KJ's first birthday and Mother's Day 2024

Mother’s Day and KJ’s 1st birthday.

One of my pet peeves is first birthday parties. The honoree will not remember it. Yes I guess it isn’t for him or her to begin with and is more for the parents. A reason to celebrate what they have created before thechild can grow big enough, like a certain daughter I know and tell their mother to shut the fuck up or was it fuck off. Maybe it was both. When I get angry and stop myself from putting her through a wall and damaging my relationship with her and her mother, I don’t remember the insult as much as just feel it and it wasn’t even directed at me. KJ’s party was scheduled for 1-4 on Sunday afternoon in a park along the Hudson in Haverstraw. I’d never been there and thought it was a beautiful park. Teri wanted to get there early to help set up. We arrived a little later than she wanted to, but it was still early. KJ’.s father was there along with Amanda and the birthday boy. KJ’s father was preparint to cook the food and it was on charcoal. It’s been years since I had food cooked on charcoal. I don’t know if it tastes better or even different. There is just something about the smell of charcoal burning that makes a BBQ better. I sat around with the rest of my family. Kenny started cooking around 1:30 and he kept cooking. I counted about a dozen people around 2 in the afternoon. Only Kenny from his family was present. I wondered if they were coming.

Like only Nastia can do, Teri asks where is Nastia? Sean says she is playing baseball with those kids. I look where someone is pointing and Nastia is pitching to a kid while a few kids are in the field, only Nastia can do that. Some time after 3 Kenny’s family came. Earlier, I’d asked Teri if jeans and a collared shirt was enough because Kenny’s family would be coming from Church. She just looked at me, as if I’d just said something stupid. As I thought about it, I guess it was a little racist, but it was not intended as anything bad. I just have watched too many films where black folk go to church on Sunday. The food Kenny cooked was not excessive. By the end of the event, it was all gone. It was a gorgeous day and Kenny’s family was polite to us. Now mother’s day, even though it was not planned in advance, was nice and I hope Teri liked it. I asked her several weeks before what she wanted to do for mother’s day. I offered to plan a brunch and cook everything, she didn’t like that. I asked if she wanted to go to ‘The Pancake Place’ in Nanuet, she didn’t want to do that. I did ask several times and every time it was I don’t know. Finally she said,”Ok, let's just go to ‘The Pancake Place’ in Nanuet. I tell everyone we are going early and everyone needs to get up so we can beat most of the crowd. Of course Nastia and Sean had planned a no-tell motel get away for the day before, but they promised they would get there on time. On Mother’s Day, everyone, even Elena, got up without much growling. We picked up Nancy and made it to the Pancake place about 9:15. Nastia andSean got there so early, they had time to text and ask where we are. We waited only a few minutes and were seated. It was a good meal and a good time.