If you are a mother, may I suggest a perfect way to celebrate your child’s birthday? Find yourself a friend who has just that week returned from New Mexico where she finished Birthing From Within training. Sit outside with her on a beautiful June day that just happens to be the anniversary of the day you birthed your child, and tell her your birth story. All right, that’s all I’m going to say about that.
We had a great party yesterday. We rented the shelter at a lovely playground. We brought some balls and frisbees, and that was it. Not one single structured activity. The kids had a blast. I don’t think they even noticed that there was no piñata, musical chairs, or pin the tail on the donkey. And Daniel got some awesome presents. 
My personal favorite is the marble run. As you may know, there are marble runs and there are marble runs. I have seen so many marble runs that are flimsy and fragile and require an advanced degree in civil engineering to put together. But this one, Rolla Ball, is sturdy and easy enough that even a 4yo can do it almost by himself. We still had a few pieces left from a box of it we got last year but it was a source of frustration to me and Steve Daniel that so much of it was missing. Steve and I are Daniel is so happy that we he can now build great big marble runs.
And guess what else? We have a great place to store my Daniel’s new marble run. I don’t know if you heard the devastating news about the Thomas the Tank Engine recall (in a word: lead paint). Most of our Thomas stuff was handed down to us with no way to tell when it was originally bought. We finally decided to just get rid of it all. Good-bye train table, hello marble table!
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Hhhmmmm, sounds like the perfect audience for a good homebirth story :) I’ll have to go back and explore that website some more. It looks fascinating.
Also, I heart that marble run. I want one rilly, rilly badly, but I haven’t purchased one for Liam because I didn’t think there was one out there that he could do by himself, and I know as soon as he asked for help, I’d pretty much steal the toy. I will have to check this one out.
Happy Birthday, Daniel, and Happy Birthing Day, Julie :)
I’m with Liesl, except I don’t have to spend any time on the BFW site. There’s so much about BFW that really makes me sing. Your friend? Is very lucky.
Ok, enough of that. Happy Birthday, Daniel. And, Julie…yes, it deserves mentioning…happy Birthing Day, to you.
Thanks, gals! :) Yeah, BFW really is amazing. I didn’t realize *how* amazing it was until I had this conversation with my friend. Just the way she responded to my own story was so incredible, not to mention the ideas and philosophy behind it. Everything she said resonated so deeply with me, and made absolute perfect sense. Wow.
Ah, the joys of a summer birthday. I’m jealous, especially since both my kids have November birthdays and there’s not much to do in a park in Michigan then.
You can actually buy do-it-yourself lead test kits at most hardware stores. I’ve tested a bunch of family antiques - the biggest color change was an old peeling doll cradle, which is now double-bagged and boxed up in our basement. I’m afraid to strip the paint off it, but equally unwilling to throw away an 80 year old family heirloom. :-/
Yeah, Sandy, it took us three tries to figure that one out. My first two were born in January and February. :P
We thought about getting one of those test kits but it seemed like too much effort to check every single train… and the thought of a marble table was too good to pass up, heh heh.
I guess I should call it a marbles table, not a marble table. I wouldn’t want to give the impression that the table was made out of, you know.
That’s just the wooden ones, right? Marbles sound great for that distant day when choking is no longer an issue.
As far as I know it’s just the wooden ones — which is what we have. Of course.
Your comment about the marbles is so true. I remember when my oldest first learned about the concept of making wishes. He must have been 4 or so. His wish, his very first wish, was for marbles. And I had to say no because of his baby sister. It just about broke my heart.