Toddlers, pudding, and birthdays

One of Oliver's newest obsessions is with silverware--specifically, with wielding it himself. He's pretty dextrous with a fork, which he can use to spear things, but less adept with a spoon. Last week, he was clamoring for some pudding (he'd seen one of the older kids with one) and pretty soon insisted on trying to feed himself. Since we had lots of time, I let him. It started out pretty well, but then he tried drinking out of the cup--and using his fingers. By the time he finished, he was a mess. But a happy mess.

 

 

Mess seems to be Oliver's operative word this week. On Wednesday, the kids had a couple of friends over (a brother-sister pair who are in my kids' classes at school). They were playing together happily, and I assumed Oliver was playing in his room with Evelyn and her friend (where I'd seen him only minutes earlier). That is, until Evelyn called out, "Mommy, Oliver is in big, big trouble!"

Her voice was coming from the bathroom. My heart sank. I had some inkling of what I would find before I even got in there. (Those of you who saw my Facebook update on Wednesday know what I'm talking about).

Sure enough, there was Oliver, happily filling the toilet with anything he could reach. Mostly, this was stuff from the garbage can we keep in the bathroom: a wet diaper, tissue paper, feminine hygiene stuff. For good measure, he also added one of Andrew's gloves, his toothbrush, a Duplo lego and a few other things. I banished him from the bathroom (he cried), and set to work pulling everything out and then cleaning up. I think being a parent has increased my grossness tolerance, but this was stretching my tolerance pretty well. At least Oliver didn't think to try and *flush* all of that!

In other news, this week we signed both kids up for several new experiences: Andrew will be attending a "Fun-gineering" class (legos plus robotics) at the school, swim lessons (in February) and piano lessons (finally!). And Evelyn, courtesy of her newfound love of belting out show tunes, just started a music theater class that combines dancing and singing. We'll see how it goes.

And yesterday, as many of you know, was my birthday. I had a truly lovely day--even though I wasn't particularly thrilled about this particular birthday. As Dan pointed out, I can't really claim that I'm in my mid 30s any more. I'm not sure what happened: I don't feel any different than I did as a college student, though on the outside I've changed and my life has certainly changed (for the better: a great husband, cute kids, work that I enjoy).

Anyway. For the big day, we started with breakfast at the Little Brick House with Bubby and Poppy. I had a terrific omelet, and the others seemed pretty happy with hashbrowns, french toast, biscuits and gravy, etc. Andrew wound up with a stack of 3 pancakes that was bigger than his head. He ate about a third of it, and then he, Evelyn, and Oliver had leftovers for breakfast this morning (and still couldn't finish them!)

Later in the day, while Evelyn was at a birthday party (Frozen themed, appropriately enough!), Dan took the boys so that I could have some uninterrupted writing time--enough for me to finish sketching out some plot revision ideas for my novel. I took Oliver for a walk and talked with my mom; we played Just Dance as a family (I won most of the rounds!), and then in the evening Dan and I went to see Saving Mr. Banks, which was charming.

Hard to top that, in terms of birthdays: the perfect mix of family time and me time. :)

Here's to another year . . .