I'm A Mother To A 3 Year Old Now....

I am still in shock that my baby boy is 3 whole years old...perhaps one of the several reasons why I've been avoiding posting party pictures on the blog. If I can just deny it a little bit longer...ok, who am I kidding?...he's a big boy now, I'm 3 years older and I just need to get over it. This is where you start to fudge the truth a bit when people ask...how old is he? And undoubtably it is during a tantrum in the middle of the grocery store...do you dare admit your boy is 3 when he is clearly acting like a two year old? Or do you say.."oh, he "just" turned 3"..as if to explain the reason for his behavior is due to his lack of experience as a new 3 year old. Actually, I was so excited for this birthday because Dayton has been talking about it for weeks and for the first time he was showing "anticipation". As I'm typing this, he is standing beside me singing "The itsy bitsy spider" while playing his new Ukelele. Every time we would ask him what he wanted for his birthday he would say "a party hat" or "a dog" or "a cow"....so he hasn't quite figured out to ask for "toys", but that is probably a good thing...he does know that "boxes" arriving via the mailman are typically "surprises" for him, so every day leading up to his Birthday he had been asking if there is a box for him. The morning of his Birthday, he crawled into bed with us (before the sun was up of course) and when I said Happy Birthday to him, he said "no, its not my birthday yet mama." Oh...I didn't realize. Then he asked where his boxes were hiding...and if he could eat some cake. I smiled. We spent the day at the Honolulu Zoo (which is nothing to speak of compared to the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans so you won't be "wowed" by my pictures) and on the way home Dayton said he was tired and wanted to nap. C'mon...nap? It's your birthday....mommy wants to eat cake and open presents. *sigh* Okay, nap first and then presents and cake. Here was our day....
We started our day with a yummy Cinnabon roll. No doubt this was Mommy's idea.

A picture of Dayton with Daddy at the zoo. The best seat in the house of course!

Mommy and Dayton at the zoo. It is fire prevention month so they were allowing kids to climb into the fire trucks and of course Dayton was not the least bit interested. He just wanted to know where the giraffeses (he is pluralizing everything these days) were.

The Rhino resting his mouth on the ground (is his horn really that heavy?). The giraffeses that Dayton kept going on about from the time we walked though the gates. Note to readers...graphic material...some giraffeses getting "frisky" in the background.

Then, on to the monkey section..who knew there were so many varieties. Is that Dayton hanging from the bar? For some reason they started screaming monkey talk when we came by...maybe they recognized the kids as some of their lost babies? We told Dayton they were singing Happy Birthday to him.

Some turtles...we did see some GIANT ones but they were all dirty and gross. Note to readers...more graphic footage..beware of turtles getting frisky in the background.

The elephants...of course they were quite stinky too, but Dayton was excited to see them. He kept saying "insert elephant sound here".

Dayton patiently waiting to open his "boxes".

Dayton guarding his boxes from Saige...who kept trying to peel wrapping paper off.

Dayton opening his new Ukelele and then tossing it aside.

Saige opened and played with the Ukelele.

A cool flashlight for Halloween night.

Some cool Halloween washcloths. Dayton demonstrating what they are used for. Tula inspecting.

Saige excited to see a book for her! She kept saying "book...book"

Dayton says "a cool tiger shirt"...and then tosses it aside...later saying that it was his favorite thing in the box. I'm still trying to figure out if it is for Dayton or Saige.

Dayton wearing his cool Tiger shirt and saying "take it off, the tag hurts".

Or is it a nightgown for Saige? She liked it too.

Nothing like a box of goodies from Ya-Ya...intentionally packed with peanuts I'm sure.

Thomas the Choo-Choo Train - repeated about 20x...he was SOOOOOO excited. The moment I was waiting for... Dayton has been requesting to go to this toy store that has a huge Thomas set up for ages, so occasionally we go and he plays for a little bit. Sometimes when I ask him what he wants to do that day, he asks to go there. So after much deliberation, we decided to get him a little set and I was so excited to see his reaction. For once we actually caught something on video.

The only Thomas picture I could get because he wouldn't stop moving around. He played with it for a LONG time. Long enough to go through one set of batteries!

Then it was cake time! Here is the cake that Dayton and I made. He mixed up food coloring with the icing and iced it himself. Then we added sparkles. He's into sparkles lately. Personally, I think he (we) did a pretty good job. Not quite what I imagined, but yummy just the same.

Three candles, one wish.

Now for the best part...EATING it. Of course wearing his "party hat" and using his "CARS" utensils and plates. Now why is it that he won't use utensils for any other meal, but for his cake and ice cream he did? Anyone have any theories?

That night before bed he said, "my had the best party mama." I smiled.

The next morning, he crawled into bed with me and like every grown up 3 year old, said, "thank you for coming to my party mama."

I laughed. I wouldn't have missed it for the world my baby (yes, you will always be my baby).