I'm not sure if the Elliott or the girls were more excited for him to open his gift this morning! He started off his birthday with a gift from his best honeys, followed by breakfast and the 8 am showing of his favorite movie - "Cars". Tonight, we are celebrating at Space Aliens (um, Pizza Planet for my Toy Story guy).
My friend Megan and I both have 3 year olds. In fact, Emme was born just one day before Elliott -- although she does look like she's maybe a year older since she towers over the little man. We took them bowling to celebrate their birthdays - and they had soooo much fun! And in case you were wondering, Elliott beat us all with a whopping score of 95!!!
Notice the large quantity of food on his plate. I mean really, am I asking too much that the kid atleast try a bite or two of the meal the rest of the family is enjoying??? Seriously, boys cannot live on yogurt and fruit alone - although somehow Elliott is managing to do just that. I have had my ups and downs with his picky eating. The kid will not eat anything that is an actual meal and subsists mainly on fruit, yogurt, granola bars, and muffins. Oh, and McNuggets from you-know-where and rainbow sprinkle pancakes from Perkins. REALLY?! No mac-and-cheese for this kid. No cheeseburgers. No hotdogs. No mashed potatoes. No cheese. Not that any of those are particularly healthy options, but they are typical kid fare! No vegetables - unless carrots dipped in ketchup limit one every two weeks counts. He will occassionally eat pizza - cheese only and usually just from the Pizza Hut at Target. What happened??? I was such a good mommy, serving up steamed broccoli and other such healthy goodness to my children who gobbled it up and asked for more. Until Elliott, that is. And I've tried everything . . . bribery (um, I mean rewards), time-outs, spanking (gasp!), 'two bites because you're two', going to bed without snack, not giving anything else unless . . . The kid has amazing willpower and will simply not eat anything other than what he likes. Even if he's never seen it, heard of it, or tasted it before - he says "I don't like that!" So I'm left with making fruit and yogurt smoothies with protein powder and muffins with whole wheat, applesauce, and whatever pureed veggies I can sneak in there (favorite - pumpkin). All I can say? It's a good thing he's cute!
Finally!!! About a month ago, I discovered that Jillian had a new tooth moving in behind her baby tooth, which had yet to start wiggling. She is not a tooth wiggler. That baby tooth would have stayed put if we hadn't been constantly reminding her to wiggle it. We even made up a song that went something like this . . . 'when you're reading a book, wiggle your tooth . . . when you're watching tv, wiggle your tooth . . . when you're riding the bus, wiggle your tooth. . .' You get the idea. Thursday afternoon when she came home from school, Jillian showed me her little tooth -- which was sticking straight out of her mouth! I encouraged her to pull that dangler out, but she refused. So after dinner, I took her head in my lap and announced I was pulling that tooth. The way she screamed and cried and carried on!!! Until I showed her the tooth in my hand. She didn't feel a thing because that tiny tooth just fell right out! That night as I was tucking her in, I told her that I was sad she'd lost her first tooth and gave her a big squeeze. "Because I'm growing up?" asked my wise girl. Seems like she was just getting teeth, and now they're falling out. A dear friend has a saying, "The days go so slow, but the years go so fast." Treasuring every little moment and locking them inside my heart.
