It’s 4:30 in the morning (when I wrote this, posted later) on the day of Baby Bug’s big Pinkkkkity First Birthday Party and I can’t sleep. Why? Because I have 200 pictures in my camera that need to get out and be posted. So many pictures! If I don’t, I know all these memories will just be lost because after the birthday party I’ll probably have 200 more pictures and by then I’ll be too tired to go back and blog about something as old as going to Chuck E Cheese’s on Friday night.

Chuck E. Cheese, remember him? Man, I haven’t been since I was twelve. Not counting that one birthday party I went to for a friend’s kid’s birthday. I didn’t have kids then so it was not the same at all. When you have kids, or you are a kid, Chuck E. Cheese’s is the best place EVER. Well, except the noise and the pizza that you’re worried is not going to be all that great because it was cooked by the same sweaty pimply teenager who was just up on stage teaching all the five year old’s how to Macarena.

Anyway, Chuck E. Cheese did not disappoint. It was a blastola. Baby Bug loved every minute of it. I don’t think she cried once. I thought sure she’d be afraid of the big furry mouse who’s hands move mechanically and maybe his one arm is broken because sometimes it gets stuck in mid air awkwardly. But no, she LOVED the broken Chuckie. She wanted to get up on stage and climb all over his furry feet. “Kkkkkkkkittty,” she says reaching towards him over and over. Silly kid.

My niece, Rapunzel, played skeeball and some other popcorn game all night and scored us a bunch of tickets. Then my sister-in-law, being the experienced mom that she is, divided all the tickets evenly between the three kids. So that meant Baby Bug got to have a prize from the prize counter too. So many prizes! I felt like I was twelve again, forced to do math so I could win something good. We ended up with a soft squishy ball (it was the only really baby proof thing there) and Baby Bug immediately grabbed it and would not let go. She fell asleep in her car seat on the way home, clasping her new ball tightly to her chest.

Isn’t this what being a mom is all about? Taking your kids to Chuck E. Cheese so they can exhaust themselves by having too much fun? It was great. She slept the whole night and didn’t wake up once.