the pinata story.

this is one of those stories i don't want to forget...that i want to remember and retell when elijah is in high school.


we went over to john's uncle's house on a sunday afternoon for a birthday party. it was a last minute decision to go...it was right during elijah's naptime and both john and i were tired from staying up late the night before (at his birthday barbecue). but, we went anyways. mainly because elijah LOVES going over there. john's uncle has an acre lot (unheard of here) with lots of trees and places for a little boy to play like a little boy should. after we consumed plenty of yummy tacos, the pinata was brought out. elijah had never seen a pinata before but it was bright and colorful so, of course, he was interested. i explained to him the gist of what was going to go on and once it was safely up in a tree, he got to have a whack at it. he was a little shy about the whole thing, so i helped him with the stick, then handed the stick off to the next in line. e and i stepped back to watch from a place i thought was far enough away from the action but close enough to grab some candy once it fell. several kids had their turns, then it was time for the birthday boy (one of them, the party was for a set of twins). he dutifully donned his blindfold and gave the thing a few good whacks. while he didn't break a hole in it, he did succeed in knocking the pinata off the hook it was attached to. there was a mad scramble to put it back up and once it was back in the tree, one of the dad's grabbed the stick, stuck it up into the gut of the pinata and punched a hole in it. (he did this mainly because the pinata didn't look like it would stay put long enough for anyone to whack it open). candy spilled out, flying in every direction, even ours. i got a tootsie pop to the head so i instinctively put my hand over elijah's head to protect him from the same fate (note: tootsie pops coming down out of the sky from ten feet HURT). apparently, my hand wasn't big enough to cover his noggin and he too, had a piece of candy bounce off his head. needless to say, he wasn't too thrilled with that. he cried and cried in my arms, completely missing any and all of the mad candy dash. he was given a bag by a kind-hearted older cousin (who had too much anyways) so he didn't leave empty handed. but this was not the end of the pinata. all week long, he talked about the pinata, getting hit on the head with piece of candy and how much it hurt. so, when i mentioned to him that his cousin jackie's birthday was coming up (it was the following sunday), he insisted that she have a pinata too. i think he wanted to try the whole business again. i was completely out of gift ideas for jackie (what do you get a 17 year old that doesn't cost $300?) so i jokingly mentioned that maybe we should get one for her. of course, elijah loved that idea. that is how a 17 year old ended up with a tinker bell pinata at her birthday party. we let elijah whack it as long as he wanted to. there was no way he was going to break it open though (those things are tough!), especially since the only stick we could find small enough and light enough for him to swing was made out of bamboo. after he had his fill, jackie stepped up to the plate, armed with a bat, ready to do battle. just a few whacks and the pinata gave up its booty. elijah filled his pockets and ate entirely too much candy over the next couple hours. a happy end to his first pinata experience.