Birthday Party

It is rare that I will ever do this, but I have to tell you about our evening.

Sandi, E and I were invited evening for a birthday party for Ariela and Shoshanna.  In episodes to come, this family is comprised of father Saul, mother Julie and 5 girls, Rebecca, Alyssa, Shoshanna, Ariela and Shira and will figure quite prominently.

I guess a little background may be necessary.

Alyssa was a camp counselor to E at a summer day camp about 5 years ago.  E chose her to be his camp counselor after his original counselor was let go only after a couple of days into camp.  The camp manager told E to pick his new counselor out of a group of teens that were standing nearby.  E walked up to Alyssa, having never met her before, grabbed her hand and led her to the camp manager, who asked if he was sure.  To which he replied, ya, ya.  After the camp ended, she offered to watch E for us so we could enjoy a rare evening out.  We took advantage of this.  In following years, Alyssa and Ariela were E's camp counselor at various summer day camps.

During Alyssa's senior year, we became quite close with her family, and have more or less been adopted into their family as we do not have any immediate family with a 20 minute drive of our home.  Four of the five girls have either traveled with us on vacation or have watched E for us.  E has spent the night at their house as well.  He is their little brother and even with their busy schedules still make time for him.

Anyway, this Wednesday, Ariela and Shoshanna turn 21.  In advance of this momentous birthday, Julie decided to throw a party for family and of course we were invited.

There are always a lot of people that attend a party at Julie's house.  Grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins and friends.  There were more than 20 people at tonight's party.  That many people on the same floor of a home does tend to make a lot of noise.  Believe me, there was some noise.

In parties of the past, E would tend to get over-stimulated by the noise level and begin to shutdown socially and emotionally.  We typically excuse ourselves so E doesn't spoil anyone else's enjoyment and we end up staying an hour at the most.  Saul, Julie and the girls understand and will often walk E to the car so he doesn't feel bad about leaving.

Tonight, E did a good job keeping himself in a good emotional state and did not shutdown socially or emotional.  In fact, he was interactive, interested in what the girls, cousins and their friends were doing, giggling and laughing.  At one point, he was entertaining a room with his uncontrollable laughter over a YouTube video.  There's just something about that certain video that makes him crack up.

Any social encounter is met with much trepidation by Sandi and I since we are never one-hundred percent sure how it will go.  However, we refuse to limit what we introduce E to just because of what could occur.  Had we not decided to go to the broadway production of the Lion King, we would have never known of his love of plays and shows.  Sandi and I do not shy away from giving E an opportunity to live life.  That is why regardless of prior experiences with birthday parties of which there have been many, we always go and see what happens.  We always know at Julie's house if we have to go, there's no stigma attached to our having to leave early.

E did so well that as we were leaving he said good bye to Sandi, grabbed Ariela's hand and started to walk out the door.  Sandi stood there dumbfounded that she could be cast aside so quickly and trying to figure out if a trade had been made.

There are many reasons for tonight's success, which I will write about in coming posts.  I just really wanted everyone to know how successful E was tonight.

Thank you Saul, Julie, Rebecca, Alyssa, Shoshanna, Ariela and Shira for opening your home and hearts to E.

Thanks for reading; more to come.