The Squirt: 36 months

I'm a few days late (busy weekend) but on Saturday at 1:39 pm my little Chicker turned THREE YEARS OLD!  Oh, how time flies.  I can remember the day this little ball of goo was born like it was yesterday and in a few short months, his life will forever be upturned by a new little twerp taking his baby status away from him.

It's okay though, I think.  THis kid has left baby-dom behind, for sure.

What to say about this crazy boy on his third birthday?  I really am at a loss of words.  Wyatt, you are a ball of contradictions.  You cuddle on my lap and then yell at me for getting you the wrong drink.  You play animal hunter and vacation with your brother and then you hit him on the head for "taking your toy".  You only want pepperoni pizza to eat but then you pull all the peperoni's off your pizza and just eat the cheese and sauce.

You love to sing and dance and play.  You practically live your life laying on the floor.  You love to go to target even more than I do.  You love french fries and root beer, cars and trucks, and watching tv.  I think that you could draw and paint pictures all day...and run around the house and blow bubbles.

Your favorite song these days is "pumped up kicks".  You say your favorite tv show is "Dora the Explorer" (go figure!).  You love the color orange, wearing basketball shorts, and running, running, running.  Toilet training is a thorn in your side (and mine), but you and I are making progress....maybe you won't be in pull-ups for the rest of your life.

You have an amazing vocabulary,  a wacky sense of humor, and a contagious enthusiasm for all things boy.  You'd live outside if you could and getting into trouble these days seems to be the thing you are best at.  Within half an hour of waking up on Saturday morning, the birthday balloons got stuck in the ceiling fan,` you are constantly trying to break my computer, and your toy gun can no longer go in the car because you wave it out the window like a gangster.

For your birthday you had specific requests.  From mom, a giant robot dinosaur.  From Grandma, a football helmet and jersey.  The dinosaur had been a weekly request since Christmas and the helmet a near weekly request for the last 12 months or so.  Good thing that you've got a great mom and grandma who didn't disappoint on the big day.

Little brother, I love you.  So do dad and Elliott and everyone else that knows you.  The chubby cheeks and sinister laugh are contagious.  And who can help but smile when you bust a move.  Life as a three year old is going to be full of changes for you - a new family truckster, a new bed, a new bedroom, a new room mate, a new brother, preschool....man it's going to be quite a year.  Hope you can handle it.

Happy Birthday little boy!

Happy Mother's Day!

Mothers are typically recognized today for all of the 'physical' things that they do.  The list is endless - cooking, cleaning, shopping, feeding, dressing, doing laundry, shuttling to school / activities, etc.

Not only does Annie do all of these things (very well), but she is an excellent mother from the perspective of all things 'emotional'.

Every day she sets aside her own desires to help to teach and train our boys.  Their intelligence and good natures are a direct result of the time that she spends with them each day.  They are kind, well behaved, creative, and fun loving.  She deserves the credit.  There is nothing better than seeing them working on a project (of her invention) at the kitchen table or seeing them leaning on her shoulder or listening to them laugh as she teases or tickles them.

I would like to recognize Annie's sacrifices today (time, career, interests) on behalf of our boys and say Happy Mother's Day and we love you.

just because....

Just because my boy had a cough and because I'm fat and tired....we cuddled up on the bed to watch a movie of my choosing.

Just because my island looked like a crap bomb exploded on it....

I cleaned it....

Just because I was overcome by an insanely crazy craving for a buttery and salty biscut from Kentucky Fried Chicken around 3:00 pm this afternoon....I made my own and they were delicious!

Just because the really cool lady I go visiting teaching with is awesome....She sent me this, wishing me a happy mother's day.

 

I'd say it was a pretty good day.  (The Chick and I didn't watch our movie today but we did yesterday and it was good, too.)

Happy Birthday, Ross

I know for certain that he feels like an old man today...at the ripe young age of 35!  He's been bemoaning this birthday for months and weeks, that it somehow marks the complete disappearance and decline of his youth.  Regardless of what he thinks, he is still young and active and perfectly healthy.

He will always look younger than me, be skinnier than me, be blonder than me, tan better than me and whine less than me.  That's pretty good for him.  His ear drums may explode and his ears fall off from the weight of constant headphones, but I'm pretty sure that when he's 40 (really old!) I'm going to throw all the head phones away and he has to be a real adult and participate in the sounds of life with us, instead of Big O and Dukes and Dave Ramsey.

This boy that I married is a good husband, a hard worker, and an excellent father.  He is so good with these boys of ours that the thought of him being the dad to a third little twerp is rather exciting.  He'll know just what to do.

In the anniversary card he wrote for me last month, he said he "loves me, etc. etc. etc."  I'm not sure what the etc. is, but ditto to him on his birthday.

etc.

etc.

etc.....

The Averary

First of all, Tracy Aviary is expensive.  I forgot how expensive it was.  In talking to my sister last night, she reminded me that last year we went only because she had a coupon.  Duh!  I should have taken that into consideration.

Admission was $17 for the three of us.  The itty bitty plush owls I got suckered into buying (named Snowy and Frosting) cost me $14. Thirty-one dollars is a lot of money for the hour of entertainment we got.  But, we did have fun and we did get to meet our dad for lunch (another $17) on the way home so that made the whole morning excursion worth it.

We just probably won't be going back....without a coupon.

It's not like we really like birds, anyway.

But, my boys do enjoy excursions that involve maps and navigation.  It's fun to let them be in charge and figure out where we are at and what we are looking at.  It is also fun to see them get nervous (along with their mom) in a space with free flying birds and get excited to see raptors and birds of prey.  Condors are cool, but red-tail hawks are awesome.  And we saw pelicans being fed big fish and we saw flamingos doing this weird dance where they would wave their heads in unison, squish together in a group and then peck the crap out of each other.  Pretty fascinating actually.

And, for whatever reason, I still remember this crazy story my old fart English teacher in 9th grade made us read, "The Scarlet Ibis".  It was a super cool story and ever since, I've been a bit obsessed with the beauty of that particular bird.  Good thing there was a whole herd at the Aviary....

Which of course, Wyatt cannot pronounce.  "Averary", "Aveararrry", and "Avvvvrary" were his best three attempts during the day.