Three Times the Fun!

Dear Ian,

Happy Birthday Baby Bear!!

I just cant believe that you are already three years old.  Where in the world did the time go?  But without getting too sappy, it does blow my mind at how fast the time has gone from October 19, 2009 to today, October 19, 2012.

To make your third birthday extra special, Daddy and I did some fun stuff.  And of course I took pictures.  I'm predictable and consistent; what can I say.  Here we go:

The night before your birthday, Mommy made brownies for you to take to your class for special snack.  Daddy helped by being a taste tester.  As you can see in this picture, he had to make sure they tasted good enough for your friends.

 Then we blew up 10 purple balloons, your favorite color...

 ... and we tossed them on the floor of your bedroom.  That way when you woke up this morning, you woke up to a party!  I heard you when you turned on your light, and it was so funny. You said, "Wow, look at all these balloons.  I do not know they were in here."  Love that grammar, kiddo.

Here you are with your purple balloons.  

 Since you are the birthday boy of honor, you got to put your cereal bowl on the special birthday plate.  To keep it nice, we kinda use it like a charger plate.  It works; we get the gist.  You were excited about it either way.

Ready to go to school!  We got you a special Birthday Boy pin to wear on your shirt.  You also decorated your shirt with water from brushing your teeth apparently.  

Your teachers also helped you celebrate your special day, too.  They served your special snack, and according to you, all the friends in your class sang "Happy Birthday" to you.  Miss Mallory made this neat poster for you, and it was on the door of your classroom.  So cute.  You're such a lucky little boy.

 Your teachers rock.  They know you so well.  Purple candle :)

 Blowing out your purple candle.

 Happy little birthday boy.

 Saying your blessing before snack.  Love this!  So cute.  

 Some of your friends enjoying your snack.  L to R: Conor, Ben, Lauren and Avery

Special thanks to Ms. Katie for sending me these pictures.  She's awesome!

So, now we're getting ready to head off to your birthday dinner.  You've chosen for your celebratory meal, of all places, Golden Corral.  So, since it's your day, that's what you'll get.  Should be interesting!  

Happy Birthday Ian!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy!

 

Ian-isms

Took you to Red Elephant for dinner tonight, and you ordered your own meal.

Ian: I want a hamburger, please.
Waitress:  Do you want cheese on it?
Ian:  No, just ham.

She sure got a kick out of that response.

Ian-isms

Just a quick dose of Ian-isms today.

The other day you and I were driving down the road and passed this billboard for a fancy-ish restaurant here in town.

You spotted it and shouted: "Look Mommy!  Green Eggs and Ham!"

So much for that fancy restaurant seeming fancy to you...


A few days later, you and I were getting out of the car when you poked yourself in the eye with your book or something.  You stood there for a second, holding your hand over your eye and doing your "man breathing" to tough through the pain.  Then you said, in a disgusted tone:

"Great.  Now I'm going to have to be a pirate."

Hahaha!!!

Perspective.

And now, the rest of the story...

Dear Ian,

First, a quick explanation of the line above is in order.  There was this great radio personality when Mommy was growing up named Paul Harvey.  He broadcast news stories that weren't typical news stories of politicians and world events.  His stories were about small towns and funny, quirky events, and for one of his segments, he always started with that line you read above.  I used to love listening to him, and I'm sad you wont get that experience.  Hopefully I can share it with you...

But anyhoo.  The reason I chose that sentence is because this post is all about Disney through your eyes.  Last post I told about our day at the park and what a blast it was.  I mentioned that you received your very own camera as a gift, and you used it to document your version of Disney.  Here, I'm going to post a few of these pictures and your descriptions of why you took them.

Without any further ado, here is Disney through your eyes and the rest of the story.

 Here's a funny self portrait of you and Daddy right after you opened your camera.  The lens has this neat feature of being able to turn over so you can do self portraits.  Neat!

 A picture of the parade that we stumbled into by accident when we first entered the park.

 Your photo of the castle.  Came out great!

 An interesting shot of Mommy in the Baby Care center.  We stopped there to fill up your water bottle and get all sunscreened for the day.

 Daddy and Issa outside the Baby Care Center.

 A fountain near the Baby Center. 

 Here's part of the line queue for the Jungle Cruise.

 And here is a photo of my foot as we stood in line for something.  My new sneakers look nice...

 Maybe we were waiting in line for this ride?  Aladdin's Magic Carpets in Adventureland.

 I asked you why you took a picture of this man, as he was someone we didn't know.  Your response: "I liked his balloons."

