Viral Tag

We recently went to a birthday for my 1 year old niece. There were tons of people there and more kids than I have ever seen at a birthday party. I was not ready for it all, but needed to wrangle my own 3 kids.

My wife and I got our kids settled down at a table. Our 6 year old daughter E and 5 year old son C went to the kids table to hang out. We made them a plate of food and they had their cousins there, so ti was fine at first. They were mostly self sufficient and things are getting easier in that area. Our 1 year old son L was a different story. He was glued to my wife and she needed a break to eat. I took him outside to hang out while my wife ate. It was a win win because it gave me a huge break outside and away from everyone (and the chaos). Sometimes having kids is a social shield when you need it!

After spending some time outside, we went back in to sing happy birthday. C pulled on my arm and asked me to play tag with him outside after he ate cake. I said I would and sure enough, I was outside with him now. We played tag by ourselves and were just running around being silly. One boy saw and decided to join in. He didn’t really understand how to play tag, but that was fine. We were all just running around being silly.

Then a few other kids wanted to play tag, so we actually had a group to play. We were all running around getting pretty tired in a small space. Then even more kids wanted to join in and we started to play different variations of tag - have you even heard of blob tag?! I hadn’t! We played that and I decided to tap out because C was having a blast. There were dozens of kids now running around and almost every kid at the party was playing tag. Pure madness.

Now L wanted to join in. He is only 1, but that didn’t stop him from running in there when my wife let him down. It only took a split second for someone to truck him and he fell down hard. His head hit the concrete and he was now crying. I was worried, but it didn’t seem serious. Thank goodness he was fine. It did stop everyone in their tracks and the kids shifted to other games, which was probably a good idea because there wasn’t much room to run for all those kids.

We wrapped up shortly after that and I had a car full of tired people in the car to drive home (including myself!). It was pretty cool that as long as two people are having fun and being themselves, other people want to join in. Me and C created a viral tag moment and I’m also glad that L wasn’t injured. We all made it home, showered up, and then it was off to bed for my kids. They had the best time ever and I think they just have an awesome childhood (especially when they aren’t arguing with each other or throwing a tantrum!).