In the Back

My sweet Paris has turned 6 years old. She has 4 (!) loose teeth - the four right in front. Chances are good she will start first grade looking a little silly with no teeth in front. It is very weird to have a 6 year old. Somehow it just sounds so much older than 5.

Anyway, we have had a lot of fetivities surrounding her b-day. We started out the whole process by having her make a guest list. Yikes! There were 25+ names and she wasn't even including some of our close family friends! So, we made a new plan. We decided to have two parties. One for Paris' friends and one for family and "our" friends. There would be kids at both parties so I thought it was a good plan. I had her cut down the "friends" party list to 12. I think 6 made it. That was a good manageable number. That party was the Saturday before her b-day.

On her b-day we had big plans. She was to have an ealry breakfast with her Daddy at Denny's, then MOPO time while her siblings were at school including lunch at Chuck-E-Cheese's, then her butterfly friends were coming over from 3-5 for a fun day, and lastly - her favorite babysitter was coming over and bringing her tiny little dog as a treat. It didn't quite work out like that though. We needed to take Nana to the doctor, and wound up putting her in the hospital that day. The lunch and butterfly stuff got canceled completely. She did have breakfast with her daddy, then got to spend practically all day with some of our family friends - which included lunch out at Chili's, and then Miss Ashley came over and brought Bitsy. It wasn't what we planned, but it was a great birthday!

This past Sunday we had the family/close friends party. We wound up with almost no kids there. The R & J families couldn't make it. I wasn't to worried because I knew that the H family was coming and that's 4 kiddos right there. Then the phone rang. One of the H girls was sick. "Just bring G out and drop him off" I pleaded. I couldn't stand the thought of Paris being the oldest child (by 2 years) for the whole day. So G got to come. Now, Paris and G have an interesting relationship. We carpooled this year and they became fast friends. G is 9, Paris is newly 6. Listening to these two talk is hilarious. They can be having two completely different conversations and somehow they know what's going on. They are brutally honest with each other, but each considers the other a very special friend. When our cat Samson got really sick Paris told G to make a card for her (no, she didn't ask, she told) and he did. They traded little trinket toys on a weekly basis. And when they were both tired they yelled at each other. It was fun watching their friendship grow. All that to explain that it was important to both of them that G get to be at the party.

So................knowing how bluntly they communicate.....................here's the best quote of Paris' entire birthday week extravaganza (this story came to me via my big brother who witnessed the interaction).

Paris & G were playing in Tripp's room (I think). G had a toy home depot drill. You pull this string and then when you push the point in it makes drilling noise. He pulls the string and proceeds to "drill" into Paris back. Paris turns around and says very matter of factly:

"G, I've told you before. I don't like to be screwed in the back."

Well said my precious princess.