New favorite picture

As with the family birthday dinner, the pictures at JC Penney were an epic fail on Saturday (how can you take bad pictures of my kid - he's so cute!?). However, luckily, we had a play date on Sunday and I snapped this one while he was out playing soccer with Jack. New favorite picture!

Birthday fun: Part 2

OK, the family party was not as much fun. No pirates. No treasure. And an epic food fail (the bar-b-que caught fire, with the chicken in it, so Sandra Dees got a call and a nice order at 5 p.m.). But Jake got his Clifford cake and everyone got yummy ribs in the end, so there you are. He also got some great presents, which he loves, including an awesome skateboard and a basketball net! Of course, my pirate obsessed son can turn anything into a pirate game. In the picture Binky is in the "crow's nest" and Jake is boldly sailing the pirate ship to glory. Obviously.

Tomorrow is his actual birthday so he will be getting his present(s) from Mommy and Daddy (and Binky) then. Also, soup, which was his requested dinner (I assume from all the readings of Little Bear that he just assumes you have to have birthday soup or he would have requested Mac and Cheese, which is his favorite food). Of course, it's also Ice Cream Tuesday, so he will be getting a sundae at B&R after dinner. And taking cupcakes to school. Wow, I kinda can't wait until it's not his birthday any more! However, it's amazing that my baby is turning 3! Expect the schmaltz-filled, teary post on the morrow.

Birthday Fun: Part 1

ARRRGH, Matey! ‘Tis a pirate party for Captain Jake! Sunday the 19th we had Jake’s friend party. It was pirate themed, of course. It was on International Talk Like A Pirate Day, of course. I went completely, round the bend, stupidly overboard with the decorations, food, and games, of course. But it was so much fun! Here are the stats:

9 kids, 3 and under and 19 adults for 2 hours in our house and yard. Thankfully, the weather cooperated!
Activities included buried treasure (we had to build a sandbox under Jake’s fort for this, but it was totally worth it!), color your own pirate bandana (mostly the parents did this), sticker treasure maps, running around like a 3 year old and doing whatever (there was a lot of this going on).
Jake and two of his friends dressed like pirates. Xoe and Tia were darling, as, of course, was the birthday boy!

Jake got some great presents (opened after nap) including Tinkertoys, a book (pirates, of course), Lincoln Logs, a magnifying glass, and a potato plant to grow. It made me so very happy and grateful that we have wonderful friends who 1) appreciated all the work and creativity that went into Jake’s party and 2) got Jake toys that invite imagination instead of things that go “beep” and play with themselves (not like that, get your head out of the gutter!). It was a great day and I’m glad everyone had fun. I’m grateful for the gifts and everyone coming, but I’m even more blessed by the gift that is our friends!

Recipie for a spider

Jake has a new imaginary friend. His name is Ricky and he's a very small spider. A mere day after befriending this tiny arachnid, Jake decided that what he really needed was a talking spider (of course! who doesn't?) so he instructed me that we needed to "make" one. When I replied that I didn't know how to make a spider and asked him what we need, this is the recipie he gave me. Mind you, it's a bit like my grandmother's recipies in that it's just a list of ingredients with no amounts, but that is obviously because it depends on how BIG you want the spider to be, how much you want him (or her) to talk, and what you have on hand. So here it is, a recipie for a talking spider:

Sugar
Magic
Coins (specifically gold)
Jewels
Pepper
Ginger

For the record, I suggested none of that list (not even the ginger), it's all him. Where does he come up with this stuff?

Lessons Learned

They say you learn something new every day. Some days, the very lucky ones, you learn more than one thing. If that’s the case, this was a very lucky weekend for everyone in our family. Here it is, day by day:

Friday: On a non-Jake topic, we learned that Kiba’s heart is doing really well. We took her to the cardiologist for her 6 month check up and there was less enlargement of her heart than there was on the original exam. Better news than we could have hoped for! I also learned that a new toy horse can get a 3 year old through an hour long funeral. OK, he wasn’t in the room the whole time, but no one heard him.

Saturday: I learned that if you don’t cover your ears at a wild west show it can give you a headache. I learned what the giardia (a/k/a Beaver Fever) microbe looks like in stuffie format. I learned that if you have a toddler who needs to pee, the nice people at the Sacramento Railroad Museum will let you in to use the bathroom, even if all you show them is your Sacramento Zoo membership card. Bless their hearts. Jake learned how to drink a beer (root, obviously) and how to rock a coonskin cap.

Sunday: Jake learned how to ride a horse! Not just a pony-at-the-fair kind of thing, but a real horse. OK, Stormer had already gone 50 miles that day so he wasn’t exactly feeling frisky, but I think I can safely say that it was the highlight of Jake’s weekend. Possibly his year. I also learned that if you keep a 3 year old up to see the stars come out in the woods (insert air quotes: it was a bunch of dry grass, some oak trees, and a half-empty lake that reeked of diesel fuel) then you’d better be staying the night. I also learned that a 3 year old CAN cry in the back of a car for over an hour without stopping. I also, also learned that, even though the tag says surface wash only, you can wash a stuffed monkey with no side effects (other than a clean monkey). Thank God. This was a very information packed day.

Monday – Jake learned that he prefers bagel and cream cheese to chocolate chip coffee cake. He learned that he doesn’t like lemon juice straight and that raw ground beef has germs and mommy will freak if you try to eat it. Lots of cooking knowledge gained today.

Finally, over all, I learned about spicy poodles and sassy trees, I learned I can’t be trusted in a toy store, I learned that my child has a seemingly endless supply of creativity and charm, and I learned that every time I think I can’t love him any more, I’m always wrong.