There's Always A Birthday In January

This year we experienced our first with-invitations-and-friends-legititamately themed-birthday party:

 
Fun (synonyms for fun: loud, busy, germ infested) place of his choosing for Sime and his friends to burn some wintertime steam? Check
Friends and Balloons? Check
Food and Cupcakes? Check
Presents? Check!
Goodie Bags*? Check
*and as an added special bonus (to their parents delight?) everyone went home with a hand crafted lightsaber that doubles as a summertime pool saber!


Simon woke up that Saturday morning his sweet and easy to please self (whew) and he proceeded to gasp at everything he laid his eyes on all day, from the balloons to the cupcakes, to the birthday banners and the plates and napkins.
Sometimes I wonder why I go to any trouble for birthdays, but Simon reminded me all day. 
He had so much fun and was so happy all morning. It was birthdaytastic;)
I was on the ball this year with the pre-party buying and most of the best things came from etsy (r2d2 cupcake tops, banners, lightsaber candies, darth vader t-shirt) I think the most I did was spray paint the mini waters with left over gold paint to look like c3pO (this four year old's got a thing for droids) and instruct BabaJuje how to assemble the lightsabers with trusty duct and electrical tape while we were busy jumping in bouncy houses.


The moral of the story is next year, who knows if these children will have their birthdays remembered. I'm trying to be prepared, so when the disappointment comes pouring in we can look at all theses pictures and say, 
"Remember how much fun your 4th birthday was?!"
and we will remember it was goooood and fun. Then the new baby will cry or something like that.
  I rest my case. And I LOVE that four year old. Really really really love him.

One is Tender One is Fiery, Both Are My Sons

Simon was born with a heart the size of Texas. Literally. Just kidding. I hate when people misuse the word literally.

He is tender and loving and cuddly and gentle and hard to reason with.

Calvin seems to be on the path of Lenadom(destruction, mischief, stand up comedy, pazazz with jazz hands) And having Simon as an older brother gives him a leg up and he will probably receive fewer sassed-my-mother mouthfuls of soap because of it.

You could consider yourself pretty lucky to be born Simon's baby brother. Pretty lucky indeed.

But since you're obviously already born here's a few reasons why:

• He can teach you all about Star Wars and Legos and sometimes Star Wars Legos.
• He'll teach you that it's always better to get someone else to put your shoes and clothes on than actually doing it yourself.
• He will most likely kiss you on your head and swipe your cheek gently immediately after as if to seal his kiss into the eternities. Calvin eats Star Wars Legos

• If you pretend cry, you can get him to do anything you want. (But you would never want to abuse his tenderness in this manner, this is only for use in desperate situations)
• He'll stay up with you till midnight because he doesn't care for sleep much, but if you prefer to sleep in on such midnight occasions, he will use the ipad in the corner turned down low until you wake instead of giving himself a whiteout mani/pedi or bathe in your lotions like someone else you may know(ahemLENAahem*coughcough).
• He will show you the cautious and safe way to do things, but he won't hold you back. No, he wouldn't dream of it.
• He will teach you that there are few things better on Earth than dogs

• He'll miss you so much when you're gone and teach you the art of exciting most easily.
• But most importantly he doesn't complain much and will ask his mother's permission almost always and won't cross the street alone(these are a mother's favorites)and he'll show you how to do likewise

In conclusion, Calvin, your sister is pretty amazing too(and funny and loud and an expert eye roller), but if you see her jumping off any cliffs just sit down beside Simon on the sidelines instead. It will spare you much discipline from your parents and probably save your life. Literally.

A Broken Arm Has Its Many Perks

like your parents making excuses for your grouchy behavior.

Simon needs all the blankets and cushions in the house?

"Well, he does have a broken arm".

Simon wants another orange buddy?

"Well, his arm is broken".

But also mainly, people send you red packages in the mail.

Simon received loads of partially melted chocolate and other misc. from my mom and the Indiana peeps.

And just yesterday his attacker sent over a play tent and tunnel wrapped up in none other than red paper. Bless her little pushing-children-off-the-top-of-the-fort-heart.

Note the cast scribbling: Lena just couldn't get her signature right. We've had to hide all the permanent markers.

Talk about special "treat"ment(yes?).

He gets a hilarious mom broken arm or no broken arm. Luck of the draw.

But even when you have a broken arm, you still have to be grateful:

Sticks and Stones Will Break His Bones

and so will falling off a swing set.

On Friday, Simon "fell"(got pushed to his doom is the story of the hour and the perp is 3 and only 2 feet tall with a voice the size of a mouse. a girl mouse) off the top of a neighbor's play fort.

Lena hurried home to tell(yell) me the news before Simon was brought to me and she is so awesome at playing up the drama that I was expecting to see bones sticking out of skin.

I heard his wailing right away and soon he was in sight and on the front porch. There were buckets of upset tears, but he could still move it and open his hand (isn't no movement the true sign of breakage? I'm clueless about these sorts of injuries aparently). He calmed quickly to a movie and snacks and a bag of frozen peas. Probably a scary fall and a sprain is what we thought.

And so, being the awesome parents that we are, we let him have a broken arm all weekend before we finally took him in for an x-ray on Monday after noticing the swelling wasn't going down and that he had morphed into Mr. Roboto.

Funny but sad.

The verdict? Broken in two places.

Dag.

Jeff covered x-ray duty and I was on cast appointment. I'm glad I got to take him in alone to have the cast put on. He was brave and if it hurt, his face and spirit bore no evidence.

It was an enjoyable encounter with my middlest son there at the urgent care.

And the upside? His arm is Darth Vader's light saber for the next 6 weeks.

Probably our next mother/son outing won't involve broken bones being casted.

But if it does, I've got it covered.

So next time you see Simon, grab your sharpie and find a special spot on the miniature red cast-saber.

This one's going down in the books.

Look Who Was At The Museum Last Saturday

simon stood frozen and mind-blown

like the time he met lightning mcqueen at disney world.

he managed to "pet" r2d2 before he left

and wouldn't come within 10 feet of the storm trooper.

he came home and promptly watched return of the jedi.

being 3 is awesome.

Fu ManACHOO

where this season's runny nose meets lunchtime's chocolate milk

Photo Booth Motherboy

and then there were 200 more just like these.

it's still winter here.

Simon Turned Three on the Fifteenth

His only birthday requests were french fries and a "thomas-the-tank-engine-goes" cake

(his words).

I got through the whole day, busy as a bee (moms do a lot of running around on birthdays you know- half of mine was spent trying to wash the food coloring off my dry wintery hands). I wanted to make sure he was smiling and that he felt loved.

Then after the candles were blown out, the presents unwrapped, and the guests were long gone I sat plunked in the computer chair browsing through photos of that life-changing day three years ago.

The day that made me the mother to a boy for the first time. I can recall so vividly, the feeling of complete gratitude when his little (big-little) body was born in our upstairs bedroom on a snowy, grey winter day in January.

Simon brings such a different joy to this house and with every meaty-pawed grace of my face from him I feel the absolute luckiest.

Here's to 3!