Hard To Buy For

Sam's 5th birthday is coming  up next week.  As usual, the actual birthday itself will see the family splintered.  I'll be at home; Kristie and the boys will be at the beach with our Memphisian friends.  So we obviously can't have the party then.

What to do . . .?

Well, we had begun to plan out a party when most of the invitation list showed up yesterday.  My mom came, along with my sister and her two children.  Some of Sam's other friends and their families showed up, and at 4:30 a raucous birthday party erupted below my office.  Yay!

Sam's birthdays are an issue.  My wife's birthday is in January, Sam's is in June.  There are no birthdays in our house between those two, so we get out of the habit.  As for presents, the other three boys have no problem letting us know what they want.  Sam is different.

"Sam, what do you want for your birthday?"

"A Lil'Kinz Tiger."

"Okay, we know that. You've said that a thousand times.  What else?"

At this point, Sam would just stare at me like I was crazy.  

"I want a Lil'Kinz Tiger."

"Do you want anything else?" I'm pleading at this point.

The Look again.  "No. Nothing else."

Even Jonah, who is has his finger on the pulse of all materialism in the house, could not offer any help.  "I dunno." Timothy suggested a particular Bionicle, so he got drafted to go with me to Target to get the Bionicle.

One thing Sam does like is His Own Stuff.  He's always asking, "Is this mine?"  As in, "Is this mine instead of brother's?"  So I got Sam his own frisbee.  He loves playing frisbee out in the street with us in the evenings, so I figured having his own frisbee would be a chocolate-peanut butter moment.  

On a lark, I also got him a box of sidewalk chalk and a copy of Schoolhouse Rock on DVD. I got the chalk because we were walking through that aisle to get to the toys.  I got the DVD because I didn't think yet another Backyardigans DVD would have any impact.  Plus, I like Schoolhouse Rock, and one of my sister's old boyfriends walked off with my Grammar Rock VHS.

We didn't give all of the presents to Sam yesterday.  Some are held in reserve for next week at the beach.  It turns out that the impromptu party also included gifts.  It fell to my Mom to get the Lil'Kinz Tiger.  She was as perplexed as we were at Sam's lack of avarice, and so she also got him a Lil'Kinz Lion.

However, having received the only thing he had asked for, Sam immediately gave the Lion to Stephen.  How crazy is that?