Author: Big Mama

I have documented, without shame, my OCD tendencies when it comes to all things sleep related. Honestly, if the moon and the stars aren’t aligned just right, it can throw my entire REM cycle off. So y’all will realize exactly how tired I am when I tell you this.

Yesterday morning, we went to play with Jackson. The sun was shining for the first time in weeks and so the kids played outside. Naturally, they wanted to play in the sandbox and due to the previous cold, wet days, the sand was of a consistency guaranteed to find its way into crevices that it would never again find its way out of without a complete hose down.

In spite of the sun, it was too cold outside to hose the kids down like a scene out of a women in prison movie, so I had to settle for dusting Caroline off as well as you can dust wet, cold sand, before putting her socks and shoes back on and heading home.

When we got home, it was time for rest time and she wanted to rest in my bed. Due to the fact that I was so desperate for a moment or two of silence, I said sure. She climbed in my bed, we turned on a movie, and I went back in the kitchen to do important things like file my nails and read People magazine in sweet, sweet peace and quiet.

About an hour later, she comes out of the room and tells me she got a little sand in my bed. That sentence will go down as one of the understatements of the year. There was enough sand in my bed to claim my mattress “beachfront property”.

No big deal, I’ll just change the sheets later.

Well, it is now later and I just finished brushing the sand out of the bed with my hand. We all know that all the brushing in the world isn’t going to stop me from feeling like I’m camping tonight, but I am so tired that I can’t bring myself to change the sheets.

What happened to that sweet girl with the OCD? I guess I’m proof that sleep deprivation combined with a head cold can trump even the strongest OCD tendencies.

Over the last year and a half, it has become increasingly apparent that Caroline’s social calendar is far more packed with events than ours. Of course that’s not saying much considering that when we looked at our calendars for 2007 to mark down big social events, it equated to us writing down my cousin’s wedding on June 2…that’s it…for the whole year. Oh, I’m sure we’ll have other big events that will come up such as the Cattle Baron’s Ball or you know… a cookout at the neighbor’s house, but for now we’re not exactly all booked up.

Anyway, I realized that Caroline averages 3-4 birthday parties a month, which means that we average giving away 3-4 toys a month at these various parties. I have no problem with the gift giving, my issue is that I am a procrastinator.

In the perfect world that exists only inside my head, preparations for these parties would go like this. We would receive an invitation from some sweet child in Caroline’s class and I would display it on our magnetic chalkboard to remind me of the upcoming festivities. The day before the party, I would look through my stored stash of gender appropriate, moderately priced toys, pick one from the pile and gift wrap it in a room that looks just like Martha Stewart’s, complete with rolls of beautiful paper and streams of festive ribbon and more scotch tape than anyone could ever need. We would head to the party, fresh as a daisy, with the perfect gift in hand.

And then I wake up.

The reality is that the morning of the party, I notice an invitation displayed on our chalkboard and say “Oh man (truth be told I usually don’t say “man”, but I’m trying to keep it family friendly), that party is TODAY?”. Best case scenario, we head to Learning Express to find a toy that I’ll pay way too much for, but I do it anyway because it’s the closest toy store and they have free gift wrap. It’s just a bonus that I get to listen to Caroline whine and bargain to try to get a toy for herself while I threaten that if she doesn’t shape up, we’re not going to the party at all.

The whole experience really puts me in the party mood. Bring on the pinata and the Dora cupcakes.

There are times that I remember the party earlier in the week and while I’m making one of my thrice weekly visits to Target, I pick out a good toy. I always feel a little smug at my preparedness…it creates a real sense of accomplishment. I am ahead of the game. And yes, I need to get a life.

When this happens, I get home and deposit the gift on a shelf in our laundry room, still wrapped in the Target bag. The day of the party, usually around the time we’re about to walk out the door, I remember it needs to be wrapped and look in my real life gift wrapping station, which consists of a plastic container shoved under my bed filled with various wrap, ribbons, and an empty roll of scotch tape. Martha Stewart would cry if she saw it.

And I don’t mean a good kind of cry.

I’ll finally decide that maybe red and green polka dot wrap doesn’t necessarily look too Christmas-y or that the stork on a gift bag from my baby shower could pass as a whimsical birthday bird.

Anyway, I say all this to ask this question. Do any of y’all have a favorite gift that you like to give at a child’s birthday party? It can be anything, whether it’s for a boy or a girl, as long as it’s in a price range that won’t cause me to take a second mortgage on our home.

The dream of the gift wrapping room is never going to happen, but at least I could have my perfect stash of gifts that wouldn’t just exist in my head.

Martha would be so semi-proud.