Broken Balloons and Trike-a-thons

I can’t believe how long it has been since I have written in my blog…I’m so sorry to anyone out there who is still checking!!! Life has been BUSY.

For example, this week held the exciting annual Trike-a-thon at Toby’s daycare. It’s a fundraiser for his daycare and all the kids get dressed up and decorate their tricycles and drive them around a big circle.

I’m sure people without kids would find this concept EXTREMELY lame. But for those of you who have had kids and remember back to the days of having a 2 year old – I suspect you may remember the thrill of having a full 2 hour long activity that the kids are EXCITED about and entertained by AND that allows you to socialize with other adults and your spouse. JACKPOT.

In preparation for this great event, Toby (obviously) wanted to decorate his tricycle. Rob and I both got home early the night before and helped him decorate his trike with the decorations of his choice; gold yarn and yellow balloons with smiley faces on them. Toby helpfully ran around the garage in excited circles kicking various soccer balls while we worked hard to get the decorations on his trike. He was FASCINATED by the art of blowing up balloons and insisted on trying but then had difficulty calming down enough to actually stand still long enough to blow one up. When finally we had 2 balloons on his trike he played with them and bounced them and laughed. And then one of them broke.

It scared him at first and then the world went into slow motion. Rob spoke first in a very calm and measured voice, "Don't worry, Toby, I'm going to blow up another one. It's OK. It's not your fault". By this time I was by his side with my arm around him just WAITING for his world to fall apart.

He looked at Rob. He looked at me. Slowly he pointed to the broken balloon on the ground as his lower lip started to quiver and he let out the LOUDEST and SADDEST WAIL I have ever heard. Hysteria.

"MY BALLOOOOOOOOOON!!! It BROKE!!!!!!!!!! Fix it, Mommy," he sobbed, "FIX IT!"

Rob rushed to blow up another balloon but it didnt' solve the problem of the BROKEN one that still lay on the ground.

We couldn't help but laugh becuase the whole situation was SO DRAMATIC and yet SO RIDICULOUS. Finally we regained our composure and amongst his lamenting sobs we said to one another in unison, "We should bring some extra balloons tomorrow..."