Hello, this is Mr. Austin. I'm hesitant to post here, but since it's relatively quiet I suppose my thoughts won't impede much.

We're readying for Mrs. Squiggles' 2nd birthday party coming up in May. Of course the theme will be Spongebob, and there will be cakes and balloons and party favors and possibly a piñata. I'm looking forward to it probably more than most. The only problem is, I don't know who her friends are. Does a 2 year old have friends? She knows people at school, she knows them by name in fact. When I pick her up I always ask her who people are and she shouts their name as best she can (Jashon=Jackson, Bre-an=Brendan, etc.) So this will be more like last year in that we invite people that have kids for the sake of having kids there. I think to have a birthday party for a kid and only invite your friends would be weird and a little selfish. But honestly, I don't know that she'd know the difference or even remember. I know that recently, we had 4 kids at our house and the backyard was pack full of fun and chasing the dog and swinging and sliding and general "Hey look at me!" I hope to recapture that but the kids we're inviting are all roughly Rowan's aga and are just now learning to run, walk, talk in sentances. Am I forcing the issue by bringing together kids that don't know each other for the sake of having kids?

Mrs. Austin had the idea of inviting her friends from school, but I had to shoot it down because I don't know who her friends are. I would feel bad as well inviting only a select group of kids, leaving the rest to wonder why they didn't get invited. (Like she's that popular, that kids are just waiting for their invitation like some Charlie Brown clones or something.) So without inviting an entire class of 20 kids, I guess we'll be left with the ones we know but she may not.

In the end it really only matters to me. Until she's 4 or 5 and older, she's not going to know enough to want certain people over. She's only recently asking to see Grandpa and Grandma (I'll let all 48 of you decide which ones she's talking about) and her uncle and new aunt. I'm sure it's just a matter of time before she'll start asking to play with neighboor kids and if we can go see a certain relative, but that's another year away.

A year that will just fly by like the first 2 have.