milestones, birthdays, and "the worst day of my life"

June has entered two very important developmental phases recently.

#1: Coloring on everything, including her left arm. Time to put the sharpies away. (Anyone have any tips for getting black sharpie out of linen upholstery? I've tried hairspray and rubbing alcohol so far.)



#2: Waving at everyone around and saying "Hi" or "Hello". She waves at cars, to other Costco shoppers, to her siblings, to the dog statue at the front of the boys' school. It's cute, but also a little embarrassing sometimes.

Brenden's birthday is coming up, and he decided that he wanted to have his friends party at Seven Peaks. It closes before his birthday, so we did it last Saturday. In our family our birthday party deal is they can either have a party at our house or at a park with games and activities, and invite the number of people equal to the age they're turning. Or they can have it at a place (Boondocks, Seven Peaks, Chuck E. Cheese's) and invite 1 or 2 friends.




Brenden invited his two friends in the neighborhood, Chandler and Dylan. They had a great time going on slides and got a triple-tube and we had lunch there (huge treat since I usually say we have to go home for lunch) and we got giant pixie sticks for a goodie bag treat. Afterwards we went home and had some cake and opened presents.

There was one mishap in the wave pool where Brenden did a nose-dive off the tube and face planted onto the bottom of the pool. He was fine but quite shaken and sat and sulked with me for a bit. He declared it as "his worst birthday party ever," but pretty soon got over it and went back out on the tube with his friends.

Oliver was having a particularly emotional day on Saturday (the day of the party) and declared about 6 different times that "today was the worst day of my life." Once it was because he fell down. Once it was because he got a bruise a week ago. Once it was because he couldn't play with Brenden's new birthday gift lego car. Once it was because he dropped something. Needless to say he was ready to go to bed early that night.

His anxiety about school has gotten worse this week with more resistance every day. His teachers are very understanding and helpful taking him out of my arms and letting me leave while he is still crying. I stand outside the door until I hear him calm down and they report back that he comes around in about 15 minutes. Every day he's happy and enthusiastic and proud when I pick him up. Today when I asked "how was school" his answer was "kinda good." I'll take that as a ringing endorsement.