The Day You Turned 3

This kid started the day out bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

This kid... did not. In fact, this kid has been waking up in bed with me for the last couple of months. Thanks to separation anxiety, Veda pages me every night at some point between 12:30 and 4. It does make for some cramped sleeping conditions, but I know that it helps her feel safe, so it's okay.

Veda, at a mere three years old, you have a whole world of possibility ahead of you. One possibility that's off the table, however, is that of you being a morning person. Here you're all snuggled up with your Thomas cozy while waking up to a little PBS. 

Linus was pumped up about his birthday breakfast: pancakes with syrup and scrambled eggs. I'm pretty sure he slipped most of his eggs to Mimi.

Oh, and here's a prime example of the #1 thing you guys do that drives me crazy. Walking around the house, Linus randomly picked up this piece of train track and set it down on the table... for no reason whatsoever. Why do you do this??? 

Here Veda is laughing about our inside Thomas the Train joke. We always laugh together at the "Your Loving Daddy" line in the Thomas opening. It's one of the little details of our Saturday mornings I want to remember forever and for always.

Gummy bear multivitamins are also a part of our morning routine. Heaven forbid I forget them.

After breakfast, Veda helped me get the dishwasher started. Putting in the detergent packet is one of her favorite chores. 

It was time to get dressed. Here is moi in my mommy uniform. With all of the playing in the floor and cleaning I do, yes, sweats are absolutely called for. But no pajamas during the day. I have my standards.

Here's Little Man playing with a matchbox airplane...

... while Veda cooks. Oh, that hair clippy? It's there to manage a little patch of sticky syrup hair.

Arts and Crafts time! Veda wanted to work on a Kumon book today. Linus wanted to do play dough. 

Then Nana paid a birthday visit to drop off a few Christmas gifts from out-of-state family.

Linus playing in the floor with a Hex bug.

Mostly playing with blocks, with a side of eating lunch (vegetable soup).

Linus is turning in a particular little person. He got a little soup on his sleeve, so the entire shirt had to be removed. Immediately.

Time to see how tall we are! Linus was just a little over 37".

Veda was a little shy of 35".

Playing with the Darda track.

Time for a nap. These are the books we read together beforehand.

Veda has been on a growth spurt, so she had to sneak in a little snack while we were reading.

All cuddled up in bed with the 50,000 objects he requires to go to sleep.

Trying to shake the post-nap grumpies.

When everyone was sufficiently awake, we headed down the Commons to shoot off some model rockets.                  

We counted down to ignition and launched.

Then the retrieval crew set out.

Next up, we decided to hit up Smart Toys & Books for a little birthday treat. Except here's the thing: IT WAS CLOSED. Not good. Not good at all. But toy store promises had been made, so we pouted our way over to Toys R Us. 

It was a trip to a toy store. It should have been a joyous occasion, right? No. No. It was miserable. Linus found a three pack of emergency vehicles with lights and sirens quickly enough. But Veda had a hard time finding anything. I could complain about TRU's narrow definition of girlhood, but we'll gloss over that. Here we are in the Thomas the Train section... where we spent probably 45 minutes. Veda kept asking for things that she either already had or already had a similar version of.... Oy, it was frustrating. There may have been some lip quivering. Finally I convinced her to get a play dough ice cream toy. It's kind of a crappy toy, but by golly, we made it out of that big box toy store alive. (Talk about your first world problems...)

On a happier note, our next stop was frozen yogurt. Here's Linus with his new ambulance.

We finished up our evening at Salsarita's with some chips and queso. 

By the time we finally got home, it was late. Maybe 9:30. Yeah, p.m. So for maybe the second or third time ever (since you were newborns), you guys went to bed without a bath. Phew. We were tired people. 

But we sure were happy.