Big 9

I can't even explain how exciting it all was!

The anticipation!

The expectation!

The elation!

The celebration!

The Big 9!

We have been planning it since Christmas ended last year!

That's how big the Big 9 is!

It takes 8 months to prepare!

You guessed it!

(or did you)

Sister is now 9 years old!

You'd think she'd prepared her whole life for that birthday... then as soon as the last present is opened she is jumping up and down with excitement telling me what she wants for Christmas.

Frankly, I am glad there are only two HUMONGOUS holidays in Sister's world. I don't think I could handle complete and total spaz-out for a monthly holiday...

It is hard though...

Trying to explain that her birthday is 8 months away for 8 months and then to explain that Christmas is 4 months away for 5 months... yes, I did the math right. She knows that after he birthday is over she can start getting excited for Christmas so she spends most of July being excited about both of them because whatever she doesn't get on her birthday she will surely get on Christmas. Trust me, it is 5 months of anticipation for Christmas.

Anyway...

So I learn something new every year with my kids and their birthdays. Each one is different in how they handle the excitement and attention.

Because of Sister's anticipation she is building up in her head a big, giant festival of presents and friends all surrounding her with balloons bobbing in the sky.

Then the party starts and she realizes, "Oh, ya... I really don't do well with this stuff. Can you just hand me my present and leave."

Ha!

Trust me, we teach our children to be grateful for what they are given and to say thank you and to appreciate their friends.

They have also been taught in school (for social integration), to help with their anxieties, that this day is the day you get presents, have a birthday cake and get sung to so you can blow out the tiny flames atop.

So she is just following what she has been taught.

She still has Fragile X.

Even though she has been taught better, she just can't help the fact that it all is so overwhelming to her, yet wants so badly to be socially the "norm" with her friends.

So this year, lessons learned, I sent an invite telling them the things Sister likes and that they don't need to be big or extravagant or even new. We also started with coloring the paper bags for their candy while everyone trickled in, had a piñata, cake and then presents. It lasted about 30-45 minutes tops.

Avery's friends JJ and JuJuBean came over to help build the piñata that morning. We used a balloon, nutrition drink boxes and some Christmas wrapping paper turned backwards complete with their drawings to add extra spunk...

It was...

cute...

kind of like a saggy diaper...

 But, hey, it served its purpose and stayed together for everyone to have 2 turns each!

I was so grateful that we ended it when we did because I was starting to see the panic in her eyes.

I am also so grateful to her sweet little friends and their parents who do such wonderful things for our kids!

So happy about her gifts

The group all together

This birthday card made Sister smile

One of the most ingenious gifts she received was homemade.

Sister LOVES (understatement) PokéMon cards and her friends' dad made her a personalized one! It was adorable!

They made a big one too, to hang on her wall.

Oh, and her cake...

Ya...

her cake...

I am not a Pinterest Mom.

Let me just get that out of the way first. I mean you saw the piñata right?

Sister loves brownies so that's what I made.

Sister wanted blue frosting, so I put on blue frosting and even added some sprinkles and her name was written with sprinkles. It was so cute.

I left it on the counter...

I left Baby in the house...

She found the brownies...

I left the spoon in there for the full effect. Heck! I wasn't gonna let Baby go to all that work and not get some credit...

Thankfully, Sister didn't mind at all. I think she was too overstimulated by then to even take notice in her "cake" looking a little funny.

So the Big 9 was no Pinterest-worthy party but, by dang, if someone out there who has a child with Fragile X finds joy in this post that that is what I was shooting for. Fragile X-worthy!