At my nephew's birthday party, we all gathered around him and his Finding Nemo cake, and we sang the traditional "Happy birthday to you" song. By the time we got to the end, he'd buried his face in his hands, and as soon as he could slide out of the chair he ran away in tears. He told his sister to blow out the three candles. He refused all offers of ice cream and cake.
We're off-key, but this is the first time our singing was so bad we made a kid cry!
We never did figure out what was wrong. He and I went into the computer room and played some tedious game (his hands are so small he uses both of them to move and click the mouse, but he was better at the game than I was.) He stopped crying right away, and after about twenty minutes I told him I was going up for ice cream, and he joined me like it was a fine idea.
All I can guess is that he sometimes gets shy, and suddenly being the center of attention of fifteen adults was overwhelming for the poor little guy.
Ah, childhood, that idyllic time of joy, laughter, and sheer terror.
Posted by Nic at March 6, 2004 09:28 PM | TrackBackI have yet to go to a birthday party for the under-4 set (and I've been to a lot of them) and NOT see the kid end up in tears. I think it's too much stimulation, and too much sugar!
Posted by: zenchick at March 6, 2004 11:37 PM