Year Five
07-09-2020At this point I'm fairly sure I only keep this place online still to make these posts about the kids birthdays. But sure what's the harm in having an eccentric hobby in my old age? I could have much worse ones.
Here we are, Nugget's fifth birthday. A birthday with a difference for many reasons.
Reason the first being that this is our first time having a birthday with a Big Schooler (as she likes to call herself). That's right, a mere ten days ago our little lady went from being in Montessori to being in junior infants. A day that had only one person crying from the family, and it wasn't me or the kid I can tell you that. In she went to start that grand journey of education, making new friends and expanding her little world a bit.
A world that had been greatly reduced because of the second reason this birthday was so different: COVID-19.
I've purposely stay away from posting about our time during the pandemic here because I didn't see the point. It's going to be sucky and hard for everyone and capturing the memories of the last few months is just something that didn't seem worth doing. But now I have to because this pandemic impact Nugget's birthday.
Usually the ladyfriend makes a big deal about birthdays, particularly those that are for our kids. She likes to get cakes, decorations, sweets and sugary drinks while asking over family and friends. The last few years Nugget has even had friends invited along to the event because her little social circle extended beyond the four walls. But with the lockdown and restrictions this birthday was different.
For starters it couldn't be in the house, because of the amount of people you can have indoors at a gathering. Which meant we had to find an outdoor location. Luckily there is a lovely spot near the house that has benches and allows for you to BBQ. But then we had to wonder about the number of people. Even outdoors we couldn't go too large in terms of a crowd.
It ended up being the four of us, some grandparents (the parentals of us - not just random grandparents we found) and the godparents.
All of which didn't bother Nugget one bit. See she just loves people and loves fun and all those people are fun for her, so she had fun. She ate cake and sweets and ran around and got some presents and took some photos all while dressed up in her fairy outfit that she wanted.
For her there was no such thing as COVID-19 ruining her fun, the fun was there to be had and we all just had to join in with her.
After food we went for walk through the woods so Nugget could try out her new bike and sadly get stung by a wasp in the nose. It was a harrowing experience for her to be sure, full of screaming and us trying to sooth her and help with the sting and pain.
The big five year old instantly became a little baby again and wanted daddy to carry her back to the car since the day was basically over anyway. Daddy dutifully did this because, as the ladyfriend is fond of saying, there will come a point in time were I won't get asked to carry Nugget anymore and I won't know when the last time actually is until it is a distant memory.
Back at the car the tears had stopped, the pain lessened, the fear of her being allergic gone as the little lump on her nose formed. Yet still, despite this painful end to her big day she looked up at both of us and said "Best day ever!".
There is a lesson in there for everyone, I feel. That you can be going through a pandemic, not see your friends and family as much as you want and get stung in the face by Nature itself and still see the rainbow amongst the shitty storm clouds.
If a five year old can point that out to us adult types then I reckon it's a lesson worth paying attention to.
We got home, had some cuddles on the sofa, then off to bed where she declared again that it was the "Best day ever!".
Kid, five years ago was when the best day ever started for us. They just keep getting better.
Blue_jester