Galloping Cats

But first, a couple of funny things:

Gatito climbed into our bed at some point during the night last night. (Don’t even get me started on this problem.) A little while later, when I’m practically falling off the bed, I say, “Gatito, move over. I’m edge of bed!” (This is the way he used to say it when he was little. And he said, sleepily, “I love you too, Mommy.” Heh.

On Friday, I took Gatito into NYC to go to the planetarium. Whoopi Goldberg, for some reason, narrates a show about the Big Bang, which happens to be a topic that’s gotten a lot of discussions lately. Gatito climbed onto my lap and a few minutes in, he asked me to cover his ears for him. I looked down and realized he couldn’t cover his own ears because he was using his hands to cover his eyes. I guess it was a little too much for poor Gatito. Not only is it (obviously) pitch black in there– much darker than in a movie, and not only are the visuals sudden and the volume loud, but also the seats rumble. (I took pity on him and we left right away!)

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I loved all of your comments on the birthday party gifts and giving to charity. Thank you!

I think I felt a little guilty for how much we have, and the plans for his classmate’s birthday party next weekend only enhanced that and made me feel wrong for not doing the same. And yet, it didn’t really feel right to ask Gatito to give up his birthday gifts. And then it seemed wrong that that didn’t feel right. But I’d feel pretty badly if someone told me I had to give up my birthday gifts! So I liked all of the comments that gave me “permission” to let him just enjoy his gifts. I also really appreciated robinj’s point about teaching children how to receive graciously and, separately, to teach them about giving.

We did end up telling Gatito that if he received gifts that he didn’t think he’d play with, we would give those to kids who didn’t have many toys. The fact is, though, that unlike last year, almost everything he got was right up his alley and mostly educational. Box sets of Ramona and the Mouse and the Motorcycle books, a number of crafty/construction-type projects, and some space-related toys and books. He also received a world atlas with stickers of all the flags that were meant to be placed on the appropriate countries, which he and A spent a good deal of  time working on right away.

So nothing went to charity, he enjoyed his party and his gifts very much, and we are planning a trip to the toy store, where he will help me pick out something new specifically for Toys for Tots.