Brooklyn's Birthday Party

Nothing signifies that we are closer to being back to normal than our kids getting together for birthday parties. And since today is the birthday party of Johnnie's closest friend in his class Brooklyn, then of course I am just as excited as he is to be going. Brooklyn came to pizza night after all for Johnnie's birthday a couple of weeks ago and I was so glad that she did. And this being one of Lisa's non-working Saturdays I was going to go over for breakfast first thing anyway. The difference was I never know when I'm supposed to bring breakfast over or whether Lisa is in the mood to fix breakfast. Question answered the second I got to their house. I let myself in and I could hear the shower upstairs. It was only 8:30 at the time so no faulting mom and son for sleeping in on a Saturday. But it was clear breakfast was not considered yet. And so I thought I'd help out. I put water on to boil for tea and made pancakes. Lisa already had the pancake mix ready to go in the fridge and everything. All I had to do was make eggs for me. Lisa has this way she likes her eggs that I don't know how to quite get it done just so. But I tried my best. And then i scrambled eggs for myself. Wolfed that down just so I won't go hungry no matter what happens. That is always the priority when you do something with Lisa. You make sure for yourself that you do not go hungry. Do that and it doesn't matter what rabbit hole she takes you down with her. It worked this morning.  We all got to have breakfast in time... in time meaning "at all". And since Lisa wanted to play piano for a bit this morning, Johnnie and I did errands. A little trip to Whole Foods, going to Mar Vista to pick up the Little Boo thing I purchased for Johnnie, even back to the apartment so I could get into more comfortable clothes. And THEN we went back to Lisa's house to pick her up for the party. It was almost 11 AM by this time. Lisa seemed surprised but then again I  am the one that shouldn't be surprised LOL. Is she ever on time really? Johnnie was SOOO excited though. He had his presents all made up, and we even re-gifted the balloons Johnnie got for HIS birthday.  A win-win since Lisa was simply going to throw them away.  Finally, we get there a little after 11:30 AM. Of course there was already quite a few people there. Same cast from Bailey's (Brooklyn's sister) birthday party from a year ago really. Back then we were all contemplating whether to have the kids go back to school in kindergarten. This time of course the kids are already back in school and well into the school year. And so there were a couple of other kids from Johnnie's class there. And there was Cora from TK who is now going to a different school. These were the TK kids who apparently have a bond now that is now years old. I think that is really cool actually. You wonder who your lifelong friends are going to be. For what its worth Johnnie already has a great sense of belonging and that is a very good thing. We were at the party until 3 PM. Lisa is also having company tonight - Mel, and Jacob and Joyanna. This party I do NOT have to be a part of. I don't think I can play quiet in the presence of anti-vaxxers any longer, not in the middle of the worst pandemic the world has ever seen in my lifetime. But for Brooklyn's party, I socialized just fine. I got to talk with some of Mar Vista parents, and I actually spent a great deal of time making sure Claire did not disrupt anything. She has gotten pretty needy as she has grown up and I don't like that Lisa just acts as if everything is ok and delegates "dog-parenting" responsibilities to me. Johnnie parenting I don't mind at all. But with Claire I do mind and she needs to understand I did not originally sign up for that.  Still, she's cute enough where all the other adults kind of just played with her and she of course loved the attention. And so it was that a good time was had by all, at least in our little family. And one more check off the activity list this week... a week which has turned into quite the busy week didn't it? The last thing to do was to line up golf for tomorrow, which I dropped the ball on since I never made any reservations. Fortunately, a slot opened up at Roosevelt and so Scott and i get to go at 8:50 which was our usual time anyway LOL. After picking up my car I went home, crashed on the couch and took a little afternoon nap. I wanted to go to the hot tub too but I got caught up in Saturday sports. UCLA coming oh-so-close to upsetting Oregon but failing in the last minute. And then the heartbreak of the year: the Dodgers lost to the Braves in the NLCS. Season over. There will be no repeat. I spent Saturday night at Target just so I wouldn't have to feel bad about the Dodgers losing. They had their chances. Just that in LA, being Final Four isn't enough. Here we celebrate championships. But that's ok. Now the Rams and Lakers are up.  Saturday blues tonight. Sigh.