May is a lucky girl; she had three birthday parties this year.

Our birthday party was the most wild of the three and had some of the kids from the nieghborhood. Jill had the party planned very well. It was a dog themed party. We began by opening the door and letting the wild children into the house. Then the wild children circulated within the living room and dining room to different 'dog care' stations, including the following: dog beauty salon, dog doctor, pup tent, and canine cafe. Then the kids had a craft activity in which they decorated their 'dog houses' (little cardboard boxes that Jill had gotten to contain little take-home-party-favor doggies). Almost immediately as the kids were starting to get rambunctious after the dog-house decorating, the pizza arrived. We ate and then, like clockwork, opened presents. Finally, we ate brownies and ice cream. It was terrific except that I had the worst laryngitis I've had since I was in college and also no one cried at the end (hardly a good kids party if no one cries at the end). I enjoyed the party, but some of the guests were creeped out by my scratchier-than-usual voice.

Then, on the actual day of May's birthday, she had two parties. The first party was at my sister's house where she received elaborate gifts of jewelry from my sister and camoflage army fatigues from my mom. When Sarah brought the cupcakes out of the back room with the candles lit, May screamed over and over again, "I can't believe it! I can't believe it!" May got a chocolate cupcake (her favorite) everyone else got carrot cake cupcakes (my favorite). Ben wasn't too happy with his carrot cake cupcake and kept pointing and screaming at his sister's cupcake. Ah well, each person's birthday comes but once a year.

That evening we went to my Aunt's apartment where we ate large amounts of excellent food from the extended thanksgiving feast (i.e. leftovers). I like to judge a thanksgiving holiday based upon the quality and quantity of leftovers and this year's holiday was very good. In fact, I ate a turkey sandwich for lunch today and may be fortunate enough to have one again tomorrow.

Finally, it came time for us to leave NY. As I was schlepping out bags down to the car, Benjamin came up to my knees and looked up at me. He asked, "Hep ooo?" Ben is very interested in helping grownups do things. He likes to sweep and take out the garbage. He is most interested in helping in real ways. He really wants to haul a bag of trash to the curb. His sweeping is not super helpful, though it is enthusiastic. He also really, really likes to help unload the dishwasher. He was quite disappointed that I wouldn't let him help me haul the bags to the car and went and cried and told on me to his mom.