"My feet hurt, I need to go to the dentist."

This morning as we're eating breakfast he shows me his leg and points at it. Dentist? Teeth, baby, the dentist is for teeth, not feet!

It's raining, perfect chance to use this great coat from Joshua! NJ says, "I need my hood!"

Green sprinkled rice crispies

My little helper who loves to lick the spoon. He almost stuck it back in the bowl, yuck!

You got some on your face, little mr.

A bit of a St. Patrick's Day treat. It wasn't meant to be, but when I went to get the sprinkles I thought green would be the perfect color for today. It's so much easier and yummier now that I found the right way and better way to make them. So easy, it's fun to have NJ help.

A Chuck E Cheese Birthday

He got a mini bucket of tokens, but didn't know what they were or what to do with them.

Waving at the big mouse. Silly guy.

He liked the idea of the car (and the look of it) more than he liked riding on it. He had this strange look of concern on his face as if to say: this isn't the way a car moves!

We were proud of him for climbing into the play structure, but he was like a hamster circling it over and over trying to find his way out. We kept trying to tell him to go down the slide (the only way down). NJ stopped to talk to a girl and asked what her name was (her mom heard him say it twice). Ha, ha, he seems to have a thing for blonds!

Finally, he comes out and down the slide!

Lots of tickets!

Some basketball, football, skeeball...

Count the tickets... 98!

His chosen prize of a blue blow up crayon. Actually worth 100 tickets, but the lady was nice enough to spot us two. As we're leaving he says, "That was so cool!"

This is a first for all of us! If you have a kid (or kids) or have friends with kids, you'll find yourself at a birthday party at a Chuck E. Cheese, like it or not. NJ had a lot of fun and I was so happy to see an old friend, a close friend and her beautiful family. It wasn't what I built it up to be in my mind... I'm too paranoid about sickness, being in crowded compact places, tons of kids... I didn't think about it much to be among friends and to watch NJ enjoy himself. It's the bit of crazy in me that I'm trying to learn how to let go of. Of coarse I changed and bathed him when we got home, just in case!

Family Field Trip!

First ride in a school bus! NJ loves school buses and he finally got to ride one. Needless to say he was really, really excited about it.

We went on a class trip to the California Science Center together. I packed lunch for all of us, we didn't have to drive or pay for admission or parking. Just three bucks each for the trip, not bad. There were so many other kids on their field trips too that it was a bit crowded and stuffy. I had to sit some of it out, but we all really enjoyed ourselves (especially NJ).

"Where's the Mama? I want to talk to him..."

NJ's been asking for more yogurt since running out. We get the big pack from Sam's Club with strawberry, peach, and vanilla flavors. Vanilla is his favorite, he always asks for it first. But now the vanilla has been replaced by blueberry. Hopefully he'll like the blueberry.

My view over breakfast. I made my own yogurt and fruit, he prefers the pre made.

"Can I cut?"

He can care less about coloring, all he wants to do is cut. I gave him a whole notebook to draw in, but cutting is so wasteful. He really liked working on something I gave him. After he was done, he closed the art box, carried it over to me and said, "Thank you for taking out the box for me to color and cut!" How sweet. I love when he's so polite and appreciative.

It's been a long time since recycling. We used to go all the time in Pasadena. But we don't drink soda like we did before, plus the city recycles for us now. I was trying to explain to NJ why we were recycling, but all he kept asking was, "Why the machine not taking the bottle?" It wasn't taking the glass bottles for some reason. He asked over and over for the rest of the day!

Bubbles from baby Connor's birthday party. NJ's been asking to use them since. He wasted most of it by trying to catch the bubbles and spilling the container each time. He really wasn't paying much attention to the other hand, he'd be pouring out the bottle just while blowing bubbles too.

Rainbow and leprechaun that he made in class. He kept showing me the leprechaun and asking me, "What do you call this?"

I was spinning the top for him and we were counting together how long it spun. We got up to thirty-seven, not bad!

I finally found some fitting photos to put together an idea I had. I thought it would be fun to write messages, silly quotes of the day (mainly from NJ), lists (to do, to get...), and whatever else. I was going to add Dotty, but then there would be less room to write. Instead, I think I'll put her photo in a frame with Mochi (our old dachshund) and Hammy (our old cockatiel). Now to find a good photo of Hammy to print. Well, let's see how much we actually use this, otherwise it's coming down! It seems a little plain, it's a work in progress I guess.

