Nathan's birthday and the consequences!

It's been a rough couple of days for Spencer and therefore it has leaked onto me. Because when Spencer is upset, he gets angry. Nathan's birthday gift this year was a Smart Cycle. It's like a stationary bike but it hooks up to the TV and you can play racing games and other educational games using a joystick etc.... As you can imagine this toy is the biggest hit. In fact I didn't anticipate just how much excitement it would generate. Spencer is literally sick over the fact that it belongs to Nathan and he has to wait for Nathan to let him have a turn. Even though Nathan has been wonderful about sharing it, he is convinced that he is not getting to play with it AT ALL. He doesn't want to go to school because it's in the house. Today we went to Target to get Nathan an additional game for it. Some friends gave him a gift certificate to go buy one with. I have had to rule that Spencer doesn't get to play with it before school and this is because he will dominate and Nathan will not get a look in. I want Nathan to be able to open up his game and play with it for a while before Spencer and Leia get home from school and force him to take turns with them.
The result of all this is that Spencer is having ten times as many tantrums as usual. We've had a few showdowns on the naughty chair and although I am always victorious it leaves me feeling exhausted. Today in the store he called me "a mean mommy" because Nathan was getting the game and he was getting nothing. And when I refused to buy them candy at the checkout (due to the fact we have candy and cupcakes at home) he said "Well I'm going to save up all my money and one day I'll have $100 and I don't care what you say, I am going to buy just what I want." Bless his heart, I really feel for him. Leia deals well with all this this. She knows her time is coming but for Spencer it's all a little too much. He's even decided that the shoes I recently bought him are "stupid" and he needs new ones. He keeps pulling the straps so tight that he's completely missing the velcro so they won't stay shut. I went into school with him just now and mentioned to his teacher that he may be a little out of sorts today. More like he's seething with resentment!
And we have been experiencing some less than great side effects of this climate. Yesterday we went to the park for an hour or two. I just sat on a bench while the boys played. It was about 65-70 degrees which I didn't think anything of. My forehead and the part of my chest that was exposed now have a really bad sunburn. I mean the kind that you normally get when you lay on the beach all day and it's 90 degrees out. It sucks! And then I got a message from Leia today. She went to the school office because her hands were hurting. She left me a message to bring her in some lotion. Her hands are so cracked and dry almost to the point of being bloody. It's quite hard to keep on top of all this dry skin and itchiness. Having said all that though, I am LOVING the climate here.
Anyway, here are a few snaps from the festivities yesterday.

Sitting down to dinner amongst all the balloons.

Make a wish!

Nathan blindfolded as we brought in the bike.

Playing a game.

It's so much fun!