Catching up on May

May has just flown by. So, I'm going backwards to catch you up on May. I spoke at the LEXI (like TED talks, for women) conference on how to manage fear and mitigate risks. Every time I say 'yes' to something like that, I'm left wondering why I overcommitted myself in the weeks leading up to the speaking engagement but the actual day was rewarding and interesting. The other speakers were great and I had a good time with a girlfriend that drove down to Seattle with me.

Mr Bugaboo and I have been cooking a lot together. This is him helping to make lacto-fermented ketchup!

 

He also has figured out a new use for the tractor - a Lily transportation vehicle!

 

Jamisen is fully potty trained and his favorite place to pee is the front of the house, in the rocks.

He also is showing some interesting signs of being an engineer! Look at that perfectly laid out tool set. He did that himself - and I see a lot of signs of his Daddy there. He also told me today that he doesn't like dirt ... so that's another thing he shares in common with Chris. =)

Jamisen's Birthday More, More, More

Jamisen's birthday was a tractor theme - and it was complete with a tractor themed cake. A few days in advance, we dropped off these lovely tractor'ish things to Haggen in town and they built an amazing 3-D landscape out of frosting. Yes, all frosting. The dump truck? Filled with frosting. The hills? All frosting. And the food coloring? CRAZY blue. This photo does not do it justice.

Knowing that the adults probably would not be all that excited about crazy kiddo cake, I made a Earl Grey Tea Cake with Blueberry frosting (I used freeze dried blueberries to get that color). It was everything you would expect it to be - just sweet enough to say "cake!" but not too over the top. The Earl Grey was really delicious as a base note and provided an excellent foil to the frosting.

Jamisen is so excited to be by Ava, his true love. He had a perma grin on his face for days after the party and talked about her non-stop. 

Daddy lit the candles and we were all relieved when no one caught on fire or burned themselves. There was enough dyed paper products on the table that it was a real concern.

The kids were very good about blowing out the candles and Jamisen actually did blow out the candles. It was impressive that he was able to do the whole waiting thing for the entire happy birthday song and lighting. Maybe this means he would score well on the Stanford Marshmallow Experiment? One can hope. Side note: this does make me wonder if I can set up that same experiment in my home? Maybe Grandpa Faiola and I could devise a way to replicate it.

Even though most of the kiddos parents are like me (really, refined sugar is like cocaine and should not be consumed) they all let their kids eat the cake. I'm sure they were regretting that decision the next day because, eh hem, if their kid's digestive tract is anything like Jamisen's their kid's poop was a bright turquoise.  Whoops! Ah well, what's a great birthday party without a little colored poop?

Happy Birthday Mr. Bugaboo, our 3 year old, fully potty-trained Jamisen.

Happy Birthday Jamisen

Happy 3 Year Old Birthday Jamisen! It's hard to believe that you're really 3 years old but it's happened.

 Your birthday was tractor themed because right now, between trains and tractors are your entire life. You are obsessed with anything that has wheels. On the morning of your birthday, you were surprised with a brand new John Deere Tractor shirt and tractor decals decorating your wall.

You were very excited about them and shared the overnight miracle with your Grandpa Faiola and Daddy first thing. The tractor cut-out pretty much blew your mind. You were a little less excited to share the tractor cut out when kids arrived. We're still working on this whole sharing thing.

Lily was dressed up in her birthday finest for you. She has started pulling herself up on things and crawls with wild abandon. She isn't sure if she likes you all the time because you're not as gentle as you can be with her. One of your most common questions to me right now is, "Mommy, why is she crawling towards you??" as she flees in terror of your not so gentle hugs, pinches and love taps. 

Why yes, Lily was in another outfit to start your special day. But, when she was introduced to cake for the first time, things got a little messy.

It was so cute that we didn't mind sacrificing a shirt for the cause.

The gift giving was generous, fast and furious. Unlike last year when you weren't quite sure what to do with the gifts and wrapping paper, this year, you really knew what to do. If we had given you the scissors, you would have been even more delighted.

Your favorite gift varies based on the minute but the enduring favorite gift that you drag everywhere is your cleaning set, complete with a mop, a broom and a vacuum. You love to wash the windows. The adults don't love it as much. You are very protective of your cleaning kit and scream if Lily tries to touch it. The arrival of the cleaning kit has pushed all of your other toys to less importance in value so now you let Lily play with your prized toys, like your kitchen, much more easily. This is a positive for us all.

Sharing with others easily hasn't quite happened. You were quite sad that you had to share this lawn mower with other people, holding onto the handle, and SCREAMING if we tried to pry your hands off it. I should clarify that you were sort of okay sharing it with Ava ... but not any of the guys. We did force you to share, of course. 

This was another hit for a gift. Your Daddy found it for you and you love getting pushed around in it. Your parents backs? Not so much. 

Even with the sore backs, we love you more than we can possibly express. Which is why we made the choice to let you have a cake that turned your poop blue. But more about that on the next blog post. Your birthday weekend extravaganza has so many photos that just one blog post won't cover it all. To be continued ...