The Party

Olivia attended the party of one of her classmates this weekend. You know, the one where I had to call the mom and ask if it was okay if I stayed during the party. For the record, whenever I send out invitations to a child’s birthday party, I always put at the bottom of the invitation that parents are welcome to drop their children off or stay for the entire party. That right there saves calls like the one I had to make.

Ahem. Right. So the party.

When we got there, the birthday boy and his cousins were playing on the bounce house. The birthday boy, let’s call him Diego because that’s the name I wanted to use for him all freaking weekend, was thrilled to see Olivia. She…was not quite as thrilled to be there. She was intimidated by the cousins, children she’d never met and she wouldn’t set foot inside the bounce house even though it had a slide.

A slide!! She’d asked me for days if I thought Diego’s bounce house would have a slide. She was so excited about the prospect of a slide and yet, the actuality of a slide didn’t overcome her shyness around strangers.

Instead, she and I stood just outside the bounce house for twenty minutes, with me pushing her onto the outside edge of the bounce house, where she’d laugh and leap right back up to grab my hands again.

But then, twenty minutes after we arrived, the most wonderful thing happened. The only other girl in Olivia and Diego’s class arrived. We’ll call her Lucille. Lucille was late due to T-ball pictures but when she arrived, Olivia felt as if the scales had tipped in her favor. Suddenly, there were three classmates (Olivia included) and only two cousins so, yay! She informed me that maybe she’d just get in the bounce house and go down the slide just one time.

I told her that was a great idea, took her shoes off her and in she went. And…she didn’t come out until the party was over, an hour and a half later.

Yes!! Olivia and Lucille and Diego played and ran and the other kids beat the candy out of a piñata, everyone grabbed the candy off the ground. Even Olivia exited the bounce house long enough to get some candy and eat a little cake.

I was really proud of her. She played alongside her classmates. I’m not sure she interacted with them a lot but she was right there, playing where they were playing, laughing with them, maybe not talking to them a lot but definitely answering questions and having a blast.

She was so tired when we got home. But it was a good tired, a well-earned tired.

She made me proud. But then, she usually does.