A Good Day

I wasn't able to be the first to wish Elliot a Happy Birthday. Since I taught class late last night, he slept at Mom's, so I didn't go in at 12:46 to possibly rudely awaken him by making a big fuss, which may be for the best.

By the time I got there this morning to pick him up (after 2 loads of laundry, 1 load of dishes, and a quick shower) it was 10:30. He shut down all attempts at singing Happy Birthday, but warmed up fast when I pulled a present into his field of vision.

I had ordered some Cars stuff from the Disney site, and am disappointed to say that Mater came with a broken wheel, so not 5 minutes into his birthday toys I had to take one away. Fortunately I have the coolest kid in the world, and he just rolled with it... (or, rather, without it :)

Elliot, Grandma, Poobah, and I headed out for the day's Big Adventure - a trip to the Whittle Shortline Store to play with the tracks and buy a new piece for his train at home. I was again a little disappointed to find (this was our first time visiting the store) they had very few track pieces, and mainly only their own line of trains available for purchase. Fortunately, Elliot was enthralled with their train setups and dove right in to playing. After about 45 minutes, I talked him into picking a new car (he chose a green tank car) and coming with us to have lunch, then maybe ride a train later.

This had him ready to go in no time, and on the way to the car he told us that we would be riding the train, and a boat, and eating ice cream. He sounded so certain, but only one of the three really happened. We headed to Kirkwood and had a nice late lunch at Bar Louie across from the train station. Just as we were sitting down, the Amtrak pulled in, and Elliot really got a kick out of watching the crossing gates flash and the people get on and off the train. Magically, his kids meal came with an Ice Cream Sundae. Hooray!

While we'd toyed with the idea of heading down to the metrolink so he could ride a "real" train, he seemed pretty warn out, and fell fast asleep in the car.

Since he was napping, I headed out for errands. I ran home, ran another load of laundry and grabbed the dog. Then we hit the glass studio to check on some pieces made earlier this week. By the time I got back to Mom's he'd woken up and was hard at play with his trains.

We opted for eating in, since we all seemed pretty run down from the days activities. By 8:30, Elliot seemed to be winding down and I asked if he wanted to stay at Grandma's so Mommy could finish cleaning tomorrow for his party.

He practically threw me out onto the street...

So, since Matt and Vanessa were in town, I headed to Karaoke! Who needs sleep!?!!? I completely flubbed my first attempt because I got "least complicated" mixed up with "closer to fine" and so stood there completely unable to sing as the words floated by. Lucky it was a slow and forgiving crowd. I got a chance to fix my blunder, did "Closer to Fine" and "The Gambler" and broke in on Ashley's "Put a Ring on It" because, really, who can just sit that one out? Beth rocked the house with "When You're Good to Mama" and Matt, in the most appropriately chosen Karaoke ever, sang "Great Balls of Fire." His vasectomy this week went well, but he seemed a little tender walking up to the bar...

So on a scale of one to ten, today gets two thumbs up with a groovy, danceable beat and a cherry on top.

Happy Birthday, Elliot!