THREE!

Happy 3rd Birthday, my sweet boy! I can't believe you're already three! You're an adorable, hilarious mess of a kid. You love windshield wipers and garage doors and are never happier than when you're allowed to push all of the buttons in a car or open and close a garage door. Today at your party you got to play with lots of windshield wipers and you told me, "Did you get to do Grandpa's wipers and Mimi's wipers and Uncle Jay's wipers!" You were not interested in opening your presents and, in fact, only opened them all because you were told you could play with windshield wipers after you opened gifts. You're so silly! Everything in the world is either a garage door or a windshield wiper to you. You use combs and straws from Chick-Fil-A as wipers, and the little "roll-top-esque" door on our hutch as a garage door.

You are afraid of the "knobs" on the end of your bed and always have to be reassured at night that they won't do anything to you. We cover all four of the posts up with blankets and you say, "The knobs don't have faces. The knobs can't talk to you. Bear Bear will help you. Jesus will not let the knobs talk to you." You sleep with Bear Bear, Blankie, and three real windshield wipers (two front and one back) every night.

Your favorite book of late is "Blue Goes to School" (as in Blue's Clues). You'll be starting preschool in two weeks and Mimi bought it for you to help you get ready. You have the whole thing memorized and can recite it.

You love the video "It's a Dad's Life" on You Tube and always ask to watch it on my ipod. You can sing almost the whole thing from memory and Daddy just told me today that when he gets you down out of your car seat you start to sing the part that says "my whole entourage hops out the minivan." You are fascinated by minivans and think that the dryer lint trap is just like a minivan door. I think you wish we had one so you could push the button to open and close the door. You love the way it slides closed.

You are completely dependent upon your little white chair that you push around the house that allows you to reach all the switches for the lights and the fans. The other day you turned our thermostat up into the 80's and almost sweat Grandma out of the house while she was watching you. You also knocked over our new computer while you were trying to "plug it in" as you said. You're a little more mischievous lately.

Here's some pictures from your party today. Happy birthday, Huston!

You had a great time at your party and loved the train cake Grandma made for you. You only freaked out when we sang the first few words of "happy birthday" and then you started screaming and crying so we had to stop. Still hate that song, I guess. Maybe next year...

You parked yourself by the Chick-Fil-A nugget tray and helped yourself to them. You had fun seeing all of our sweet friends and family and playing with everyone.

Comic Relief

Some days are just harder than others. On those days when I want to simultaneously pull my hair out and hide under the bed, I am grateful for the little things that make me laugh. These adorable pictures of Huston and Arden playing the piano provided me with just such relief the day they were taken (this past week). They are both without clothes in these pictures because during the course of the day, Huston had peed in his underwear while sitting in time out for pushing Arden and taken his pullup off during nap time and peed on the floor. Arden, in turn, had peed and pooped all over herself and the floor while sitting in her high chair because (it turns out) her diaper wasn't fastened well and had come undone. Huston clued me into this catastrophe by yelling, "Mommy! Is there water on the floor!" Unfortunately, it was not water.

I had about had it with poop and pee by the time the day was over.

The pictures below were taken Sunday, after our sweet friends, the Browns, came over to spend the afternoon with us. During the course of playing with Ezra, Enoch, and Marta in his room, Huston pooped (and peed) in his underwear twice. He broke the lightbulb in our new lamp after having been told two times not to touch it. And he took his pullup off again during nap time and peed on the floor again.

Thank goodness these kids are hilarious and I love them so much, or some days I really might buy a one way ticket to a deserted tropical island.