Happy Happy Birthday Baby!

Dear Brody,
I can't believe that you are three years old!  It seems like just yesterday we were getting up with you in the middle of the night (oh wait, that was just yesterday!), rocking you to sleep, and kissing your ten little fingers and ten little toes.  I would give anything to still snuggle you before bedtime and kiss your little fingers and toes, but you rarely slow down long enough for me to get a quick hug.  You are a man on the move. 

The last three years have been quite an adventure. You successfully turned our lives upside down, inside out, and back again. Thanks to you I now know all of the names of Lightening McQueen's friends. I know the words to the Thomas the Train theme song. And I can successfully throw spider webs from my wrists.

And I am so proud that, despite how rough and tumble you can be when you wrestle with Daddy or when you're pretending to be a dinosaur, you know how to be gentle and loving when you tickle my face, pat Tucker's fluffy tail, and visit with your baby cousins.  You are a versatile little man and I love watching you grow.  I love hearing about your favorite part of the day when I pick you up from school.  I love hearing the stories you make up at the dinner table. And I love watching the wonder in your eyes when you see dragons in the clouds and the twinkling of the stars at night.

You, my little man, have become my world.  I don't know how it's possible, but I love you more every day.  I know sometimes the terrible two's haven't been so kind to us and it appears that the terrible three's will present an even greater challenge, but regardless of those challenging moments, I love every second of being your mom and I am so proud of you.  I can't wait to see the magic that this next year will bring. 

So Happy Birthday my sweet baby Brody.  May all your birthday wishes come true.

I love you so... Momma

yes, that's right. I spent 2 hours decorating this cake only to wake up in the morning to find a giant crack in the middle.  I cried about it (twice), but Brody reassured me that it would still taste great!

pinata time!

Thomas and his Friends

Yep, that's right...a life sized Thomas the Train.  We headed to North Conway a few weekends ago to take a ride on Thomas the Train.  Now for those of you who don't know, Brody is a big Thomas the Train fan.  He just loves automobiles in general, but slap a face on them and give them all names and he's sold!  He knows the Thomas theme song, he knows all the trains names, he even knows which trains run on coal and which run on diesel - I'm totally not kidding.  And, for some reason beyond my comprehension, he even likes watching the Thomas the Train show.  Anyone who has seen it knows that it is the most boring, poorly animated show of all time.  I use the term animated quite loosely since there is no animation.  It's simply a video of a train moving on a track...and sometimes the trains eyes move.  They talk, but their mouths don't move...it's just bad.  I simply don't get it, but he is happy as a clam while playing with his trains and borderline giddy when he gets to watch the show so we thought...what could be better than bringing our little man to take a ride on Thomas?

Despite this being the coolest thing that Brody has probably done in his entire life...I mean what boy who LOVES trains wouldn't want to take a ride on a "real" Thomas the Train?...Brody spent a good portion of the day looking like this (see photo below).  Yep, we were trapped with a crabby Brody in the confines of a train car! Ugg!  Sometimes we just can't win.  We were feeling quite frustrated that he was being such a little crab, but then we looked around and realized that the majority of kids there were throwing some sort of fit and no one under the age of 5 seemed to be listening to their parents.  Compared to the other kids, Brody was actually doing pretty well so we just shrugged it off and blamed it on some whacky lunar phase that must be affecting the children!

He turned his attitude around pretty well when he saw all the train tables and the bounce houses and he LOVED running under the mister tents to cool off. 

And of course the day ended with some face painting and the best lemonade I have ever had in my entire life.  I'm not kidding.  The only bad thing about it was that Brody decided it was the best thing he had ever tasted and I had to share it with him!  We grabbed lunch and a fun little sandwich shop on Main Street before we headed home and thankfully, after a day of train whistles and screaming children, Brody fell asleep as soon as the car started moving and we had a glorious, peaceful ride home!