.  So this year we decided that we would have our friends, their kids, and our immediate family over to Pump It Up to jump and party.  Sounds like a good plan?? Right??  Well we found out that we were having maybe 6-8 kids of our friends' over which leaves a lot of open spots (you can have up to 14 kids).  Keegan solved the open spot problem for us.

Keegan walked up to me one day (remember he is not quite three yet) and said "Mommy are my friends going to be able to come to my birthday?"  I said "Which friends?"  He then proceeded to rattle off a list of 6 friends from daycare just as quick as you please.  I am thinking...isn't he a bit young for this?  Followed by...how do I contact other 3 year old's parents to let them know they are invited?

Well I shouldn't have been surprised I guess.  We talked to Keegan's teacher and asked if we could leave invites in their preschool folders.  She replied that we could and asked us if we wanted a list of his buddies.  I guess lots of parents do this.  Well we obviously didn't need her to provide a list, but I am glad we weren't totally looney for inviting our son's three year old buddies to a party.

So here starts something I have never had to do ever in my life...interact with other parents on behalf of my child.  I had so many questions (as a type-A personality like myself is wont to have).  Do I invite their siblings?  Do we have goody bags?  Do I put candy in goody bags?  Do I put Kee's wishlist url on the invite?  Can I just have them reply via e-mail or do I have to give a phone number?

Well a lot of other parents have more experience than I do about parties.  Apparently most parents don't want their son/daughter's siblings going along...this is something special just for the kid invited (usually the youngest kid in the family).  Goody bags are a must...we had fun making those up :-)
I provided both e-mail and phone number...most parents like to reply by e-mail (as I would) but a couple have called me.  Example...in the middle of Ikea my phone rings.  I pick it up confused by the lack of caller ID.  "Hello?"  A lady says, "Hello I am Jason's mom, he is planning on coming to Keegan's party."  I say "Okay, thanks for calling to let me know!" She says, "Uh, well bye then."  I am like "Okay Bye."  Then I feel kind of stupid for having such a truncated conversation, but as I am chasing Keegan through a very noisy Ikea I don't think I could have done much better.

So, everytime I get a reply that one of Keegan's friends is coming I tell him.  He gets so excited, he jumps up and down and tears through the house yelling "Jason's coming, Jason's coming, Jason's coming and I will give him lots of cake!"

Although there is a dark side to the birthday excitement.  Today we walked in and Keegan was telling some friends he was going to see them at his birthday party...but he also went over and yelled at another boy telling him that he didn't get to come because he wasn't a nice boy.  I was like...uh oh...hold it here.  I don't need to be the parent with the mean class bully.  So we pulled Keegan out in the hall and tried explaining to him that it's not nice to exclude people and it's mean to tell people they are mean (although there are a number of times when I wish I could just come out and tell people they are mean).

But I am a little stuck here.  How do you explain ettiquete to an almost three year old boy?  I can't invite all 27 kids in his class, so we are just inviting Keegan's friends which is 6 kids.  So obviously the majority of the kids aren't coming.  But how do I get Keegan to not rub it in the face of the kids who aren't going?  We talked to him about it but I just don't know if he will understand it, I really didn't like him being mean though.

Anyway, I guess we will just have to work through that.

On a side note Keegan did something kind of both sad and funny on the way home.  He asked if his brother was coming to his birthday party.  We explained to Keegan that he didn't have a brother and probably never would.  Then Keegan started crying like his heart was broken.  He said he wanted his brother at his birthday party.  We explained that if he did have a brother it would be a little baby and couldn't jump with him anyway.  Then he started crying even harder.  We were like, "What is wrong?"  He finally got himself under control and said "But my brother is supposed to be older than me and teach me things and help me."  Well...ummm...okaaayyy.  Then we tried to explain that even if we did have another child it would never be older than him and it might not be a brother but a sister.  He just wasn't happy about that.  Funny what he thinks of. 

He's been very emotional this week.  I think it's partly because he has molars coming in and has been complaining about his mouth hurting and he is getting a cold.  I also think he is just really wound up about his birthday and is wearing himself out.  He finally asked me "Mommy, why can't my birthday be sooner!"

I was thinking well because we have to pick up the cake, pick up balloons, and make up party bags...but really because none of us get to choose when we are born!