Unselfish Heart

I spend most of my blog goofing on my kids. They are 2 and 4 - let's face it, they do some crazy stuff. But since I have specifically talked about Eli's selfishness (see the sharing post) I thought I should write about his unselfishness on his birthday, of all days.
John and I really worked hard to make the day all about him. I think one day a year it is important to really make a big deal out of a loved one. We let him eat Lucky Charms for breakfast (his favorite - reserved only for a sweet snack), we took him to his favorite park, we surprised the boys with a trip to Gatti Town, we made Eli's favorite dinner, had a big "Peter Pan" cake, and got him a few presents. Even on a day reserved solely for him he managed to think of others.
Early in the day he asked me to get him party hats for his party that night. Not sure how he found out about "party hats" but I was going to make it happen. I had already planned to go to the "party store" to get him a few balloons. Anyway he wanted blue and he wanted his brother to have yellow. I am pretty sure all day they both thought it was both of their birthdays, but I still thought it was sweet that he thought his brother needed a special hat too. Anyway - when I brought three balloons for Eli, Eli gave one to Isaac, the green one since green is Isaac's favorite color. All day Eli made Isaac feel a part of his big day.
The sweetest example came later that night. Our immediate family came over for Eli's birthday. There are about fifteen of us (parents, siblings, and grandparents) and we had been telling Eli all day what special people he could expect at his party. We were sitting down to eat and Eli said, "Wait a minute, we are missing someone, where is uncle Joe?" You know, my son is sitting down to a dinner made especially for him, and he has a room full of presents, celebrating a day that has been all about him, and he is still thinking about someone else. Turns out uncle Joe had called and was running a bit late from work - he walked in the door about 5 minutes later and all was well.
The more a dwell on that day the sweeter it is - makes you feel like you are heading in the irght direction doing this whole parenting thing.