Monday, March 29, 2010

Someone (not naming names) Turned 3!!!

While the lil man was sleeping, I thought to myself: "self, your headaches haven't been bad enough lately, you should go ahead and blow up 50 balloons and line your child's floor with them." It was a fun idea though, in all seriousness and it was worth the lack of oxygen to my brain because the lump of cuteness sleeping under the fish blankets there thought it was the greatest thing that he ever woke up to.


He briefly liked it even better than what was waiting downstairs.

See, when Granny is here, sometimes Mommy gets the role of second fiddle, despite her having blown up 50 balloons to, or despite her saving pennies to buy him a car, or despite her running all over town to get him a Star Wars cake or wrapping all the presents that came unwrapped. So, even though she spent all night giddy with excitement to see his eyes light up when he came down the stairs, guess who's hand he wanted to hold? Yep. Darn kid. Whatever. I got to take the picture, I guess. I love that boy.

The best part? He didn't realize there was a car there. He essentially thought it was just a fancy present holder.Well, until the end of the opening extravaganza (thanks grandparents! you guys came through for the lil guy, we seriously didn't get him anything else!!). He suddenly came to the realization that, this beast of a thing beneath his gifts was a pretty fancy toy and he couldn't be persuaded to open a single gift outside of it at that point, despite the awkwardness it posed.

Finally! 18-hour minimum battery charge be damned! He got to drive his car! In the house! We are bad parents. I know. We didn't open the box until the night before so we didn't get the charger started in time for the minimum charge. Shame on us. If we charged it for the "right" amount of time, that would have meant he couldn't drive it until just when his friends showed up. Right. "Here Collin, drive your new car, now immediately share it." That'll work. Needless to say, house driving didn't go well. Base housing isn't exactly spacious.

Road driving? Much better, if only because there's more room. He sucks. I love that kid but he's a terrible driver. He's pretty sure that you can't both steer and apply pressure to the gas pedal at the same time. He's also pretty sure that you need to stop for imaginary gas every two to three feet of "road." Needless to say, it took about twelve hours to get around the block and Mommy and Daddy do a lot of steering. We need some practice.

Later, he was getting a "teachable moment" lesson from Granny on the basics of steering on his play structure steering wheel. My boy can smell it when you are trying to teach him something from a mile away. He was having none if it. Can you tell?

Anyway, it was about time for his buddies to arrive and he was so darn excited for them to get here because all he wanted was cake! He knew that his birthday meant one thing: cake!

He was more than a little excited for that crazy thing. You can't tell from the pictures just how weird it looked. The decorators did a mighty crappy job with the Star Wars logos. But, it was Star Wars and that's what counted. My boy was pleased. The last time I checked, George Lucas didn't design Star Wars with random crooked circles. And, the best excuse the bakery staff had for me was, "It just happens sometimes." Thanks.

And, he had a blue mouth. I love this picture. It makes him look like he had way too much cake...or something else.

Kari had to pick Barry up at the airport so she left Gracie and Ben with us and of Ben had a great time with us. And I don't think she'll ever leave him with us again because Ben had way too much to drink.

At some point, late in the afternoon, my weird kid decided that he perhaps, had enough of his own birthday, and thus emptied out his own toy box, because of course, the house wasn't trashed enough, and climbed into it for some privacy and quiet away from all the other guests.

Since it was relatively quiet and, of course, insanely cute to be in there, he requested a pillow and his monkey and decided to snuggle up in there. He said, "I have not had enough sleep!" and stayed in there for about twenty minutes, opening and closing the lid every few minutes for peeks. What a weird little cutie pie.

After everyone went home, it was time to wind down and just chill. Mommy can't complain about just snuggling with her, now, all grown up man! He's three now! Sniff. Sniff! We watched Toy Story (stupid vault! patooie!), now that it's out of the vault and someone got it for him for his birthday.

Of course, it wouldn't be a birthday weekend if Collin didn't get sick, right? Respiratory infections are part of our life around here lately. We wouldn't know what to do without them. I think if it a solid month went by with him not getting one these days, I'd take him to the doctor and ask if he got switched with another kid or something. Alas, he spent all of his birthday night alternating between nightmares and breathing problems. Awesome. Not to fear, back to driving his car and towing it home with daddy, just to be fun the next day.

Maybe he keeps getting sick because we work him so hard with manual labor jobs like gardening? Who knows? I'll just continue to keep him warm.

Oh! I almost forgot the other hit of the present pile! The super fast squirrels! At least that's what Eddie thinks they are. Otherwise known as slot cars. The dog hates this present. We have to lock him up because he is so freaked out. Collin can't stop playing with it though.

1 comment:

Karen Parke said...

those pictures of Collin's birthday were great...the look on his face as he was coming down the stairs was priceless. Looks like he had a fantastic day. THANKS