Birthday Week

As I have mentioned before, birthdays are a big deal at our house. We do not have birthdays, we have birthday weeks. This week has been full of celebrating for Carson and I, since our birthdays are only a day apart. My birthday was fabulous. I got to hang out with my favorite person in the whole world (shout out to Shelby) all day while we did whatever struck my fancy at any given time.Then in the evening my little family took me out for pizza. I got spoiled!

Carson was not totally clear on the whole birthday thing at first, but by the end of the day he got it. My neighbor Amber made us both breakfast, after which he got to play for a couple of hours with Ella and Cora and his friend Ian. I took him to Wal-Mart to spend some birthday money from his grandma and from Papa. Then we hit McDonald's for a whole Happy Meal (as opposed to the 1 cheeseburger I usually get each of my kids and the water I make them share) AND an ice cream cone. I almost never do one-on-one dates with Carson, and at first he was very confused. When we got in the car he got a little panicked and said "Mom! Lilly!" I told him Lilly was playing at a friend's house. A minute later he said "Mom! Baby!" I told him we weren't bringing Emmy. It was just going to be him and me today, that we were going on a date. I think it took him a minute to decide if he thought this was a good idea. In the end he and I had a great time together. He wanted to buy a train because that is his obsession right now but Wal-mart did not have them. He settled for a Toy Story car and a helicopter, along with a pack of Extra Wintergreen gum. I tried to get him to buy some kid gum instead, but he was adamant. Spending time with just him was delightful! For dinner he chose pancakes. While I was making them he watched a movie. When dinner was ready the movie was not over yet, so he insisted on eating downstairs. This upsets everything that I believe about family dinners and birthday dinners. I think we should eat as a family, but it wasn't my birthday. So, we all ate our pancakes upstairs while he ate his in front of the TV. He is still young enough that we do all of our birthday shopping at the dollar store. He got a ball and bat, a sand bucket filled with candy, a coloring book, pez dispensers, and a mini chalk and eraser set. He was a very happy boy. One more note about his birthday. He insists that he is still only two.

OK, that was a bonus blog about Carson. Here is one for the books. We ate lunch with the Lackeys at Carl's Jr. last week. The reason we went to this particular restaurant is because they have a toddler-friendly play area. Carson easily maneuvered his way up to the top of the jungle gym. And there he stayed for the entirety of our outing. He was too scared to come down, and I was too big to go up and get him. I sent Rachel up at one point to help him, but this was not what he wanted. It was getting close to time to go and I told Rachel if she could get him to come down with her, I would give her a surprise. She tried to talk him into letting her help, then she tried to bribe him. Finally, after she had exhausted all of her other options, she picked him up and carried him kicking and screaming to the slide and pushed him down. He was devastated, Rachel was proud, and the rest of us adults had a good laugh about it. At the McDonald's play area yesterday Carson stayed on level ground.

Lilly is so sweet. After pancakes last night Rachel was sticky and wanted to wash her hands but could not reach the sink. Lilly said "Oh, Rachel! Teamwork!" Then she got down on all fours and let Rachel stand on her back while she washed her hands. Lilly is always finding some way to help. She changed Emilia's diaper yesterday for me. She did a great job except that she put it on backwards. It occurred to me the other day that I expect a lot from Lilly because she has always acted so grown-up. She started talking so early and so well that I think I forgot she was still just a little kid. I am lucky to have her on my side. I love Lilly's fashion sense. She almost always wears a skirt, usually over her pants. On Monday she wore a dress with a fluffy skirt underneath, and two cardigans over her dress, along with her pink princess boots (which make the outfit of course).

If Rachel gets out of bed one more time because she thinks she heard a tornado, I may have to do something drastic. Every time she hears a plane or a jet overhead she stops whatever she is doing and listens. Once the sound is gone she says "Oh. Ha ha. I thought that was a tornado." She told me last night that she never wants to live anywhere where there are tornadoes, floods, volcanoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, or bad guys. She lucked out on five out of the six. She also needs frequent reassurance that neither Grandma or Grandpa lives in a place where any of these things exist.

Emilia is officially rolling over now. She is at that stage where she cannot figure how to roll back over yet, so she gets really mad, which I actually think is cute. I get a kick out of feeding her Cheerios for the same reason. She can see them, and wants to put them in her mouth but her hand-eye coordination is not quite good enough. She spends most of her time yelling at the Cheerios. I love her love her love her love her!