One of my goals as a mom is to allow my children one day a year (their birthday) to do whatever their little hearts desire.  To allow them the freedom to make their own decisions without me suggesting they try something else.  I always announce this luxury with a bit of trepidation.  One of these days they are going to go overboard and I’m going to have to say “No.” to one of their requests.  Luckily, that has yet to happen.

The rules for the children’s birthdays are as follows:

1. You may eat whatever you want.  This includes going out to eat.  The funny thing about this rule is that kids don’t really think too far outside the box.  For example, they still pick a breakfast food for breakfast, a pretty acceptable lunch and dinner.  The snacks sometimes go awry, but that’s acceptable for one day.  Yesterday, Rory started his day with a waffle.  Then had yogurt, s’mores Goldfish, part of a Hershey bar, lunch at Souplantation, more s’mores Goldfish, chicken noodle soup, a peanut butter and honey sandwich, an old candy cane leftover from Christmas, more of the Hershey bar, ham and french fries.
   

   We love our Souplantation!!!

2. You may dictate all activities for the day.  I have decided my children will have a party every 5 years.  We’ll probably have a small gathering every year, but if they want to have a big party, they have to wait until 5, 10, 15, etc.  This is where I know things may get a little tough once the kids get older.  Right now they think they are limited to things they already have done.  There were no requests to go to Disneyland or Hawaii (Kamryn’s top two destinations).  Rory didn’t really have anything he wanted to do except sleep after his lunch.
3. You will have your picture taken on a step.  I thought the kids would always be sitting on the front step of our house in Iowa, but things change and now they are sitting on the steps outside our condo in California.

Rory's 3 year photo. The funny thing is, all of his clothes are 18-24 months. I love that he's so little. I get to hang on to having a little guy for as long as possible.

That’s pretty much it.  Rory’s final request of the day was to have his binky.  We have been talking about this for a month.  Once he turned 3, the binkies were gone.  He tried to convince me that he was still 2 by throwing a sock, a sandwich and a plate at me, but I held firm…for an hour.

Rory is an interesting child.  When I first told him he wasn’t allowed to have a binky, he cried and cried.  It was a very sad cry that was making me sad.  I wanted to give him his binky right then and there, but I didn’t.  Once he settled down, we went back to his room, read his book and got him all tucked in.  He accepted that he wasn’t going to get his binky which appeared to be a *win* for me, but what I didn’t realize was that Binky is Rory’s Ambien.  Without that little piece of plastic, he was wired.  He kept running out of his room and jumping into the living room in a fighting stance, yelling “Hiiii-Yaaaa!”  Believe me, it was hilarious, but it stopped being funny after an hour.  He wouldn’t stay in his room for anything.  So at 9:00pm, Binky miraculously reappeared, much to Rory’s delight, and off to bed he went without so much as a peep until this morning at 6:45am when he ran out of his room, Binky in hand, and shouted, “No more Binky!”

Feel free to stop by here and vote for me to win the Skydiving Adventure!  I’m very securely in second place, but we could still make a run for first!!