Birthday rundown

Elias is FOUR years old!  That's:

We had his big party on Sunday, but today is his actual birthday.  Today Elias brought his very first bagged lunch to school.  After dinner he took his new stomprocket (he opened a few presents early!) outside along with his ice cream cone, asking Mom to hold it between launches.  Then he invited me to peek into the neighboring cornfield, then led me on quite the trek through it.  Neat stuff. 

I tried to get him excited to finally open his big pile of presents.  He very happily opened his first pick:  a tag reader from my parents.  He's pretty happy with anything Leapfrog, but it takes lots of set-up time to work, so he picked out another and slowwwly opened it:  a puzzle.  He loved it so insisted on dropping everything and doing it right away.  Next up:  letter magnets.  Again he had to try them out, then spell several words on the refrigerator.  By then it was getting pretty late, so we had a fancy cupcake and more ice cream.  He was so tired he went to his bedroom and lay down and "read" himself a Thomas book.  Then he switched to a poetry book.  (He loves poetry--pretty neat, eh?) After letting me finish reading it I told him I love him, and God loves him, and Nanna & Pappa love him, and...(you get the idea) he gently fell asleep.

I guess all those other presents are going to have to wait until tomorrow!

Devil's Lake

Elias' 3rd birthday was pretty low-key.  It fell on a Monday.  Saturday was his daycare's picnic, so that sorta took the place of a party.  I brought a cake, but ended up bringing much of it home.  Elias enjoyed repeatedly blowing out candles over the next couple days. 

Monday I took off work and we went to Devil's Lake State Park.  It was a gorgeous day in a gorgeous place.  We had a blast swimming in a lake--one of the few times I've swum in a lake, and a first for him.  The north end has a wonderful wide, even, sandy, gradual dropoff that was perfect.  Elias is fearless in water, and has been taking swim lessons, but still hasn't mastered the backfloat.  He kept walking out deeper and deeper until it went over his head and he'd cling, sputtering, onto me...and ask me to go out further.  He loved being thrown high into the air and plunging down into the water, coming up laughing and yelling, "More, Mommy, more!  Higher, Mommy!"

We enjoyed a picnic lunch and several swimming sessions.  I got perhaps my most painful sunburn ever, my whole back, although I hardly peeled.  All in all, well worth it (although, yes, I should've put sunscreen on me, too).  Elias fell deeply asleep shortly after loading him into the car, giving me the chance to stop a few times on the way home to snap some pictures of the beautiful countryside.

 

Birthday

Today is Elias' second birthday. I was actually sort of sad last night, thinking he's no longer my little baby. It's weird missing someone who's right there, and who is ever more wonderful as he grows up. Part of it surely was exhaustion from the party.

We celebrated the big 2 with a party. We hosted our new neighbors, a family from daycare, his babysitters, and some little-seen visitors, as well as the usual cohort, for about 15 adults and maybe 10 kids. I don't think he really knew it was for him (and, really, it was more for me, in celebration of him.) However, he liked singing happy birthday and his Elmo cake, lots of helium balloons, and the general chaos. He succeeded in blowing out one of the candles (the other just wouldn't go out despite lots of huffing and puffing.) The kids enjoyed playing in the water via sprinkler, pool, and hose, and some adults joined in for frisbe and laddergolf. It got better as the evening went on, especially when the cake and food were over, shyness was overcome, it cooled off a bit, and everyone could just kick back and visit and relax.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx2DMbH3Cy8

Afterwards people were really nice about helping clean up, which was especially appreciated since I was sooo sore and tired! I ached everywhere and between general exhaustion, my broken toe and nerve pain radiating down my leg, I could barely walk at all. I was really a pitiful, old, fat mess, but I don't think Elias noticed at all.