I left the house today, oh boy! Mom drove up here for the day to go to baby Dylan's 3-year-old birthday party.

It smelled smoky when I left the house and had yellow haze going on until we hit about Folsom or so. Once we went up the hills, more or less, the air seemed to go back to normal as far as visuals go, i.e. blue sky could be seen.

For the record, the bouncy house was outside in their driveway and in no way could have fit inside the house. Alicia said she'd had to cut a lot of the outdoor activities planned for the party but bouncy house was still on, as was whacking the pinata in the front yard.

Here's the sad thing, though: I've noticed that basically since Dylan was born, he has not been a cheerful child like his older brother. He'd gotten a little better last time I saw him, whenever that was (spring?) but apparently in the last six months he has gone way downhill in mood.

Which is to say that while he wasn't crying his head off or anything, this was the most miserable three-year-old I've ever seen short of crying. He avoided the other children. He got upset if anyone other than his parents wanted to talk to him. He told other adults (my mom included) off if they wanted to hang out with him or asked him about his toys ("no! mine!"). He literally sulked in a corner. He tried to open his gifts early and wasn't allowed to but wasn't as into it as you'd think he'd be by the time he was allowed to. He seemed to at least somewhat like his presents, but the only time I saw the kid smile all day was when his dad was feeding him Fritos.

Seriously, I was thinking, "Cheer up, emo kid! It's your birthday!" Seeing a kid who already seems depressed since babyhood concerns me greatly and he's not growing out of it. As far as I can tell the kid has a happy childhood and nice parents and no trauma as far as I know has happened yet. Where does that COME FROM in a BABY? Because I was being hated on by the other children at age 5, which is why I was being all cynical at watching Mr. Rogers and shit like that myself early on. Presumably I had reasons for not being all sunnyside. But...a baby? Damn. I don't get it but I continue to suspect that this kid is gonna be a real lulu once he hits the teen years. I even said that to my aunt that he'd turn into James Dean and she was all "yeah."

So anyway...it's both kinda funny/ludicrous but mostly just sad to see a 3-year-old not be enjoying playing at his own birthday. Damn.

Driving back down the hill, the smoke came back. In Sacramento the haze was back on and you saw some folks in masks (no, not "real" ones, nobody can get those), but clearly that hadn't stopped people from attending an indoor event, albeit one that left the doors open all day. I'm still not feeling any awful effects being outside as yet, though I'm not sure how bad the air quality tapped out at today (these days if it's "unhealthy" that's practically a good sign). Maybe it wasn't quite as bad, I don't know.

After that, Mom and I went to the Harvest Festival. We did not get through everything in the 2 hours we had to do it in (I was trying to say, can we do this tomorrow morning, but she wanted to get back to her boyfriend...and in the end he decided it was too late to get together tonight. So much for that!), but I did find a cool new vendor with butterfly merchandise and I hit some of my other favorite vendors and showed off my Thanksgiving sweater and other craft items. Mom has apparently shared my entire photo gallery with one of them! I plan on going back tomorrow before my afternoon plans.

previous entry - next entry
archives - current entry