Family Birthday

(If someone can tell me how to rearrange pics in the order I want them after I've uploaded them to Blogger, do be a dear and TELL ME! )

Granny covering James' eyes to hide the surprises.
Opening something.

Sitting proudly on his Birthday Bicycle. It's the last time he's been on it. He's way afraid of it :(

Cheesy family time.

Cheesy James time.

Blowing out the candles

Other cheesy people.

James with one of his favorite presents. It's a giant 24 piece puzzle.

The Latest

We went over to walk around the mall this evening.

James: What does that sign say?

Me: Barnes and Noble Booksellers

James: That's a NAUGHTY word!

Me: What word?

James: BOOKSELLERS!

Me: Um, are you sure?

James: Yeah, trust me.

*******

Later, inside the mall

Me: Ooh, I like this***. Tell Daddy to buy it for me for Mother's Day.

James: But when is James' Day?

Me: Every day is James' Day.

James: Yeah, I like that.

***Is something I want, which Ben will have to drag James around the mall in hopes of finding with a 3 year old's description. Hee hee hee!
****************

Tonight, around the dinner table.

Everyone: chat chat chat chat chat

James: Barack Obama came to my nursery yesterday.

Me: Oh really? What did he do?

James: He talked.

Me: What else did he do?

James: He sang the "lead me guide me walk beside me" song.

Me: Uncontrollable laughter

Ben: You better go put that on the Blog. Your parents are gonna LOVE that.

Ben and James trying to fly the dragon kite on campus. It didn't work out, we went to Caliches.


James' most recent drawing. A self portrait.

(Ok, so I'm kidding. Granny drew that.)

Grandparent love!

During Spring Break, we traveled to Kansas to visit Ben's parents and after the break my parents came here to visit us. A good time was had by all!

This is what happens after my mom and James hit the bottle. (Ok, Dad. I want my $20.)


Before the drinking.

Granpa Swan, Ben and James playing Candyland!

Grandma Swan and James cheesing for the camera.

Paw Paw obliging James' request to "draw my feet."

Our little boy just turned 3!!!!! Here are some of my not-so-lovely pics from the party at the park that we had for him. He chose "Bob the Builder" this year.

Bob is just like one of the family now.



We couldn't light any candles at the park because of the hurricane type winds we were experiencing. I told him we'd have real candles on his real birthday. He wasn't amused.

The stupid wind was blowing so hard that it knocked over every kid's cup of water, half of their food plates, an industrial size garbage can, and the cake. (It blew the last 1/3 of the cake off the table once we had cut it and passed it out. The box saved it-well kind of.) The table cloth below kept taking flight.

Some of James' friends and mamas.

James taking his turn at whacking Bob.

James' initial reaction to the Bob pinata. I felt that way too as I was sawing into him the night before to fill him. It was stuffed with newspapers from Juarez and I was sure that a kilo of some illegal substance was going to come pouring out. Add that to last year's mari*juana in the garden scare...

The cake that I DID'T make, but should have.

Overheard

(Ben takes James into the bathroom for potty time.)

Ben: Wow, James, that's a lot of pee! Where did all that pee come from?

James: Albuquerque.

(I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.)

If you don't care about potty training, then skip this post.

Well, seven days of potty training done here. No poops in the potty yet. He was doing well with pee until today. We hadn't had a pee accident since last Thursday, and then he had 3 today. Is that normal?

One of the pee incidents today was funny--but we didn't treat it as funny here-I don't want a repeat.

James had been playing with his big Aquadoodle mat and dumping the water from his pens onto it. Next thing I know, I walk into the room and he is standing on it, peeing, watching his pee hit the mat. I say, "JAMES! What are you doing?" His answer, "It turns blue like the water, mommy, see!" Good grief.

We're at the end of the second day of potty training. Can I quit yet?

Well, I guess I won't quit, yet. I've got the timer set for 30 minute increments and I'm hoping to lengthen the time soon. I'm worn out from:

1) Being really excited and enthusiastic about pee.

2) Being really casual and nonchalant about accidents and the subsequent clean up (we've had 3 each day.)

3) Hefting him onto and off of the toilet every 30 minutes or so.

4) Thinking about doing this for the rest of forever.

5) Thinking about what will happen when I actually let him leave the house.

He already told us, "I don't want to be a big boy anymore, give me back my diapers." I wanted to agree, but then I remembered that we'd most likely have to move on to Depends.

Oh well, tomorrow is another day. I wonder what would happen if he peed on the floor at Sam's Club.

On a non-potty related topic...

How do I know what size bicycle to buy for James? We want to get him a bike with training wheels for his birthday next week, but I don't know how to buy a bike. Somebody, anybody, help with this, please?