Things with silver linings.

If ever there was a physical manifestation of the adjective “bittersweet,” this weekend was it.  Following on the heels of the news that Greg passed away last week was Gabriel’s 5th birthday party which all but dominated my Sunday.  Though George Orwell would damn me for it, I’ll go ahead and say the weekend was represented by a dark storm cloud with a very shiny silver lining.

Yes, I have pictures.  As is commonplace among five year-olds, he couldn’t sit still long enough for a clear photo, and so 90% of the shots we took came out rather blurry.  In the end, Erica and I had to resort to keeping the cameras on at all times, hoping we’d catch a candid moment when he didn’t know we were watching.  We got there earlier than everyone else which, to Gabe, meant it was time for cake and presents, and we spent a solid hour DSCF1658explaining why he had to wait for everyone else.

This didn’t dampen his spirits.

“But I want to open them now,” he said.

“You have to wait until we sing ‘Happy Birthday.’”

In response to this, he pulled up a chair at the table and began to sing “Happy Birthday” to himself.  Of course this didn’t fly with the adults, but it was damn cute.  The kid is sharp.

Oooh legosThe rest of the afternoon sort of flew by.  After everyone else arrived, we had an early dinner, followed by a rather lengthy gift-unwrapping session.  I do believe our gift of Castle-themed Legos garnered the best reaction, but I’m a bit biased.  I told him we’d wait until the other kids left before putting together his Lego catapult (which, by the way, was one of the coolest Lego sets I’ve ever seen – I wish they had Lego skeleton figures when I was a kid).

All in all, it was a fun time, and seeing him happy and giddy and just excited to be five made up for an otherwise crappy weekend.

On a side note, when did Power Rangers come back in style?  They were horrible in 1994; they’re horrible now.  Let’s hope Gabe’s fascination with them is just a passing phase . . .

Anyway, here are some more photos:

DSCF1665   100_2464   DSCF1656

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We’ll return to the regularly-scheduled writer banter on the morrow.

TK

tags: birthday parties   Gabe   I feel old   Legos are awesome   Power Rangers are dumb  

February 25, 2008 | Filed Under Blog 

Comments

2 Responses to “Things with silver linings.”

  1. Phill on February 25th, 2008 9:11 pm

    A friend of mine made mention that the red power ranger is now a gay pr0n star.

    I don’t think it passes as ‘ironic’ per se, but it’s still fucking funny.

  2. Ric on February 27th, 2008 4:14 am

    You must be too old for Power Rangers to have ever been cool. Trust me.. most boys like Power Rangers for at least a brief period when they’re young, some longer than others… I believe my sister’s 18-year-old boyfriend still likes them, so keep your fingers crossed, haha.
    Christ, I wanna be 5 again. Lego was my definitive childhood toy.

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