December 16, 2004 - Thursday
Harry is five today and he knows it. In fact, he's been asking about his upcoming birthday each day this week and on scattered days throughout the month. It's not that he's been oppressive about it in the way that children can often be. He's just asked every now and then seemingly to keep things straight in his own mind. But, the concept of birthdays is obviously clear to him. It is his special day and he gets presents.

His mother and I anguished a bit about whether or not to have a kid-filled party for Harry this year or to keep the celebration to something a little smaller with family. Harry actually started me wondering about himself. On the night of Jeremy's birthday he asked at bedtime "why did not more people come?" I explained that when he turned three we did have a bigger party, but that it made him a little too nervous and to scared to blow out his candles. I told him that we'd decided that we'd made a mistake. The explanation seemed to satisfy his curiosity, but purposefully or not, he put out some kind of expectation for his own birthday party. His friend Rip will be five in a month and, as an only child with no family in the area, I'm betting that he'll have a party and Harry will go and I dread that Harry might look back and wonder why he wasn't special enough to have a party like that. After all, it's those feelings of inferiority that can haunt a childhood. Where Harry, like I, is very introspective, it is confidence more than almost anything else that I want to offer, teach, or instill. Nonetheless, Miss Maria at school seemed to suggest that major birthday parties happen occasionally at this age, but not a majority of the time. So, with cousins Chloe and Andre, Aunt and Uncle, and grandparents coming, we decided that would hopefully be enough for Harry to be happy about his party.

And, it seemed to work out just fine, particularly because Aunt Lisa got two Bionicles for his birthday, including the Lava Dude. They were the first thing Harry opened and it probably could have just stopped there given how excited he got. Of course, it did not end there and Harry ripped through the rest of his presents with the aplomb of an increasingly savvy young boy, fast and in search of "cool" things. (At one point after opening a couple of maze books, he actually said "nothing cool here," before moving quickly on to the next present, his current interest in mazes notwithstanding.)

But that is really just part of Harry becoming a little boy, changing with the growing influences of other kids from school. He's getting smarter and wiser and that part is pretty fun to watch, too.

One more thing: this afternoon while Harry was waiting for the people to arrive for his party he and Jeremy cleaned his room. It was his idea and initiative and his mother and I didn't even know about it until he called us up to look at it. I must say they're doing something right at the Moppet School.


Comments, Opinions?