1.17.2006

My Insanity Level Has Returned to Normal

Oh thank heavens. All the birthdays and holidays are over. Now I only need to work on:

  • Hiring another therapist for Leelo
  • Setting up Leelo's IEP (Paperwork)
  • Visiting local kindergartens to evaluate them for Leelo
  • Getting all the paperwork together for Leelo's psychopharmacology consult
  • Getting all the paperwork (a shitload), testing, and touring done for Big Noggin, for Iz
  • Managing the architectural process for our rebuild
  • Sneakily still looking at houses

...and five hundred thousand details that are nowhere near as interesting. But those are the big ones.

Iz's party went well, I think. As usual it would not have been possible had 1) Babysitter A not been present the entire time, supervising Leelo's 3.5 hour bouncy house session and 2) My friends not played pass-the-Mali-potato for the party's duration. Thank you folks!

As I may have mentioned, it was a spy party. I decided to let the kids rely on their brains, a few sheets of xeroxed paper, and fellow partygoers--instead of a musician or magician--for entertainment. Since they're now all 5 to 9 and clever, it worked splendidly. Here is how the party went:

2:00 Arrive and bounce in the bouncy house
3:00 Get called in for pizza, sit in living room eating pizza and spilling soda on the carpet while I tell them the rules:
  • Who wants to help find Iz's stolen birthday cake?
  • Some of the adults in this room have printed clues in their pockets. The other adults do not have a clue (Bwa ha ha!).
  • The adults who do have clues will not tell you that they have them. They will lie. But if you're a good spy and know how to tell if someone's lying, then you'll know they really do have a clue. Here's how to tell:
  1. Liars won't look you in the eye.
  2. Liars fidget with their hands, especially on their faces.
  3. Liars talk really fast to get the lie over with quickly.
  4. Liars are overly friendly or have fake laughs, because they want you to like them and believe them.
  • When you have your clue, you'll need to come over here to the spy center and decode it, using this code key posted on the wall (same code as was used for Iz's advent box search). If you can't read, team up with someone who can or have an adult help you.
  • Once you've decoded the clue, you'll have a riddle that will tell you where the cake is.
The kids all did so well! Of course, Ep's Clyde put on a fantastic performance as a lying clue-holder, and had a flock of shrieking children chase him all over the house and yard before he gave up the goods. Then the little sleuths worked in teams (mostly) and had the clues cracked in record time (Jo's Eliz, of course, was first). The riddle is below. I thought it was simple simple simple but it stumped a lot of them:

Eggs come from a chicken
You came from a mom
Where do you think
a cake comes from?
Most of the kids said "the store" or "a bakery." Heh! Most of them eventually went and looked in the oven. And shrieked!

4:00 Pinata! FYI, those number ones suck balls. Too light and fragile and crappily made.
4:30 Cake and Singing Happy Birthday
5:00 Go home everyone!

Iz quotes from lately that make me laugh:
"But where does the universe end?"

"It's not unlike..."

...well, there were so many other children about."

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