Third Birthday!

Ah, time gets away from me with two children! So many times I have wanted to sit down and record what has been going on. Instead, I have been spending my limited free time writing a cookbook for the Franklin Food Pantry, and hunting American chestnut trees. Sorry kids - when you wonder why there are so few photos of you at this stage in your life, this is why.

We just wrapped up Gabe's third birthday party! It was just our regular Sunday Dinner gathering, plus some party deco and party food. Jen made chocolate ice cream. Molly made cupcakes. Gabe blew out candles and enthusiastically opened Cars-themed and Thomas-the-Train-themed gifts.

The decorations were based on the same themes. Paper plates, napkins, a "happy birthday" banner - all of this themed disposable junk that I normally hate, well, it saved my butt this time. I had failed to arrange any sort of fancy shindig at a farm or moon bounce place. God, if I ever have to write and mail invitations - shoot me now! But a couple of dollars worth of streamers and stickers goes a long way with the three-years-and-under crowd. Fifty cents of balloons is a whole afternoon of fun. And that cheap plastic wiffle bat is going to be a hit for days.

The official gift was a strider bike: a tot-sized bike with no pedals. It's in Gabe's favorite color of course: "lello". Earlier in the week we took it with us for a picnic at the town's gazebo. He rode it for about two hours there.

Grandma Nana just had hip surgery, which prevented her from getting out shopping for the gift she wanted to send. So, earlier this week Gabe and Kaylee and I had an outing to Ikea to fetch Grandma's gift. This is one of the best toy kitchen's I've seen anywhere, as it is made of all the same materials and hardware as Ikea's regular furniture. (Except, alas, for the handles and sink parts, which are plastic.) Gabe even helped assemble it.

The pots and pans and mini baking set are particularly nice touches, because they can all actually be cooked with. So far we have cooked an egg together in the mini frying pan, and a ton of cookies with the cookie cutters, baking pan, and the adorable red-handled rolling pin that is a tiny replica of my antique one.

At the party tonight Kaylee had a screaming fit, which lead to an investigation of her mouth. Sure enough, the bottom left tooth is getting ready to erupt. Four months old, and already teething! I am not yet ready to lose her adorable toothless grin!

Ah well. Happy birthday Gabe! It has only been three years, but it feels as if you have been a part of my life forever. I love you.

Skyping the Grandparents

Mom and Kids

Opa and Kaylee

More photos from Bill and Helen's May visit. Kaylee and Opa had fun on the historic Magic Blue Quilt with One Red Square. This quilt was a gift from my uncle's wife Yvonna to my mother, when I was a child or perhaps before I was born. As a kid, I built tents out of it. Our Sunday Dinner friends have let their wee ones romp on this quilt. This past weekend it came with us to a picnic on Scusset beach.

Fussy!

Helen is SO Photogenic!

This photo of Chris' step mom brings me such joy! This was taken in late May, before Kaylee was really smiling much. If Kaylee could have smiled at the time, Helen would have inspired great big grins!

Pee Pride

In the afternoon today I let Gabe wear a pair of his precious Thomas the Train underwear. As usual, there was a soggy ending to the story. Bedtime rolled around. Gabe was standing on his stepping stool washing his hands in the kitchen, when I told him it was time to go to the potty and pee. But the power of suggestion was too strong: Gabe wet himself right there on the stool. He apologetically announced, "I'm peeing."

But fantastic progress had already been made. After an hour of wearing the undies, I realized it was high time for Gabe to have a pee break. But Kaylee was starting her fussy-wiggles, so I had to high-tail it to the nursery for a visit to her potty box. It turned out she was more interested in nursing than in immediately peeing, so I was stuck there in the rocking chair while Gabe wandered freely, a pee-bomb waiting to happen.

"Gabe," I said, "it's time to use the potty. Come take off your shorts."

Well, heck, he listened to me. I heard him fumbling in the bathroom, and then into the nursery he stumbles, beaming, to demonstrate that he has his undies own around his ankles. "Okay," I said, "now go sit on the potty."

More bathroom fumbling ensues. There are suspicious thumps. "I'm all wet," he says. But not with pee. It turns out he has attempted to sit on the grown-up potty, has somehow dipped the back of his shirt in it. How, exactly, he managed to extract himself from the toilet is anybody's guess. I stripped him of his wet shirt, while still juggling a nursing baby whose bare butt is jammed into a tupperware box. "Try the little potty," I said.

Voila! "I did it!" Gabe proclaimed. And voila! Kaylee peed too. Only I was so distracted by Gabe's antics that the potty box isn't positioned correctly, and I got baptized.

Gabe got himself back into his undies and shorts with only minimal assistance, and had I been a little sooner with my reminder, he might have made it dry to bedtime as well. But as if he didn't want to leave the day on a soggy note, he surprised me again. Kaylee needed one last visit to the potty box during the bedtime rituals. Gabe was happily diapered, but he took one look at Kaylee's bare bum, and asked if he could go pee on the potty, too, and gets himself naked and on the potty and did his business in a flash.

And this time, I caught Kaylee's pee in the box.