 You took A LOT of pictures of various strollers.  Not really sure what the fascination was.  Comparison shopping, maybe?

 Here's a chair at the Pinocchio house, where we ate lunch.

 And a nice shot of Lovey in your stroller. 

 This nice lady came over and entertained you and Issa for a few minutes with her Pinocchio puppet. 

 Random people walking past the carousel.

 Here's a good shot of Issa and Lorelei in their stroller.

 Ooooh.  You found a crane.  They are still working on the new Fantasyland park. 

 Ok, Magic Kingdom trash cans.   When asked why you photographed them, you stated that you liked the purple on them.

 A self portrait of a little boy getting very, very sleepy from all the fun.

 According to you, you liked this man's wheel chair. 

A neat shot of the Astro Orbiter in Tomorrowland.

And finally, this one was too good not to share.  You, in your car seat on the way back to Tallahassee.  Maybe being strapped in the car for four hours made you a little stir-crazy.  Cute, though!

You took quite a few more pictures this trip, and a lot of them were the backsides of people or strollers or self portraits...  I couldn't post all of them to this blog entry, but I do have them on the laptop.  You really enjoy looking at your photographic work.  I'm thrilled that you seem to enjoy taking pictures as much as I do.  And now you can take pictures and make memories for any and every other trip we take!  What a neat gift.  

You are a lucky little bear, and I am a lucky Mommy to have you.

Love always,

Mommy

 

Disney Birthday Extravaganza

Dear Ian,

Whew.  We survived a wild and wonderful weekend, and I'm already sorry it's over.  We had a great time, and I think you had a complete blast.

Our weekend started with a bit of a mess.  We had to get our taxes done, sorta last minute thing, so we got off to a later start than what we wanted.  And THEN our car threw a "service engine soon" light, so we had to get her checked out before we drove 500 miles, but we did eventually get on the road and get things underway.  For the trip, I packed you a little basket of fun Disney-themed stuff to keep you occupied (see left).  There was a thermos for your water, stickers, a great book and some crayons and a magnadoodle.  Peanut, your stuffed elephant, was just sorta along for the ride.  Anyhoo.  We played convoy with the Liedy family, stopped for dinner at Bob Evans and made it to our hotel around 9pm or so.  After an adventure blowing up the air mattress for you, we finally all got settled.  After what felt like a 20 minute nap for Mommy, we got up and our Disney Day was finally here!!

You and Issa had a quick snack of dry cereal to hold you over for our big breakfast surprise: breakfast at Ohana in the Polynesian Resort.  You're a lucky little kiddo as this is your second time there, and to be honest, Mommy has been daydreaming about this breakfast since your first trip 18 months ago.  It lived up to the hype.  Man, it's good.  But the best part of the breakfast, for littles like you, is the chance to meet some of the Disney characters without a zillion-hour long wait.  Pluto, Mickey, Lilo and Stitch all visited our table.  You got their autographs in a little (purple) spiral notebook that Mommy bought at the dollar store, and you were so proud of them.  And you grinned like a little nut as they signed and posed with you.  And then we got to parade around the restaurant with maracas.  You really got into that part.  Since I told the Disney friends that it was your birthday, you got a really neat button and, with it, all kinds of neat little perks.  More about some of those later, but at Ohana, you got a cupcake!  They even put a candle in it that Daddy lit and we all sang Happy Birthday to you.  The Liedys gave you a Fisher Price camera that really works as a birthday gift and you just LOVED it.  More on that later, too.  Here are a few more pictures from our breakfast at Ohana...

 Our family at Ohana!  October 13, 2012

 You in the special shirt I made you (forgot to mention that I made you a special Disney shirt) and the button you got for your birthday.

Blowing out the candle on your birthday cupcake!

So, now that we were all fat and happy after our breakfast, it was time to head into the park.  We took the monorail over, something else you LOVED, and cleared the bag-check stations.  Holy cow, did we take a lot of stuff...  snacks, changes of clothes...  better to be prepared, though.  We finally got to step into the gates of magic and mousery, and.... we walked into a parade.  Now, I will be honest here.  I was bummed about this.  I wanted you to see the castle right away.  But then I saw your face as you watched the parade, and I cooled my jets.  I saw this smile, and I knew that I needed to toss any agendas I may have had in my noggin and let you lead.  

