Making Plans

Mark is already planning his birthday (it's only a month and 2 days away, perhaps I should start planning to avoid another birthday party disaster.) Here are some of his plans.

1. Have a VANILLA cake. (as opposed to chocolate, which Eric picked)
2. NOT share his presents. (I have a rule that all toys are general family property and will be shared. This rule stemmed from when they were babies and only 13 months apart and played with all the same things. I'm sure it will not always work, but so far we don't have a whole lot of it's MINE.. anyway, my point is on birthdays this rule doesn't exist and the birthday kid gets to play with his stuff as he wishes...although the other kids always play with whatever is left. Apparently he is asserting this exception to the rules early.)
3. Pick something Eric doesn't like for dinner. (Eric picked Mac n Cheese with Hotdogs which is his favorite meal EVER. He didn't purposely pick it because Mark doesn't like it. However, since Mark generally aims to like whatever is the polar opposite of what Eric likes, and this is Eric's all time favorite meal it is no surprise that I heard "But I don't LIKE it."

So Mark's birthday will be a bit different than Eric's. Either that, or he'll forget his irritation that his brother was born first, and just pick what he likes. When he announced that he was picking a dinner Eric didn't like on his birthday, I suggested it might be wiser to pick something that Mark liked and he did admit that was a good idea. Some days I don't know what to do with that boy!