The Capers of Ian

Last Friday Ian turned three.  It was a bitter sweet day.  He is SO much fun right now, but I'm so sad that the time is passing so quickly.  I wanted to have a day full of fun and allow the boys to do things they aren't usually allowed to do.  I would say we had a very wonderful day, and it went a little something like this.

Ian woke us all up at the normal time, 6:20 am, but he was content to hang out in his room for about twenty minutes before he was ready to escape.  I went into his room singing "Happy Birthday" with much gusto.  When I finished he said, "Oh, mom, that's so sweet to say it's my birthday!"  I then had to explain that I wasn't pretending; it really was his birthday.

While Cole changed Eli's diaper and got Ian out of his Pull-Up and into his skivvies, I ran to the store.  I needed tape to wrap Ian's birthday present (I know; I'm a bad mother since it wasn't wrapped already), and while I was there I grabbed a bag of Hostess Chocolate Donettes so Ian could have a special birthday breakfast.

When I walked in the door the boys were ready to eat!  We eat first thing in the morning around here, and you don't mess with the eating schedule.  Cole held their attention with Ian's gift from his Godfather, Kenneth, and I snuck into our room to wrap Ian's gift.  I could hear "Wow!" and "A new tractor!" coming  from the living room, and I couldn't wait to give Ian his next gift.

I walked down the hall, and was met in the kitchen by the boys.  I handed Ian his next presents (two!), and again he told me how sweet I was.  (Little charmer)  Ian unwrapped a dense foam bat and ball first.  He was so excited.  Next, he opened a tee-ball tee.  Of course, he had no idea what this was but was still super excited. While we were assembling the tee, he picked up the empty box, which was about the same size as a pizza box, looked inside and asked, "Is there a helmet in here?"  I had to laugh.  He hasn't quite figured out the concept of something "fitting" into something else.

I served up bowls of Donettes.  Cole had to take a pass.  He didn't feel like going to work with chocolate wax plastered to his teeth, I had four, Eli didn't like his, and Ian loved his.  However, the idea of going outside to play was way more appealing than eating Donettes, so we were in the yard playing tee-ball by 7:30.  I have video of this inaugural game, but it's pretty ugly.  The majority of the video is Eli showing his back side.  He was screaming and yelling, throwing himself to the ground, and demanding turns.  When it wasn't his turn he would run up while Ian was getting ready to bat and run off with the tee.  It was not his finest moment.

We continued to play in the yard for the next couple of hours, and then Ian proudly announced, "Mom, look! I'm peeing in the grass!"  I whipped my head around, and sure enough, Ian was peeing in the grass.  The only problem was, he didn't pull his pants down first.  Oops!  I got him cleaned up, and we went right back to playing.

Eventually, it was time for lunch.  While I prepared lunch, the boys played tractors in the living room.  Ian was playing with his new Cat Wheel Loader from Kenneth.  Silly me thought all was well, and then I heard Ian sobbing uncontrollably.  I came to assess the situation because things can get kind of sketchy when the boys are unsupervised.  Ian was kneeling in front of the couch, looking directly at his new tractor and bawling.  He was finally able to explain to me that he had broken his tractor while we were playing outside.  This, of course, was not true.  It takes the boys a good two days before they are able to break a die-cast model.  This particular model is articulated so there is a pivot point in the middle of the tractor.  No matter what I said, Ian would not believe me that it was supposed to be that way, and so, he continued to cry for THIRTY straight minutes.  He even cried through his "happy birthday phone call" from Aunt Tee-duh.  That's when I knew the situation was serious.  I finally called Cole and asked him to talk to Ian because Ian thinks that Cole's job is to look at dump trucks all day so he should be knowledgeable in Ian's eyes.  Cole was finally able to talk him down, thank goodness!

As the afternoon progressed, the boys wore down and their behavior became less and less desirable.  I decided it was time to rock and read with Eli for nap time and went back to his room to close the blinds and curtains.  When I walked through the kitchen I saw the actual cause for Ian's better mood.  He had gotten the bag of Donettes at some point and had eaten the chocolate covering off of fifteen, yes, FIFTEEN Donettes and then tossed their uneaten centers into a bowl or back into the bag.  I don't know why I am still surprised when I make discoveries such as these, but for whatever reason, I am.

We met Cole after work and went to Toys 'R Us so Ian could spend his $3.00 gift card from Geoffrey the Giraffe.   He had been talking about buying a new guitar for days, but we had to shop quickly because Prissy was in the car.  Don't freak out, it wasn't that hot outside.  Ian proudly told the girl at customer service that it was his birthday, and she outfitted him with a birthday crown and balloon.

Not the best picture, but he looked SO cute!!!!

We let Ian walk around and look at everything to decide what toy he wanted to buy.  This was a good idea for about three minutes, but then he found a display train table, and........that was the end of the shopping.  We couldn't get him to look at anything.  Any time we asked him to look and this or that he would say one of two things: "I can't.  I don't know how." or "I can't.  It's too hard."  Oh, geez.  Eventually, we just had to make him choose and walk to the register.  On the way to the register, however, he saw something different and changed his mind.  He ended up purchasing a remote control train.  It's very cute and very loud, but Ian is very good at driving it.  He held it up on the drive home so the train conductor could see out of the car window, too.

That night we stayed at my parents' house, and of course, Ian LOVED having all of that birthday attention from Nina and Papa.  The only problem was as soon as Ian saw my dad's guitar standing proudly by his chair, Ian had buyer's remorse (yet another reason why I know Ian belongs to Cole) and no longer wanted the train and wanted a new guitar instead.  Lucky for us, Aunt Tee-duh and Travis bought him one for his birthday!

We had an AMAZING birthday party, which I will write about in a different post, and just an all-around great weekend celebrating Ian.  Anyway, watching Ian and Eli play with all of these new, exciting, flashy, rumbling, talking toys made me realize how well everyone knows the boys.  They were all able to buy the perfect gifts.  There wasn't a single "dud" gift in the whole mix, and while the noise level of the toys seems to rise with every passing birthday, I still enjoy watching all of the fun those new toys bring.  I hope that when my birthday rolls around that someone is able to fulfill my birthday wishes as well as Ian's were fulfilled.  I don't need anything flashy or exciting, I'll leave that to the boys.  My deepest desire is to have another healthy year watching the boys play and grow.  But, a great pair of earplugs could be really nice, too.