This is How Edward Parties

Ed had another birthday party to go to last Saturday.  This was a pretty big one, with over twenty people in attendance, all in one house.  It was a little overwhelming for me, and I've got years of experience dealing with crowds.  Ed did magnificently.  I'm still fairly convinced he has introverted tendencies, though of course I'm not making any final decisions yet as I don't know how long it takes for temperament traits to fully develop.  There's some pretty strong evidence in these photos, though.

Here, Ed moseys over to the drinks coolers to make his selection.  He's not entirely sure how pop-top cans open yet - which is probably a good thing for everyone involved.

So we traded him his soda for a bottled water.  He loves drinking out of bottles these days.

He just chilled out for a bit, drinking his water, watching the people move around in front of him.

Later on, it was time for singing and cake.  He still doesn't understand why everyone suddenly stops talking and starts singing the same thing.  It freaks him out a little bit.  Fortunately we learned this at J's party, and Martin and I were on hand to give him cuddles when he started to get upset.  Think about it...if you were walking around in a mall or something and suddenly everyone stopped, faced the same direction and started singing the same song, it'd probably freak you out a little bit too!  And he doesn't know about flash mobs yet, either.

Cake, however, makes everything better.  I think this may have been Ed's first proper sugary cake.  It was a pretty good one, with a puddinglike layer in the middle.  (I like pudding.)  I took the frosting off of Ed's to mitigate the sugar blast, but he didn't seem to notice.  He's all business when it comes to cake.

Finally it was time for presents.  Every kid in the room got involved "helping" unwrap or play with the presents.  Every kid, that is, except one.  Can you guess who?

A closeup...

Eventually, he did find something to play with....

He put this bag over his head and left it there, several times.  Martin commented that he was making his own empty room!

At one point he needed a diaper change, so we took him to the back room to do that, and when he was done he didn't seem very interested in rejoining the party right away.  So we hung out quietly there for a while.  He was also the last kid to leave (some of the kidless relatives were still there, though) and once it was just him and the birthday boy he livened up and played with some toys.

So I'm finding it very interesting to watch him and see what sort of interactions or non-interactions he gravitates toward, and what social situations he appears most comfortable in.  Daycare reports that he often plays by himself with whatever interests him, but does not object if another kid comes over to play with him.  He doesn't join other kids' games very often, though.  Part of this is the age - "parallel play" is developmentally normal right now.  But I find it interesting how often he chooses to people watch when there's a large group around.