the coconut doesn't fall far from the tree...

so wingman turned four this month...

and as always there was a party planned, guests invited, a cake...

this year he chose a chicka chicka boom boom theme...for those of you who do not know chicka chicka boom boom it is a children's book about a bunch of unsafe and delinquent lower case letters who climb up a coconut tree ALL AT THE SAME TIME...well, as you can imagine the tree can't hold the weight of 26 lower case letters and they all fall off...

well, there are some injuries that occur as a result of the accident...some quite serious, some more minor...as a result, all the upper case letters come rushing to the scene to help the little rascals (who really should have known better)...

one might assume at this point that the lower case letters had learned their collective lesson, but as with most children these lessons aren't learned until they themselves grow up and have children of their own...and because of this juvenile lack in judgment the little delinquents not only CLIMB THE COCONUT TREE AGAIN! they sneak out at night to do so!!!

well, i don't know...i mean 26 lower case letters all sneaking out at the same time?...and none of the upper cases notice?...this world is teetering i tell you...we could just go right over the edge at any moment...

but, i digress...

back to the party...so i make a ginormous cake shaped like the coconut tree in the book complete with coconuts and fronds with gummy letters climbing to the top...

there are guests and presents and balloons...general birthday party merriment abounds...

then it's time for the cake...which means it's time for the candles...and, if this were a "normal" home, the birthday song...

but, some years ago, the duke decided that a bunch of people singing "happy birthday" to him was just too much...he said it made him nervous and shy...

well, he was three years old at the time...and then right before his fourth birthday out of the blue he said

"i don't want anyone to sing 'happy birthday' at the party"

"oh...okay...why?"

"i don't like it..."

"okaaay...what should we sing to you?"

"for he's a jolly good fellow"

and so for all the birthdays to come it was "for he's a jolly good fellow" in place of "happy birthday" for the duke...everyone who comes to his parties knows this about him and sings "for he's a jolly good fellow"...he's even been known to take the birthday kid at other parties aside and inform them that they have a choice in the whole singing of "happy birthday"...as you would guess, the other children look at him as if he is insane...or just one of those weird homeschooled kids...and not surprisingly as wingman came up in the birthday party circuit he nixed "happy birthday" by his second party...

so, we haven't sung it for him since...and we weren't going to sing it for him this party...he doesn't want any singing, in fact...not even "for he's a jolly good fellow"...

but we still did the candle make a wish and blow it out thing...but this year as i light the candles and everyone's gathered around he refuses...

i gently nudge him and he still refuses...and that is that...

"just wet's have some take (cake)"

so, i blew out the candles and we cut and served the cake...

so later after all the festivities were over and the guests were gone, wingman and the duke were playing quietly with the days spoils in front of the fire...

i say to wingman

"did you have a nice birthday?"

"yeah...tinda (kinda), but not willy (really)"

of course the lord of the ring and stoveman (my dad) and i all perked our ears up...

"oh...what didn't you like about it?"

"well, it tinda makes me fuserwated (frustrated)"

"what makes you frustrated?"

"dus (just) well, awl(all) of it dus makes me fuserwated"

and then (and not for the first time mind you) it dawned on me that i had given birth to my husband in the form of wingman...my husband is one of those i don't really like my birthday and have on occasion even forgotten about it kinda people...can i say i just don't understand this particular trait in certain people?...but, there is much i don't understand about the lord of the ring in general...good thing i have the rest of my life to figure him out...

and now, here was wingman...so much like his father...frustrated by the hoopla of the birthday party...by the pomp and circumstance, the performing...the attention...which is odd because he loves attention and is quite the ham...but like his father, he enjoys the attention if it's under his control...being showered by it is just not his thing...

what he did love was having his cousins there to run around with...having cake and ice cream that HE got to choose all by himself...and having second helpings later on...

even the presents were secondary...sure, what kid doesn't like getting gifts?...but it was just more of the performance part he could do without...and no one thrusts this on him or expects a thing of him...we even did away with the big open them all at once present extravaganza for both the duke and wingman a few years ago...and even with opening them separately with the individual giver and staggered throughout the day, it's just not him...

and it isn't as if he didn't appreciate it all, it's just given the choice he'd rather just play and eat cake...and hey, having some new toys to play with thrown in here and there isn't too bad...

he is his father's son...

now, the duke is a bit more like me in the whole birthday party deal...he LOVES a party...and he plans his parties months in advance...he is convinced i will construct any kind of party he can dream up...and he has quite a bit of fun dreaming them up...thus far i've done a fair job, but the kid has his birthday parties planned for about five years in advance...at some point his creativity and colossal faith in my limited abilities are going to expose the house of cards that each of his parties is built upon...

then the jig will indeed be and up we're just gonna have to go to chuck e. cheese and call it good...

sadly, i can't pay anyone to present me with a cake and a party...and believe me i've asked!...well, more like hinted in a slightly neurotic and whiny poor me tone...but i live in a house made mostly of frustrated birthday boys...if they can't handle their own birthdays, then there's not a lot of hope of the perfect pink cake and girly cocktail themed party in my future!...

(to be fair, the lord of the ring does sweet things for me on my birthday and makes me wonderful meals...but a pink cake...since i was sillymortalgirl i have been wanting a pink cake)

but that's the beauty of family...the diversity and the celebration of the individual...and i do love trying to take their dreams and bringing them to reality...when they see the cake they have thought of come to life, well it's priceless...

so if you ever come to one of wingman's birthday parties (hey, who knows how long he'll even allow those!) it'll be presents when he wants to open them, cake and ice cream with no candles or singing, and having lots and lots of fun just hanging out with his family...

he is a jolly good fellow, that one...

x.