Jelena's Birthday- Food with Love

For Jelena's birthday she asked that "the gang" get together for some down-home cooking straight from the farm boy himself...Mr. Jamie. You NEVER leave Jamie's house hungry. And it's not just lots of food...it's GOOD food. And it's made with love. At some point I had William convinced that love was an actual ingredient in food and that Jamie's food tasted so good because he put extra love in it. =)

For now, this is an adorable trait, i.e., being gullible. However, at some point, let's say 33 years old, it isn't cute- it just makes you feel stupid. Yes, I am talking about myself. I am incredibly gullible. My brothers, father, and husband love to get me to believe the dumbest things. Often they aren't even that creative, I'm just trusting. Luckily, I have other gullible individuals around me. My sister Lori, my mother, and now my son. I love that he's gullible. Sometimes we have to be really careful about being sarcastic because he takes you seriously. In fact, one of his favorite things to say is "Are you serious?."

One night we were doing homework and he was reading a story about Oak Trees. He had to answer questions about the story. One of the questions was about squirrels and acorns. He wrote a really silly answer and I told him that it wasn't correct and that he needed to erase it (The correct answer was that squirrels save acorns to eat during the winter). He got upset and asked me what the answer was. I think I said "Come on William, what do squirrels do with acorns? Throw them at each other?"

A few minutes later he said he was done with homework and ran upstairs. I looked over his homework and there it was- "Squirrels save acorns to throw at each other."

Like I said. The kid will believe anything. Wait, maybe he knows that I'll believe anything and so he's just playing innocent to get away with stuff. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure whether he is truly gullible or just playing me. Who is teasing who? Does he have my number or is he as gullible as I am. The more I think about it the more unsure I am.

Back to Jelena's party. William did awesome. I think he is getting used to dinner parties/birthday parties because we have them ALL the time. Although at least at my family birthday parties there are other kids to play with. But even when it is all adults he does pretty well. At adult parties you can get one of two Williams. 1) Center of Attention William. Hey everybody look at me. I'm funny. I 'm cute. Love me! 2) Adults are Stupid and Boring William. I'm going to put my headphones in and listen to my ipod and ignore all of you. Either William has its pros and cons.

At Jelena's party he was a mix of both. At first he was being funny. Jamie made spaghetti and William was putting cooked spaghetti noodles on his face giving himself a fu-man-chu. Gary has pictures that are pretty hilarious. Later William went into William number 2 mode and was just chill.

Sometimes I feel a little guilty about dragging him places, but I'm learning that parents have to take some time to themselves even when you don't have a babysitter. For the most part it feels like my life revolves around the little man. But every once in a while I need to be around friends and have adult conversation. And we're lucky that he does so well. He almost never whines or says "When are we going home?" We're lucky that way. All the kid needs is his ipod, an audience, and some food made with LOVE. From Left to Right: Jamie (in his Michael J. Fox "I fell off a boat" coat), Me, William, Jelena, Ian, Charisse, John, and Gary (Lawrence is taking the picture).
Can you see how big those bowls of food are? William in his favorite hoodie shirt. He's getting ready to enter his "Adults are stupid and boring" persona. He's got his ipod in his hand.