August 20, 1997 - Wednesday

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Today worked out really nicely. The day was overcast most of the day. I left the kids in the morning with Gabriella, the baby sitter. She did a really good job today of getting the apartment set up for Stephen's birthday party later this evening. She washed all the floors, cleaned the bathroom up, hid all the things that little kids would destroy in a party. They also blew up all of the 25 101 Dalmation balloons I had bought yesterday and wrote Happy Birthday in both English and Italian on the balloons. The balloons also worked to be a great party treat for the kids to play with. They did end up popping a whole bunch of them!

And during the day, Stephen lost a tooth! One of his molars. Although I don't think the Italians have a tooth fairy. Gabriella threw it away and it was lucky that I called Stephen at lunch time. He told me she threw it away so I told him to retrieve it from the trash. He got it and saved it in a little cup so we could put it under his pillow tonight. Kristie was concerned about the tooth fairy coming. But I assured her that the tooth fairy ALWAYS comes to daddy's house. Eventhough sometimes it seems to miss their mommy's house.

I at work got caught up in a 15h00 meeting. I was planning to leave work at 15h00 so I could go out and buy Stephen's presents. That really ate up into my time for shopping. I rushed out of the office and hit the toy store and bought him some presents and one for Kristie. I also bought some packages of 101 Dalmation stickers for the invitees. I figured it was the least I could do. All in all, Stephen had planned on about 10 kids to come. But one bowed out this morning, little Enrico from the corner apartment. It seems that his mom became ill either overnight or early in the morning. So much so that she went to the hospital! We had seen her in the park last night with Enrico and she seemed fine then. I hope it isn't anything too serious.

I got home and the kids showed me Stephen's tooth. Then I looked for the glue to wrap Stephen's presents and loo and behold, the babysitter put everything away such that I couldn't find it! Ugh. So I left Stephen's presents in my duffle bag and told him not to look in there. We went to the supermarket and got a couple of pizzas for dinner. The pizzaria around the corner was closed. Oh man, and I forgot to go by the hotel and pick up Mike's shoes that he had left behind. I'm going to go by there in the morning on the way to work so I don't forget again.

Stephen had made his own birthday cake. I had bought some ready made cake layers and some nutella. He put the layers together with Kristie's help and they made a very nice looking cake. I put the sprinkles on and the candles.

19h00 rolled around and we waited for the guests to arrive, and waited. I was beginning to get worried that no one would show up. But then at about 19h10 a bunch of kids showed up and a few minutes after that Tom. Then about 10 minutes later Vincenzo and Rosa came. They were surprised to see all of the kids! A grandmother came with one and a mother of 3 others later. One of the mothers was quizzing me about me being single with the kids and how the visitation went with the kids. And at one point I believe she asked if I was looking for a step mother. Very forward these people! Stephen got alot of great presents. One of them is an Italian version of the Day Runner. He really liked that one. I also got him another from the series of magic games he has been collecting. I also got him a squirt gun, which someone else provided a different model too so now he has two for the beach! I bought him a small ping pong set you can adhere to any table and you can see him and Vincenzo (a former champion) playing on the post-party cleaned table. At about 20h40 four of the kids had to go home. Then at 21h00 everyone else left because it was their bed time. All in all it was a fun party! It did start raining at about 21h30 so there was no way we could leave the apartment and go across the street to the park.

I was a little worried about the international makeup of the crowd and how everyone would react to each other but everything went just fine. The kids played and made a HUGE ruckus. One of the mothers was concerned that the noise would bother the other tenants. I assured her, most everyone was on vacation and that the noise wasn't a problem. It is unfortunate that one of Stephen's friends, Nordi, went on vacation and we haven't seen him the past couple of weeks. I was hoping they'd get back in time for the party but they didn't.

The kids showered and went to bed. Stephen put his tooth under the pillow and now the tooth fairy must do his duty!

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