Happy Birthday Little E!

So much has happened over the past two weeks that I am sadly just putting pictures up from Eric's second birthday party now, 11 days later (I think). We had a house full of family for 10 days and then a bout with the flu. The H1N1 flu has been circling our area like a hawk (as has another flu strain which is the one I think Big E had, chickenpox, and Dengue Fever which is from mosquitoes). We have been laying low and I have been disenfecting like crazy to try to keep Little E from getting sick, mostly because I don't want to sit in a doctor's office for half a day with other sick kids waiting to be seen.

Now, about his birthday. Our little guy is two and it literally seems like yesterday we were celebrating his first birthday at a bar-b-que in the yard of our old house in Boston. Mostly it seems like yesterday because shortly after his birthday our whirlwind move started. SO, we had what I deem a very "Dominican" birthday experience. (I will try to keep it short)

Dominicans go pretty nuts over kid's birthdays. They are events and a lot of them are held at the most popular and "posh" locations in town...the new McDonalds on Nunez, the Burger King on Lincoln, the Country Club, etc. Seriously, the McDonalds has a one year waiting list...no lie. So, we went back and forth over what to do...at home with cake or in a restaurant. We had to have it on a weekday because the weekend before was Mother's Day here, but it ended up that the party was on his actual birthday, Monday, June 1st. SO, we decided to have it at a local pizza place that has a really great playground, except the place overbooked and there was already a party going on when we got there. And, it was a party...loud music, dinosaur decorations and elaborately decorated cake, kids running around everywhere and a clown providing entertainment. So here we are a rag tag family gathering of 15 walking in with our balloons and homemade Elmo cake. Chaos ensued as we tried to figure out what to do. One family member was "discussing" the situation with the staff arguing about our reservation, Eric was apologizing to the father of the other kid who was very rude to us, I was trying to decide if we should stay or go, and little E was over in the corner with the Elmo cake unsupervised putting his finger in the cake I spent all afternoon decorating and opening his presents. It was a scene from a movie! Of course, you have to imagine a lot of loud, fast Spanish and exagerated gestures to really get the picture. So, we called the other Pizzarelli location near to us to see if they could take us and ended up moving the entire party with balloons, guests, presents, cake and all over to the other place. It ended up being great... we had the place to ourselves and they didn't even charge us to have the party there. I am learning that things usually end up working out in the end...it's just getting to that point that I am still trying to figure out. But it needs to be said that I was one of the more calm people in this situation, so that is progess.

In the end, Ericito had a blast with his cousins and Elmo and the whole crazy gang. The pizza was great, the cake was yummy and we really had a great time.Opening up his presents from us before the party. Yea! A train set!