Taking the Scenic Route

Cody turned 5!

He had a pirate theme party with pirate hats, a pirate ship pinata, and a cute cake.  Zane did a pretty good job of listening and playing without problems.  *happy mama dance*

Carefully carrying the present he helped wrap to the car to go to the party

His turn at the pinata.  He counted out his swings as he counted to 5.  (what Cody had done right before). 

Pinata booty…a tootsie roll pop

Excited because Cody was opening the present he helped wrap.  Cody has been really into Star Wars for several years and ended up with all Star Wars gifts.  Several of us were holding our breath because there were a number of packages the exact same shape…Star Wars Action Figures…and were all relieved we got him different ones.  We got him an Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader one, he also got R2D2 and Obi Wan.  There was a big battle droid and something else that I am not remembering right now.

Eating his cake

And there is another pirate picture on Zach’s site.

The only thing that really stinks about parties like this is the sugar.  Zane reacts very severely to sugar.  I only let him have 1/2 a piece of cake (from the center…one side of frosting) and was teased by the other parents about being a mean mama.  He only had one sucker (thank goodness that was the only thing left after all the older kids raided the pinata goodies…I was not looking forward to prying chocolate out of his hands…that seems to be even worse for him).   I was happy when Robert jumped in to defend us…he had witnessed Zane and agreed that we were not exaggerating his reaction.  That helped shut up the other parents.  I was very proud of Zane though…he did not go around trying to take other people’s cake or candy, and he left the cake (on the table) alone when we asked him to.  I was proud of his self control and his growing understanding of socially acceptable behavior. 

Some comments about “The Great Sugar Battle”.

When I say he does not handle sugar well, I am not kidding.  The week of Easter made it abundantly clear.

Day 1, Easter:  Let him have a small chocolate bunny, some small marshmallow eggs, some whoppers in the Easter eggs, and a peep (which I don’t think he finished) .   He was up for 22 hours of insanity.

Day 2:  Only slept 5 hours and got up grumpy, but still in high gear.  He ran from the bedroom to his candy…he got in 2 marshmallow eggs before we made if from the bedroom ourselves.  We decided to remove everything except a few of the whoppers out of his reach…major drama and lots of climbing to try and retrieve the candy.  Up 20 hours.  Including behaviors like walking down the hallway banging his head against the wall every step, overturning furniture, and throwing kid’s furniture.

Day 3:  Again, up after only 4.5 hours of sleep.  We removed all the candy from sight and threw away anything that wasn’t something we wanted to eat ourselves.  He was still crazy and totally out of control.  We were tired beyond reason at this point and started sleeping in shifts to keep up with him and keep him from killing himself.  In the evening he came from his room smelling like chocolate with brown gunk all over himself.  Discovered the wrappings to a caramel Cadbury egg in his room and chocolate smears everywhere.  We searched his room and looked for any other candy he might have hidden (and wondered if that was why day 2 was so horrible).  Up 22 hours

Day 4:  5 hours of sleep.  How the heck does he do this!?!  By this point, everything is just a blur of him out of control and bad tempered.  Zero sugar today…we didn’t even let him have his green juice (apple juice base), grapes, or yogurt (which has sugar in it)  Up 20 hours again.

Day 5:  Awake after a whole 6 hours of sleep this time.  We were able to get him down for a nap finally.  It only lasted 45 minutes, but it was better than nothing.  He ‘only’ up for 18 hours this day.  Still wild, but better by comparison.

Day 6:  Slept 8 hours the night before.  Nap time back to 1.5 hours.  Still grumpy, but resembling a more normal reaction to things.  Schedule is wayyyyyy of by now, but at least he was only up 12 hours. 

Then we went out to the farm and he had some sugar, although we REALLY limited the amount.  By this point we are SO tired of the behavior problems, and my folk understood so they didn’t push.  It was still too much sugar. 

Spent the intervening time trying to get his bedtime, now completely screwed up, from 6 am back to 10-11 pm.  We had it on track for a total of 1, count ‘em ONE night, then we had the party.  Despite the fact he woke up at 8 am,  had his nap on time (12:30-2pm) he was up until 5 am….21 hours minus the nap.  *sigh*   Back to the struggle for regaining the proper bedtime.

Oh, and Alex’s party is next Sunday.  Oh Joy.