Melted my heart, little dude.  You finally did see the castle, and you even took a photo of it on your own camera (which again, I will cover that later.)  We wandered over to Adventureland first, then Frontierland, and then finally to Fantasyland.  You rode the Jungle Cruise, Aladdin's Flying Carpets and the Carousel.  Of course, we had to do It's a Small World, and then we ambled over to Pooh Corner and rode the Winnie the Pooh ride.  You and Daddy had just recently watched a Pooh movie on the laptop, so this was a big deal for you.  Like your movie came to life.  Dumbo was next, and then we decided that you were getting a bit on the cranky side.  Daddy and I rode the train that goes around the park three times so you could get a 45 minute nap in.  I must say, it did make a big difference in your demeanor.

 You and Daddy on the Jungle Cruise. 

 Riding the carousel with Mommy

Hooray for Dumbo!

Now, like I mentioned before, your Happy Birthday button got you all kinds of attention in the park.  Cast Members (Disney employees) all stopped and wished you happy birthday by name.  At first it was a little creepy hearing strangers call out my kid's name, but then we got into the spirit of it.  As long as you were holding my hand or safely strapped in your stroller.  Stranger Danger alert was on high, but I digress...  When we stopped to have dinner at a restaurant in Tomorrowland, all the people working behind the counter and in the kitchen stopped and came out and did a birthday cheer for you.  It was loud and AWESOME!  You grinned the entire time!  

Tomorrowland also hosted your favorite part of the park, according to you.  If you are asked what your favorite part was, you immediately respond, "the cars."  The Tomorrowland Speedway is what you are referring to, and it did seem to be your favorite.  You got to steer the car all by yourself, with Daddy pushing the gas pedal, and you "beat" Mommy.  Nevermind that the cars follow each other single-file on the track.  You beat Mommy!  

 Grinning at Mommy after your victory lap.

Our visit to Tomorrowland pretty much wrapped up our day, but we finished it off with the Main Street Electric Light Parade and a wicked cool fireworks show.  

I must say, Disney was a great way to celebrate our little Bear turning three.  I am kinda jealous.  My 34th isn't going to be nearly as much fun.  I'm so glad you had a good time, and just like all the other wonderful things I get to do with you, I have tucked these memories into my heart forever.  I'm going to wrap up this post with a few more pictures of our fun weekend.  Hopefully they will bring back great memories for you, too.

 Us, Disney World, 2012!

 Taking pictures on your special new camera. 

 Our funny family with Pooh and Tigger

I think this picture is one of my favorites from the WHOLE weekend.

You and Issa watching the Main Street Electric Light Parade.  Mommy was smart and bought her own glow stick thingies.  Thank you, Pinterest...

Happy early 3rd birthday, Buddy!

Love,

Mommy

Ian-isms

Dear Ian,

'Bout that time again.  Time to bust out the blog and record some of the funny moments we have in our conversations. 

This little gem is from the other day as I loaded you up in the car to go home after a morning of school.  You had apparently played in the sand area that day, and as you got it, a ton of sand came off your shoes and onto the carpet of the car's floorboards. 

Mommy:  Wow, Ian.  You just dumped a ton of sand in the car.
Ian:  I know.  It's because I love you so much, Mommy.

Now, while I am glad and touched that you love me so very much, I really wish that you could love me without playground sand all over my car.  I'll take what I can get, though.

Here's a funny from this weekend.  You were toodling around in your little plastic car on the driveway and pretending to go places.  All of a sudden, you busted out with:

Ian: Mommy, can you go to Fresh Market and get me some sushi?
Mommy:  You want me to really get you sushi?
Ian: Yes.  I want some sushi.  Can you get it?
Mommy: Ummm.  I guess...  Wait.  Is this real life or are you pretending?
Ian:  This is for my pretend life. 

And finally:
This weekend, I got the nutty idea to clean out and paint our garage.  I don't know.  Something just motivated me to slap a fresh coat of paint on our garage walls, and when that's finished, I'm going to put down real, live (not pretend life) garage flooring paint. Complete with the wicked cool floor sparkles in the epoxy.  I have an illness...  Anyhoo.  You "helped" me paint for a while, and then it was time for nap.  While you slept, I finished about two thirds of the garage (in an hour and 20 mintutes.  I deserve an award), and when you woke up, I took you outside to see my work.

Mommy:  Whatcha think, Bear?
* You turned and looked at me and said in your most perfect Mommy/Teacher voice:
Ian:  Mommy, you have worked so very hard on this.  You should be so proud of you! 

Hahaha!!

Love you so much, kiddo,
Mommy