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Confession: sometimes I’m kind of a selfish mom.
I think it was about 5 or 6 years ago when we went to a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. It was a Saturday, and it was packed. My anxiety levels rose the minute I stepped foot in the door. I wanted a hazmat suit. I wanted to smack food out of chubby hands. I wanted to punch the creepy looking mascot right in the throat. I wanted to curl up into a ball and pretend places like this didn’t exist. Of course Abby and Oliver (I *think* I was pregnant with Lila) LOVED it. I mean, they loved every single second of that germ hole. So, I did the only reasonable thing I could think of and I calmly told them on the ride home that Chuck E. Cheese was closing down. There would be no more parties there, no more random Saturdays. There would be nothing happening there. Ever. EVER. My plan worked for a few years, until the kids started getting invited to parties there.
“Oh. I guess they re-opened,” I would say.

And then a few weeks ago, Oliver started talking about how he wanted his birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. I immediately said no. But he kept talking about it, and I started to feel bad.

So, tonight he held court with a bunch of his favorite friends while I doled tokens out so they could earn tickets redeemable for pure crap. He had a blast. I mean, look at this picture. He’s in the “Sanitation Chamber” trying to grab as many tickets as he can in 30 seconds. Actually, I am quite certain it’s not called the “Sanitation Chamber” but I’d like to pretend that that spot is the cleanest spot in the whole disgusting building. Lucky Ollie happened to grab the coveted “1000 ticket” which would allow him to get a boatload of crap from the ticket counter before we left. Oh my christ was this whole thing so painful, but I did it. I did it!!!! I did it for him– because as his shirt says, “this is what awesome looks like,” and I’m just so very blessed that he belongs to us.