We celebrated his second birthday last weekend with a cupcake on his actual birthday, weekend visits from his Nonni and Grammie and a small party at the Little Gym for his pint size friends. Granted that's a lot of activity for a little boy who rarely sees family and attends maybe two parties a year, but he was in serious fussy-over-stimulated mode.
Doodlebug spent most of the hour-long gym party in the side room drinking juice and eating the frosting off the top of multiple cupcakes. He ventured out onto the gym long enough to grab all the mats out from under our little guests and yell "mine!" as he squirreled them away.
Once the gym activities were over and our guests were in the side-room eating cupcakes, Doodlebug played on the gym mats with his Nonni. As our guests were departing and the next party was waiting for the gym, he didn't want to leave. Of course!
We were a little embarrassed in front of our friends that our little guy didn't want to play with the other kids and that he screamed when we tried to get him to join the activities in the gym. Crowds have always overstimulated him. We know this, but I guess I was hoping a small gathering for his birthday would be different. It's not fair to expect him to take on different traits when the situation suits me. So going into Doodlebug's third year, as his personality is showing more and more of itself, his 2nd birthday party reminded me to let my sensitive little guy be who he is and cherish all his little quirks and sweet little boy feelings.
