3rd Birthday Celebration (Part 1)

(Warning....long post)

You plan and plan a birthday party and don't really expect anything to go wrong. The week of Gray's impending birthday/party, the weather was perfect, the kids were healthy, the cake was ordered, and the party decorations were bought. But I guess we should always expect the unexpected.

A few days before his birthday/party....

For part of Gray's 3rd birthday celebration we bought Monster Jam tickets. Gray is all into (and I mean ALL INTO) trucks, cars, tractors...basically anything that has 4 wheels. And I'm keeping my fingers crossed that his interests will stay on 4 wheeled vehicles and not 2! But if he is anything like his Daddy his interest will probably slowly convert to motorcycles.

We tried to keep the Monster Jam tickets a secret until we arrived at the Colonial Life Arena on February 12th (Gray's actual birthday) but unfortunately Brandon and I were talking about it a few days before hand and Mr. Eagle Ears heard us and said "I want to go to the Monter Jam!" So needless to say all we talked about and heard him mention were big trucks, the monster jam, racing, etc every 10 minutes until the day of the show.

The day of his birthday....

So as you can tell, Gray was really excited. The truck show didn't start until 2 p.m. but we ended up getting pit passes so Gray could see the trucks up-close-and-personal. The way he loves trucks I never would have imagined him being so scared of the trucks. But he was! He absolutely did not want to take a pictures in front of any of the trucks...not by himself, not with me, not with Brandon and not with Blain and Abby.

Brandon and I were at the point of thinking that maybe the big trucks were not a good idea. But again Gray proved us wrong! He eventually got over his "fear" or whatever you want to call it and started taking pictures.

He absolutely loved the fact that he could sit on the 4-wheeler (yep, another 4 wheel vehicle he loves)

And he absolutely loved the show. While I personally believe the Colonial Life Arena is somewhat small to have a show like this, Gray doesn't know any different and loved watching the trucks jump over the cars and race each other. He loved watching the "Georgia" and "South Carolina" guys race on their 4 wheelers and loved watching the dirt bike stunts.

One thing he didn't like and said he was "scared" when it happened was when one of the trucks flipped over. It really is scary when you can tell something is going wrong and there is nothing you can do about it except watch.

Luckily the driver was okay and came out of the truck unscathed but unfortunately, his truck was unable to participate in the other shows.

By this time, the show was about 30 minutes to being over and we were having such a great time. The crowd was really getting into everything. There was hooping and hollering, clapping, screaming, and lets not forget how loud those trucks really are in an enclosed arena. So I really couldn't figure out how Gray did this....

Watching the big trucks really wore him out.

The expect the unexpected part of the post....

After the show we all get in the truck and we are heading to Long Horns to celebrate Rachel's birthday (my sis-in-law...her and Gray share the same birthday), when I look back at Gray and see this look on his face like he's not feeling well. So I said "Gray are you okay? Are you going to throw up?" and he shook his head yes. Well, I had 10 seconds to search the truck for something, anything, for Gray to throw up in and I found the gallon size zip lock bag we had goldfish (the snack) in earlier. I barely got it to his mouth when he threw up. At first I thought maybe the fumes from the monster trucks made him sick but then he did it again in the truck.....and again when we got home....and again when he woke up from sleeping. All in all he threw up 4 times and I had to cancel his birthday party that was scheduled for the next day. The party you plan for weeks. While it hurt my heart that he was sick and couldn't have his party with all his friends, I found comfort in knowing that he really isn't into "parties" yet. Atleast he's not at the age where he could really be upset.

Well the next morning he was fine. He never threw up anymore and he was running around....like normal....so we ended up having a little family party. Part 2 of his 3rd birthday celebration coming up.....