Our Mack turned 5 today. For so many reasons, I am happy for this birthday. Now he is caught up in age to most of his peers in his class, and I think he recognizes that this new year is a big step. He’s not a little boy anymore.  Mack is deep into Lego, Hot Wheels and Nerf Gun territory. Gone are the days when a simple PBS show kept his attention. Now he wants Ninja Turtles.

He is our big boy!

But, today – on his birthday of all days! – I felt like such a failure. After a breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes, I dropped Mack off at school. A short while later, Chris and I were back there to celebrate his birthday with his class.  Our school is very “nut aware”, so I thought I was being careful when I brought yogurt in for the special snack. FAILURE #1: there was a warning on the side of the package that said the product may be produced in a facility that processes nuts, and one of the friends in his class could not enjoy the snack.

But, even worse was when the school called 30 minutes after pick-up to tell me Mack was still at school. My mom was watching the kids today, and to spare her (and the littles) from a frigid walk to pick Mack up, I promised to find a carpool home for Mack. FAILURE #2: I totally forgot to do that.  And poor Mack had to wait for 45 minutes for a pick up! On his birthday!

I felt terrible. So, so terrible.

But, you know what? When I came home this afternoon Mack had completely forgotten about it. He didn’t even mention it. I had been beating myself up about it all day, and sweet Mack was too involved in the moments of his big boy day to lay on any guilt. As moms, sometimes we need to step outside of ourselves and see the world through our children’s eyes – I think we’d see that things are much simpler than we make them out to be!

Chris and I took Mack out to a special birthday dinner tonight. Just the three of us. To make up for my failures today, I treated him to an extra delicious extra large milkshake. A sweet for my sweet little boy!