Three Years Old

Where has the time gone? Our little boy is just that--a little boy through and through. We did a lot of partying this week, and it was so fun to celebrate this precious son of ours. 

First up was a trip to the store and letting him choose a mylar balloon. Woody the cowboy and Buzz were the characters of choice that we had floating around here to help wish David a Happy Birthday. When he woke up on his big day, there were also streamers and celebration friends waiting to greet him at his door. Oh, it's fun to be three!

 At one point we pulled out some silly string for David as he walked in the door. It wasn't a big hit at first "Ewww Mom! That's disgusting!" was the first thing out of his mouth right as some landed right across his face. He wasn't amused. I was really surprised! I thought he would have loved it. But he's never seen it before, so maybe it was too much of a surprise for him.

Eventually he got into the fun of it, especially after he had a turn to try and spray the string. His fingers weren't quite strong enough--but at least that turned it into more of a game, and less of an "attack."

As promised, when he woke up from his nap there was a special cake waiting for him.

About 2 months ago, I helped another mom with a cake for her 1-year old. Apparently that cake left an impression on David, because he brought it up a few times as he was anticipating his own birthday.

Over the last few weeks, David kept telling us that he was going to have a cake for his birthday. Then he added, "And mom and dad, you can each have a bite of it." Daddy: "A bite?" David: "Yes. A teeny tiny bite for each of you." Lucky for us, the train was more cake than David could eat--so we got more than a teeny tiny bite.

The play dough was a fun treasure hunt for the week. I put them all around the house instead of wrapping them--frankly because we ran out of paper, and it was too late to come up with an alternative. So I hid them around the house--and a new tradition has been born.

David thinks that now that he is 3, everything is translating into three. He thinks he can have three gummy vitamins instead of his usual two. And at dinner, he insisted on putting three noodles on his fork before it made its way to his mouth. I think we'll see the wheels turning for several weeks in how to incorporate three into everything this little boy does. My favorite is that now he thinks his cheese stick quota for the day is three instead of our previously set limit of two.

To wind up our week, we went bowling as a family. We set out to go to a local Bouncin' Bears with kid-friendly jumping pillows and slides. When we arrived, there was a sign on the door that said, "Sorry, we're full." Oh wow. Disappointment howled from the back seat. We were trying to make our way over to another bouncing place, when we passed Dimond Mall with a bowling alley in it. We asked David if he wanted to bowl instead, and he quickly dried his eyes and agreed that bowling would be an acceptable alternative.

The scores on the first frame were Sam 8, Carmin gutter ball and David 9. Final score was Sam's best ever game at 170, my worst ever game at 62, and David's score was that all of his balls returned through the machine except the stalled gutter ball that the nice man helped us retrieve. Interestingly enough, the fun of bowling for David was not in watching the ball hit the pins. As you can see in the above picture, David' didn't hang around to see which pins his ball hit. Oh no. He didn't hang around so he wouldn't miss the best part.

Which of course is anxiously watching for the ball to come back up.
There was one more funny detail to our bowling night. The next lane over (the end lane against the wall) had a ramp leading up to it (maybe for disability access?). David insisted on asking the family using that lane to move every time it was his turn so he could run up the ramp and into his bowling spot. He was as serious about that ritual as a collegiate football team coming out of the tunnel. That dear family was so kind to accommodate our insistent little boy. At least he was nice when he asked them to please move away from the ramp.

It's all about balls and machines and things that make noises, rituals to establish manly pride, and loud crashing sounds as heavy things collide then re-enacting the scene with charades and guttural noises. Oh and trying to remember your manners while you're at it.

 Welcome, little boy, to the wonderful world of being three.

Numbers

58*--temp of water in stainless steel bottle that sat next to the front door all night
43*--temp of cold water coming out of the faucet (no wonder my beverage of choice at restaurants is "water, no ice")
37--percentage of decrease in my patience with stopping to pick up icicles or snow when the temp is freezing my nostrils together.
20--number of minutes it takes our car to get the needle off the "C" at which time I crank up the heater. Thank heavens for a remote car starter!!!!
12--number of times I was in and out of my car last Tuesday, with the warmest being -11* Did I mention that I love my remote car starter?
5:08--amount of time by which the sunlight increased today.
2.7*--average temp in Anchorage for the month of January, 2012.
-5*--temperature at the gym just 15 minutes later and 2 miles away--because we're hardy enough to live in a cold pocket of town (reference below to -18*)
-10*--the temp where my face can tell it's 10 below or colder, because my nostrils freeze together.
-18*--temperature as we left our house at 8:15 am
-21*--the coldest we've seen it on our car's thermometer this week. 

