The mayhem at a 4 year old's birthday party!

I dread birthday parties to be honest. No, I love attending them but I just hate organizing one. No matter how many lists I draw up, websites I visit for ' Don't forget' tips or sleepless nights I spend, there will always be that one important thing I forget. Every SINGLE time.

Every year, after I host one, I secretly swear that it's the last birthday party. But when you have a kid who knows what he wants and has understood that birthday parties= presents which will keep him occupied for a month, it's only natural that he gets his way everytime. I've begin to note how my kid ( although I guess it happens with every kid), is getting extremely choosy about the kind of cake he wants and who he wants to call to his party.

Not that I have anything against this new hero who my kid simply idolizes, but Ben 10 is a mother's worst nightmare. Or maybe it's just me. Ever since my kid discovered this superhero kid with green eyes and a watch ( yes Ben 10 has a bloody expensive watch), he has been plaguing me with questions like:-

' Mama, I want green eyes also. Like Ben 10.'
' Mama, I want to fight aliens. Like Ben 10'.
' Mama, Ben 10's brother is called Sen 10'.
' Mama, I want to grow up and become like Ben 10'.

So, as you can imagine, I've begin to dread taking my kid to toy shops. Because, somewhere, hidden from my view, will be Ben 10 in full glory. And even if my myopic eyes take 2 hours to scent out Ben 10, you can bet that my kid does it in under 5 minutes. And so, my kid is now the proud owner of 3 Ben 10 t-shirts, a Ben 10 watch, a Ben 10 phone, a Ben 10 ball and possibly in the near future- a Ben 10 hairdo!!

Now as if my life wasn't already complicated enough, my kid gave me the additional challenge of- yes, a Ben 10 cake for his party. If this was Mumbai, Delhi or any other metro, I wouldn't have thought twice. This being Cochin, where everybody orders their birthday cakes from either Hit Breads( by the way, they haven't added anything new to their catalogue. They still have the same cakes my kid sister used to order when she was a kid) and of course, Cocoa Tree. Now both of them don't do Ben 10 cakes. Hmmmm, possibly because they like seeing mums like me beg and beg just so that they get to say a ' No, madam, we sorry.' Me too. So, since I had embarked on a Ben 10 cake hunt, I had to also report dutifully to my son. ' Darling, mama not getting Ben 10 anywhere, can we have a Spider man cake?'. To which he says' But I want Ben 10 cake no? You said Ben 10 no?' and he gives me that puppy dog look which I can never say no to. And so, the hunt for Ben 10's cake ( no wonder I hate that guy so much now) would begin all over again!

Finally, finally I spotted one lady who apparently has introduced the idea of photo cakes in Cochin. And what a heart attack I had when even 2 days prior to the party, I was unable to get through to her to order my cake. And when I finally did, it was with a sigh of relief that in spite of the high price, I could walk away with the reassurance that the cake would taste good but more importantly, feature Ben 10 doing what other normal kids never get to do- shoot aliens!!

I can't tell you how many nights I sat up trying to figure out the right games to have for the party. When I googled ' party games for pre-schoolers', almost all the sites advised having active games as opposed to saner games which require the kids to sit down and play. Probably not much fun for the little ones, but it's probably the only time when the mums get to hear each other talk as well. Anyways, I had finally narrowed it down to musical chairs, pinning the nose on Mickey and a spot of bowling. However, when D-Day did come, I realised that all the kids needed was a play area with a swing, a slide and a few cars and they were good to go. There wasn't any need to have the games at all!! Although I did feel like a fool for having planned so much and too much, it felt good to hear the kids screaming, running, popping balloons and giving other customers a scare now and then.

After the few hours that seem to last a lifetime are done, I turn to my kid and ask- 'Did you have a good time?' And it's when he says 'Yes, mama' and hugs me that it makes all that planning so worth it. But like I said, I swore to myself- ' Never again'. I know my kid better. Next year, he will have a longer list of must-have's for his party and by then am guessing and hoping that Ben 10 will be replaced by another hunkier and chunkier superhero who's somewhat my age!!

@ Raji( I hope you read this because I thought and thought about a good description for you. To me, you're like a shooting star in a navy blue sky. Dont ask me why, it's just the first thing that popped in my head :-))