i went to a birthday party....(m)

I get a call this week from my friend Betsy telling me the start time for the birthday party on Saturday has changed.

What birthday party? I ask
"For Phoebe and Sara Rose," she says.  "I told T last week."
Betsy, I'm sorry, he didn't tell me.  Don't leave messages with him.

We laugh and I hang up having said yes we'd go this Saturday at four p.m.  Sounds like fun.

I ask Betsy to give me some suggestions for gifts for the girls.  Phoebe, the 2 year-old, would love a backpack.  Sarah Rose likes musical instruments.

Ten minutes later, Betsy calls back.  "M, I don't know how to ask you this, but could you bring a small gift for Sophia and Katelyn?  They'll be upset that they don't have something to open.  Just a small thing. Maybe some crayons, okay? Their mothers (Betsy's two adult daughters) think there will be problems if the older girls don't get something, too."

Sophia and Katelyn are the older sisters of Pheobe and Sara Rose.  They are 4 and 5 years old. 

I love my friend Besty and I know it killed her to ask me to get more gifts for the other girls.  As she hung up the phone, I could hear her husband Michael say, "Why should the other girls get presents if it's not their birthdays?"

Why, indeed?

I went to a store called Magic Beans.  It had everything....the pink backpack with a ladybug design.  A xylophone.  I got beautiful sticker books and a small bottle of Pustefix bubbles for each of the older girls. I remember Sophia loves animals so her book had all sorts of animal stickers.  Katelyn got a cupcake sticker book.

The clerk behind the counter offered to giftwrap all of the presents for no additional charge.  What could be better than that, right?

To make things easier, he wraps each gift in a different color.  Phoebe's backpack is in apple green paper with a purple bow sticker.  Sarah Rose gets purple paper and a pink sticker.  The older girls get white shopping bags with tissue paper.  Pink tissue in one, green in the other.

We arrive at the party at 4 p.m.  The girls are adorable.  Four little blondes with curly hair all dressed up in party clothes.  It almost made me want grandchildren.

After dinner, we get to the presents.  I give the actual birthday girls their gifts and the older two start to whine that they don't have anything why do their sisters have gifts where's my gift why didn't M bring me something I don't want to help open Phobe's present I hate Phoebe! Sarah Rose is too young for that present I will use it and give it to her when she's older why not? I'm mad at you!

My head is starting to split.  I get the white shopping bags with the older girls' gifts just to shut them up.  Katelyn starts to cry that Sophia got the one with the pink tissue paper doesn't M know pink is MY favorite color?  Sophia is still bitching about not getting the backpack and blocks the mirror that Phoebe is looking in to see herself wearing the backpack.  My friend Betsy grabs Sophia and tells her to open the gift from me.  She ignores the pink tissue paper which Katelyn coveted and pulls out the animal sticker book and cries because she wanted the cupcake sticker book.  Katelyn  moves in to steal the pink tissue paper and now a fight breaks out over the tissue paper of all things! 

Meanwhile, no one is watching one year old Sarah Rose who falls and hits her head.  She's fine but the noise level has reached fever pitch.  I drink someone else's wine.  They could have had herpes on their lips and I still would have chugged it.

Besty takes out pots and pans and spreads them on the floor.  The girls run over and start to play with the pots.  This quiets them down.  After a few minutes, I notice they are playing with the new things.  The baby is making beautiful music with the xylophone.  Little Phoebe, who looks like Shirley Temple, is stuffing loot into the backpack and pretending to go to school.  Katelyn and Sophia are playing with their own sticker books.  Sophia is naming all the animals.  Katelyn is making beautiful cupcake creations with her book.

The wine has kicked in and I've mellowed.  My blood pressure is back to normal.  At eight p.m. we leave to go home.

Betsy tells me the gifts were perfect and thanks me for coming.

In the car, I make a mental note to talk to my sons about birth control.