It's turning out to be not only one of the snowiest, but also one of the coldest winters on record.
Maybe I should test my husband's spontaneity and book a trip to Hawaii next week. Maybe I should test my own and book it for tomorrow.

* in farenheit

Storytime and Ukeleles

 One of the best indoor winter activities for preschoolers in this town is storytime at the library. Books, songs, rhythms, clapping, and stomping--it really is tops in David's book.

The story time got even more exciting when the lady in charge changed to a younger gal who also happens to play the ukelele. And she brings shaker eggs for even more audience participation.

This boy is all smiles when we go to the library!

  Speaking of ukeleles--we have some great Elders serving in our ward. We have the assistants to the president, which means two things--they may or may not have a predictable enough schedule to know for sure if they're coming to dinner when you sign up to feed them and they are always fantastic missionaries. We have really enjoyed  having the last several sets of missionaries in our ward and in our home.

You can only imagine how quickly Elders Yang and Calk became David's favorites when they introduced him to the ukelele--and let him strum it! Wow, this kid was in pure musical bliss.

When He Wakes Up

Recently David has had a very vivid imagination. It's wonderful!

He's been waking up from his naps with his dreams still on his mind, and he'll walk downstairs telling me about them. It's as if his imagination picks up where his dreams left off. It has been very entertaining to get a glimpse of what this little boy dreams about.

On this particular day, he must have been dreaming about 

Winnie the Pooh figures. He woke up saying, 

Look Mom! I'm jumping like Tigger!

And he proceeded to jump as high as he could for the next 15 minutes or so.

It was standard post-nap fare: bed head, a missing sock, and a boy that carries his dreams into real life.

Happy 6 Years

While I'm not crazy about this picture, I'm still crazy about him.

Happy Anniversary, honey!

Snow Day

The day after Christmas, we had to give David's new sled a try.

So we grabbed some friends and went to our neighborhood school playground with the perfectly sized hill.

 Initially we were pulling David back up the hill with the "baby sled" we used last year for him. It didn't take long for that to get old, so we wanted to see if he could hike up the hill by himself.

Success!! It was more fun for him to climb the hill, and easier on us--so that was nice.

Sledding with a child that knows how to climb the hill by himself is a completely different experience than having to do that work yourself.

 David loved the speed of his new sled.

 And it was super fun for his friend to join him on the sled. Jonathan didn't like to do the big sled by himself, but he was more than willing to go down as a pair.

 Sam introduced David to snow angels.

 Which is one of the best parts of having powdery snow.

 David really really really likes to lick snow. It grosses me out, but he won't believe me when I tell him it's yucky or germy or any other adjective I can hope to discourage the behavior. I guess if it's freshly fallen snow, it can't be too bad, right?

Being with friends probably kept us out having fun for a longer period than if we had been just by ourselves. The temperature was 10 degrees when we got out of the car, and we didn't get back in for a full hour!

When we arrived home, I introduced David to the magic of warming up to nice, warm, cocoa with marshmallows on top.

It was a wonderful snowy day!

Piano Man

We paused for revelry and the reverence of the season. The celebration and the sublime. Christmas this year was so rewarding, with such dear memories and traditions. Key to our season was the fact that 90% of the shopping was done before December 1. I've highlighted some of our activities throughout the month--add to that reading Christmas stories at bedtime, driving around town to find the lighted houses, Christmas crafts during the day with David and Mommy, making and delivering lots of cookies, singing carols as we drove around town (since the Christmas radio station didn't play a single carol I recognized--what is a carol if it isn't traditional?).

And this was another key part of our holiday celebration:

A real, live piano. An upright baby grand piano.

Our dear friend insisted that it had served its purpose in her now empty-nest home. And it was time for the piano to bring music and joy to a family in a new home. Even if I don't know how to fully thank Karen for it, I at least know that we can properly cherish it.

It gave us a place to gather and sing all the holiday tunes, just the three of us.

And it gave David a chance to perform for his imaginary audience. He sang made-up songs at the top of his lungs while he appropriately played the keys.

Our rule for the piano is that only clean fingers get to touch it.

For the most part, David respects this rule very well. He knows that the piano is a privilege.

It's fun to have the piano in our home where David can finally get his fill. He and I go to about half a dozen homes each week as I teach piano lessons. He loves the piano--and now he can play one whenever he pleases, as long as he respects it. I've always mentioned that David has an ear for music. He can match his voice to the piano's pitch as he plays around with the notes. And one day he climbed an eight-note scale, then went back down perfectly. I was trying to convince myself that it was on accident, but he immediately repeated it for me. He knows the sound of a scale because he hears my students warm up with their scales at every lesson I teach.

Play me a song, buddy!
You're the piano man.