"We going locos?"

When we're in the car, he always has constant questions and commentary on where we're going, why, which way to go, and whining about wanting to go some place else or some other way. Also common, "We going freeway?" or "We done with freeway?" or "We not taking freeway?" Then today and yesterday it was, "We not taking freeway? We going locos?" No we're not going locos, local (emphasizing the "l" at the end). Crazy.

Requests from Ah-ma today were for one of his trikes and kid friendly scissors. She says over the phone, "He can't cut and he doesn't know how to petal." He knows how to petal, he's just lazy about it and uses his legs to scoot because it's faster for him. And he knows how to use scissors, but not very well since he hasn't been using them for long. It's really choppy and messy, but who cares? He's three. Not cutting straight or coloring within the lines doesn't worry me one bit. He's got plenty of time for that, he has the rest of his life to be forced to do everything perfect.

It's getting impossible for me to get a decent photo of this kid. He moves around a lot, yes, but he also avoids the camera at all costs. In the last week or so when I ask him to smile or hold still he starts jumping around or uses something to block his face. I have to practically get mad at him to get him to stand still for a stinkin' photo, it's so frustrating! Why can't he be as well trained with the camera as my very first cute subject, Cameron? He's a ham and nearly a model with the way he poses or makes faces, I love it. The poor kid has had my camera in his face since his first day of life (or was it the second?). But nope, not my baby!

"Like, I'm happy!"

A word he says a lot is like. Along with umm, uhh, ooh, and since wednesday, oh. I ask him to do something, he says oh. I ask him to stop doing something he says, oh. I tell him something he says, oh. And he's always adding, "or something" at the ends of what he says. Sometimes it makes sense, sometimes not as much:

"I want some cereal or something."

"Is this my shirt or something?"

"Are we gonna go or something?"

"Is this Baba's or something?"

And a while back he put his fingers right in my face and said, "This is from my nose or something." Gross, put it in the trash! I love how now his sentences end in a higher pitch especially when he asks questions. I haven't been keeping track of everything he says very well so now I'm catching up before I forget! He's always been demanding but now sometimes he adds, "...if you want to." The first time I heard it is when I left my crafts out in the middle of a project. He says to me, "Why you didn't clean it? You can put it away. If you want to." He'll tell me to do something and add it at the end. I try not to laugh each time. It's his nice way of being demanding. He also says to me, "Don't make a mess!" or "Why you make a mess?" As if I'm not already overly obsessive with keeping things clean, I've got a constant reminder all day long. I can't live up to my own cleaning expectations or my three old's either. Why do I bother?

When NJ turned three, the why's and how come's started. Then it turned into him repeating everything twenty times over. After about the tenth time, I stopped having the patience to answer for what feels like the millionth time. Now he has constant commentary, questions, or whining about something. All these have us on the verge of either crying or bursting into laughter, it's a strange fine line. I try my best to be patient and laugh instead of fuming with frustration. I don't know what happened when he turned three, but a switch was flipped and the calm, mellow boy we knew is now non-stop moving, talking, fidgeting, yelling, running, screaming... God, give us patience!

One last batch of home made chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting (baked last night). Since Friday, it's been like a bakery in our home. I made an individual sugar free carrot cake, a mini three layer vanilla cake, a mini two layer chocolate cake, all with vanilla frosting. Later that night was a batch of vanilla cupcakes and two batches of chocolate cupcakes. The next morning (Saturday) a box of funfetti cupcakes and three batches of vanilla frosting. All together ten dozen cupcakes, and three individual cakes, and four batches of vanilla frosting. I've never baked that much in such a short time. It was fun but very tiring. I was more than happy to do it though. Baba said well, now you know what it would be like to have a bakery! I've always wanted to have a little place to sell baked goodies or work in a bakery just for a little while. I love baking, but I'm sure it wouldn't be fun anymore once it becomes stressful. Just like with the invitations, weddings, showers, and party stuff I love doing.

Sushi for breakfast

Well, it was more like brunch! We were so tired last night that we forgot about changing our clocks. It wasn't until I got a text that I woke up and realized it was 11:00am! Yikes, we completely missed church. :(