We attended the 6th birthday party of one Miss Madeleine Chang on Sunday afternoon. For the past two years, she has had ponies at her birthday party. We weren't able to make it last year, but I thought this year Ian would enjoy it. Of course, he wouldn't nap before the party and passed out on the ride over. He only got in about 20 minutes and woke up as soon as the door to the house opened. There were a million kids from infants to 8 year olds. We pulled in right behind the ponies. Ian was fascinated by the ponies. He pointed at them and I said, "Ma ma" which is Chinese for horse (third tone means "horse", first tone means "mother"!), so he kept repeating that. We stood behind the fence he stared and stared. The ponies were pretty big, so when I carried him over and tried to put him on one, he clung to me, shook his head and said, "No, no!" He didn't want to touch the horse either, but a little later he reached out his hand toward the pony's head and I was afraid the pony might bite his hand off. It was an old pony -- 25 years old.
The ponies only held his interest for about 10-15 minutes. Then he spotted the plastic playhouse and ran to it. There was another little boy (2 years old) already inside. Ian barged in and started playing with the little sink and the little dishes. I told him to be nice and he offered his plate to the boy. I think he liked the house because it had a half-door he could open and close and walk in and out of the house, and we know how much he loves opening and closing doors.
Then we had some lunch. I love that he always sits down on a chair to eat. They had kid-sized folding chairs and he sat himself down. They had noodles and he ate them like I hadn't fed him all day. It's almost embarassing sometime. He was shoving it in with both hands. I thought he was done, so I turned away. When I looked back, he was standing at the table picking up strands of noodles off the table. Then he tried to pick them up off the deck. Sooooooo embarassing.
The Changs had a basketball game for adults (2 people compete to see who can shoot the most baskets in a minute) and Ian just stood there. He had spotted it on our way in and pointed and said, "Ball!" He was transfixed watching an older boy play. He didn't move for a good 10 minutes. Then we went outside and he discovered the sandbox. He ran towards it, went straight past it, found the big plastic lid to it which was turned over on the grass like a bowl, and climbed right inside and sat in it. Funny kid.
They also had a playset with a spiral slide. He enjoyed that slide a lot. The rest of the afternoon he was running between the sandbox and the playhouse. When he saw one of the other boys having a bottle, he looked at me and said, "Nai nai," so I got it for him and sat him on the lawn chaise. He looked quite relaxed with his bottle, sitting in the lounger, the breeze gently blowing through his hair.
Then he went and took some older girl's balloon and it accidentally popped. He didn't even flinch. We went and got him a new balloon and he was just thrilled.
Needless to say, when we finally left, he passed out pretty quickly in the car.
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