Moxie: My son is 3 years old

Highly Recommended

Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi: The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke
Reading this book explained a whole lot of things about why so many families I know are struggling financially, even though we don't spend extravagantly. Simultaneously enlightening and nauseating.
Elizabeth Warren: All Your Worth : The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan
If other personal finance books have frustrated you because they assume you have money to invest and you don't even have enough money to buy a large coffee, this is the personal finance book for you. Reading this book showed me that it's not that I waste money on stupid things--it's that our basic expenses are too high to begin with. Reading this book is the end of financial guilt and the beginning of getting out of the hole.
Adele Faber: Siblings Without Rivalry: How to Help Your Children Live Together So You Can Live Too
Lots of great ideas to think about and put into practice about not assigning your kids roles and how to approach fights. Also goes over some of the stuff from the How to Talk So Kids Will Listen book about making kids feel understood. Because, really, that's all anyone wants--to be understood. And kids are people, too.
Anne Lamott: Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year
Just perfect. A beautiful, funny, sad, accurate account of what the first days, weeks, and months with a baby are like. This is exactly what your journal would be, if you could write as well as she does.
Adrian Nicole LeBlanc: Random Family : Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx
LeBlanc's writing and pacing makes you want to keep reading despite the tragic story. Think you have an informed opinion about welfare reform and how to strengthen families in this country? Not until you've read this book.
John Taylor Gatto: Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
This is the red pill. Don't read it if you want to stay comfortable with the American school system. Gatto goes into why government-owned schools were created and the things they actually teach us.
Ellis Avery: The Smoke Week: September 11-21, 2001
If you have any curiosity about what it was like for New Yorkers during the World Trade Center attacks, this is the book to read. A brilliant, crystalline, spot-on memoir of the week or so after the attacks, this book is an ode to New Yorkers. Realistic, clean, and completely un-maudlin, it's just the story of what it was like for us. This is what should go into a time capsule to represent September 2001.

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My son is 3 years old

Last night I:

made enough green playdough for 10 gift bags
made a double batch of Chocolate Satin Frosting from The Joy of Cooking (1997 ed.) p. 1004
called the pizza place to confirm that we had the party room reserved for 12-2 and that we could arrive any time after 11

Today I:

made 4 dozen chocolate chocolate-chip cupcakes
packed up the playdough, Matchbox cars, crayon band-aids, cookie cutters, and mini tape measure keychains (El Grande's idea) for the gift bags, plus the cupcakes, frosting, rainbow sprinkles, and pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey game and got in a cab to get to the pizza place by 11:35
got to a dark, closed pizza store with no one there at 11:35
called El Grande, who said, "Oh, I'm sure someone will be there to open up by noon. El Chico and I will be there in a few minutes."
freaked out at 11:52, called El Grande, and said I'd be calling the CEO of the chain of pizza places to find out why they ruined my son's third birthday party after taking our deposit and confirming with us the night before
was stunned by the kindness of a stranger when the guy standing near me drinking a cup of coffee said he was the building super and he'd go in and see if there was anyone to let me in
felt a huge rush of relief and anger when the woman who'd confirmed with us the night before came up from the basement, apologizing for forgetting about our party and telling me she was the only one working there, but I could come in and set up
got to the party room 3 minutes before the guests did
let the first guest mom help me frost and sprinkle 2 dozen of the cupcakes
relaxed when El Grande ran up and down a flight of stairs approximately 30 times to make pizzas start appearing and get plates, cups, ice, water, and soda
fed pizza and cupcakes to 10 3-year-olds and 14 parents
watched my son and his friends run around like fools for 2 hours in a space that I didn't have to clean
threw all the pizza boxes, plastic cups, and paper plates in the garbage cans, packed up my leftover cupcakes and frosting, and took the bus home with my two guys
watched 2 hours of the "Best of Pop-Up Video" on VH1 Classic while reveling in the fact that there's no pizza or frosting in my carpet

Happy Birthday, El Chico.

March 05, 2005 | Permalink

Comments

Happy 3rd Birthday El Chico!!

And congrats Moxie, on your lovely 3 year old son and not having pizza or frosting in your carpet!

Best wishes to you all.

Posted by: Jen P | March 05, 2005 at 08:20 PM

Happy Birthday, El Chico!
Num Num

Posted by: Nancy Kirk | March 05, 2005 at 10:01 PM

Happy Birthday El Chico!

How can you not love a party that doesn't destroy your home! Way to go Moxie.

Posted by: Sandy | March 05, 2005 at 10:37 PM

Happy birthday!
Wow. 3 years old--very impressive!

Now I'm craving cupcakes.
Excuse me while I ransack my kitchen for cupcake ingredients...

Posted by: shannon | March 05, 2005 at 10:57 PM

Happy Birthday, El Chico!

Posted by: Erica | March 05, 2005 at 11:09 PM

Happy birthday, El Chico! Go March babies! (It's my birthday right now, and my daughter will be 2 on the 17th.)

Posted by: Elise | March 06, 2005 at 12:18 AM

Happy birthday, El Chico!
And congratulations, Moxie, on surviving the day.

Posted by: Menita | March 06, 2005 at 12:39 AM

Happy birthday, El Chico, and congratulations, Moxie, on your wisdom in letting another venue host the fiesta.

I love making play dough. I wind up making more than my kids will ever play with just because I'm in the mood for a new color, or because I feel like kneading it as it cools.

Posted by: Becki | March 06, 2005 at 02:20 AM

Happy Birthday El Chico!
And congrats mom, on a job well done- You've got this parenting thing down, girlfriend! And because of that, I'm positive you realize that even if everything had gone perfectly smoothly, the party would still have been utter chaos. They're three- everything is utter chaos. Happiness is utter chaos. Oh, and frosting-free carpet.

Posted by: Kristine | March 06, 2005 at 09:10 AM

Happy Birthday, El Chico! Congrats on surviving the cupcakes, pizza, and playdough Mom!

Posted by: Brooklyn Girl | March 06, 2005 at 11:03 AM

Happy Birthday to the little guy and a big congrats to you for not throwing a rock through the pizza place window. I would have. ;-)

Sounds like it was perfect...stress, rushing, chaos, followed by more chaos, followed by collapse. Exactly how a kids' birthday party should be.

But you MADE playdough? I'm impressed. I know it's not difficult, but still..buying little containers of it is even less difficult.

Posted by: Sarah | March 06, 2005 at 02:39 PM

Happy birthday indeed!

Posted by: Jamie | March 06, 2005 at 03:49 PM

Happy Birthday El Chico!

Congrats on a party well done. Smart Moms do the party away from home. I learned that the hard way.

Posted by: Chantal | March 06, 2005 at 05:23 PM

Wow...congrats on a party with 10 3 year olds and nothing to clean!

My little guy will be 3 next month and I'm giving serious thought to having his party somewhere other than our place. I think your story just made up my mind.

Posted by: Carrie | March 06, 2005 at 07:57 PM

happy birthday, el chico! and happy not-scraping-frosting-off-the-ceiling day to mama!

Posted by: wix | March 07, 2005 at 08:16 AM

Moxie, I have a very serious question to ask you. Ready?

What would it take for you to handle my birthday party? Cupcakes and pizza sound fabulous. My birthday is in June...that would give you time to plan, wouldn't it?

Posted by: Mandy | March 07, 2005 at 10:40 AM

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