A birthday celebration, COVID-style

 We have a six-year-old! Here he is.

We usually have a party for him at a place where I don't have to do anything but pay people to host his birthday party, but, you know. This year. I mean, Chuck E. Cheese and Urban Air and all of those places actually ARE hosting birthday parties, but everyone has to wear masks unless they're actively eating, so... meh. (Again, I'm pro-mask but hate wearing them.)

SO... for my niece's son's birthday, his dad rented a bounce house from Austin Bounce Rentals, where they have a 4-days-for-4-hour rental rate. This seemed like a cool idea, and we decided to do it for Mal, and then invite one friend over every day that we had it. I mean, it was a cool idea. But we're just really tired and ready to stay home and be potatoes for the next week!

Anyway, they brought the bounce house Wednesday, the day before Mal's actual birthday. His friend Alexei came that day, and brought his little sisters Anya and Adelina. It was our first chance to see baby Adelina, and she's super precious! The kids had lots of fun; we haven't seen each other since February. They've all grown up so much!

They brought Mal a cool foam ball slingshot and a bunch of Mario magnets. Mal has had a blast creating "scenes" for us on the refrigerator.

Thursday, on the actual birthday, Fox came over with his big brother, John Paul, and his little brother, Rex. The bounce house wasn't wanting to stay up, and after a while we just shut it off. The boys found plenty to do, and had fun running around half-naked and then spraying each other with the garden hose.

Fox brought Mal a BUNCH of Hershey bars (which is what I'd told his mom Mal liked when she asked) and also a Star Wars LEGO set and a couple of Star Wars books. One of them is kind of a who's who and the other is an Eye-Spy-type book where you find Chewbacca and a bunch of bounty hunters on every page.

Friday was family day. Ken, Travis, Tian, Hannah and Chance, and Pappy and Nana came out. The bounce house place had brought us a second blower, so we were going strong again.

The Brownies got Mal four Super-Mario-themed Hot Wheels, and Nana and Pappy brought him some Sonic LEGOs (which they're building in the picture above). We'd actually given Mal a set of Super Mario LEGOs, so he really has an embarrassment of riches, building-bricks-wise.

Today was the last party day, and it went so well. I was basically exhausted this morning, and not terribly excited to have more company. But Mal and Harrison played together beautifully, and it was the first day that it was hot enough to turn the water on in the bounce house and have it feel REALLY good.

It was a great week, catching up with friends we haven't seen in a while, and playing outside SO much. It was fun celebrating with Mal!

In the midst of all of this, we had another episode of needing Mal to take magnesium citrate, and he's gotten to be such a dang trooper about it. Also, no, his tooth hasn't fallen out yet.

The bounce house goes away tomorrow, and when I reminded Mal of this, he cried. A lot. He thought I'd bought it. I tried to calm him down by saying we could certainly look for a bounce house (although a toddler-sized one I looked at earlier this year was $700; the one we rented would be about $1200 used and more than $2000 new) later, and I think Mal's onto my stalling tactics. He said, "Mom, I'm afraid you're not going to do what you are saying." He's not wrong. I don't lie to him, but I do sometimes say things to calm him down like this, even though I know there's no way we're buying a bounce house. Sigh. He's getting so big. And cynical. Just like everyone else in the household. I'm both proud and concerned because now I have to think of something different to do.