Running Ragged for the Pirate Party

Today began with a 6:30am wakeup (after not going to bed until nearly midnight) by a wiggly, excited Eli ("I am so excited about my birthday party!") and jumped right away into hours and hours and HOURS of cleaning, prepping, decorating and shopping (not to mention keeping the kid from exploding with anticipation). Then it went right from there (no break for resting or even lunch) into the birthday party itself (a pirate party, arrrr), which was fun and successful, but also full of the kind of loud, elaborate chaos that you only get when you pack 10 excited preschoolers and their parents and assorted friends and relatives into a house way too tiny for everyone and then run them all around with games and activities. Then there was a few hours of cleanup and entertaining of assorted relatives, pizza was ordered and consumed and everyone left around 7pm.

It's been an utterly exhausting (though successful, especially in that "super-mama" arena), gold-medal-winning day in the Suck-It-Up Olympics. I am just. So. Frikking. Beat. I am quite literally at the end of my endurance and could actually envision just closing my computer and curling up and falling asleep right here. The amount of energy I put out today would have been exhausting (and impressive) even if I was not a) sleep-deprived and b) 38 weeks pregnant, but given that I was both, I am just amazed I'm still alive, let alone awake. I'm not sure what I was thinking (maybe it was preggo brain?) when I said "oh sure, we can throw a big complicated theme party for Eli 2 weeks before my due date, no problem", but I take at least some small satisfaction (hey, it's my only recompense) in knowing that even with my "handicaps", I still kick ass and take names. Um, so to speak.

But now it's a little after 8pm and the kid is in bed and everything is finally, beautifully quiet and calm. Even though the house is still an absolute mosh pit of tiny toy pieces, wrapping paper bits, and leftover food and drink, Josh and I are both sitting on the couch with some ice cream and our computers, blogging (the couple that blogs together, um, snogs together?). And after this, I fully intend to just blow off the rest of the cleanup and spend my few remaining conscious minutes doing nothing more taxing than maybe reading a magazine for a few minutes before I go to bed by 9. (Because in true J & J fashion, our day is starting tomorrow at 9am with a prenatal consultation meeting with our doula and then barrels off into several other events, one after the other, for the rest of the day. Whee!)

A special shout-out, before I go collapse, to "Uncle" Matt, who not only showed up at a kid's party without being in any way coerced (let alone actually related), but who, once there, was the most helpful, thoughtful, all around wonderful friend in the world (to both us harried parents and to the hyper kids). He helped us set up all the food and drinks, took pictures for us with our camera, played and played and PLAYED with the kids, and was just the biggest mensch in so many ways. Matt, you are more than da bomb, you're the whole friggin munitions factory.