Birthday Princess

Okay - I admit it... I'm certifiably a birthday princess.  Maybe it's because my sister was born on my 2nd birthday and because of that there was a high emphasis on making us feel special on both birthdays and half birthdays.  I don't know... but sometime I feel back for Jason trying to figure out exactly how I want to celebrate. I caught myself telling Jason that I wanted a party with friends for my birthday.  I wanted him to tell everyone that it was my birthday but that I didn't want anyone to know it was my birthday.  That's a little psychotic...

One of the worst incidents was my first birthday with Jason in Turkey.  He was new to the community on base, so I typed up the birthday dinner e-mail invite (before evite.com) and gave him the list of friends to send it to.  He forwarded the e-mail without making any edits and simply wrote his name at the bottom of the e-mail.  Anyway - the e-mail was full of my jargon ("heaps of fun,"   "peeps," etc) and when Jason forwarded the e-mail it changed the color of the font to only his name - clearly exposing that I had wrote the e-mail.  I was humiliated and I think we broke up soon after (and we were married less than a year later - hah!)  

Anyway - this year my birthday was a beautiful day!  Jason and Charlie surprised me with a coffee and muffin in bed, Jason made a yellow cake from scratch. and a friend offered to watch the boys while we went out to dinner and a movie (Mission Impossible - very fun).    I also found a friend in NZ who is ALSO a birthday princess and celebrated half birthdays!  Fun to find a kindred spirit...

Speaking of spirit, Charlie is confused by the Spirit and spears...  He talks about the Holy Spear.  He also thinks Jesus is in my heart, sort of like Baby Liam was in my belly.   Looking for wisdom!

Promise pictures soon - Jason is helping me to clean up my iPhone tonight!

Crèche

I brought cupcakes to Charlie's school for snack and I tried to take a few videos to give a picture of what the school is like.  Jason had his camera and he got better quality video/pics that we'll try to upload soon.

Here is a video of the class singing Happy Birthday to Charlie.  Please ignore my atrocious singing that drowns out all of the cute little kiddies. 

 

Before the cupcakes they were given a snack of marmite (salty yeast extract) sandwiches, dried apricots and large whole grapes - not quartered, yikes!    The other American boy now loves marmite after only 4 months at the creche.  We'll see if Charlie bows to the pressure... 

Charlie was taking a long nap and missed all of this fun!  The teachers poured dishsoap onto the slide and hosed it down for the kids to take a ride down the water slide.  I bring 2 extra changes of clothes for Charlie and he almost always is in his 2nd or 3rd outfit by the end of the day. 

Happy Birthday Charlie

It's hard to believe that Charlie turned 3 yesterday. His birthday week is divided into 4 celebrations:
1.) Saturday Day Out with Thomas - Good bye paci!
2.) Sunday Birthday pancakes and family day
3.) Tuesday - Cupcakes at Preschool
4.) Sunday - Friend Birthday party at the Botanical Gardens

Overkill? I'm not sure, but we are having fun celebrating this little guy.

Major milestones over the past few months:
- Sleeping in a big boy bed
- Saying goodbye to paci (and falling asleep find without it/him)
- Pooping in the potty (yay!)

Jason and I have enjoyed seeing our little Charles Ellis grow and change in so many ways. We are really seeing his personality emerge. He is a cheerful little man with lots of excitement for life. He can be a little reserved and measured when it comes to new experiences, but once he knows he can master it he is bold. He very much wants to please his mommy and daddy. He likes birthdays. He's learning to be a good friend and how to control himself when he wants to "steamroll and smash" everyone he loves. He loves to help mommy however he can -- usually with cooking and putting away and getting things when mommy can't leave Liam. He loves putting things together - be it a puzzle, train track, or any little widget. Charlie loves books (especially sticker books and mommy treasures the time doing sticker books with Charlie).

I know my little man will continue to grow quickly and I find myself really savoring this stage of life. He resisted bedtime tonight and I lay on his bed with him and gave him a back rub for a long time. I hope I can do this for many more years to come. I once sat by a lady on an airplane who said she would massage her son's feet as a baby and as he grew she continued until he was a stinky teenager and he would ask his mommy for a foot massage and he would tell her about all the happenings of his day. I really like this idea...

Charlie had an incredible day in Glenbrook today!  After staying last night at a NZL "Motor Inn" (a.k.a. truck stop motel in the country), we woke up and rushed to meet Thomas the Tank Engine, Sir Topham Hatt ("The Fat Controller"), and their friends, in celebration of Charlie's birthday!  Though we were out in the countryside, we were shocked at how many families and kids showed up!  Glad we got there early!  Charlie got to meet Sir Topham Hatt as he grabbed his early morning coffee before the festivities.  Charlie and Liam then enjoyed an hour train ride through the countryside on Diane (i think?), stopping to take pictures with Percy (i think) and some train with a mustache...

Then it was time to visit Thomas - the climaxing event!  Charlie had his paci in his train engineer overalls pocket, just waiting for the opportune time to give his paci to Thomas.  In the back of our heads, we were running through scenerios, trying to think of the best way to get rid of it...and we just didn't know how it was all going to pan out.  Needless to say, we both did not expect it would end in his paci being burnt at the stake.  Literally, the train engineer threw his paci into the fiery combustion chamber, as he shoveled coals in with it.  Charlie's face was a priceless capture during this moment.  Something he talked about even before bedtime tonight - the images still running through is head.

We then had an amazing lunch at a cafe nestled amongst a flower and herb garden, where kids ran and played while we sipped on Flat Whites and Lattes, and met a retired NZL Consulate worker (literally, he had Murray's job in NYC in real life, back in the 1980s, to promote NZL tourism - you know - Murray from "Flight of the Conchords" - nothing like that character though).  After getting sand dumped on his head by a little girl in the sand box (thank goodness for his Thomas hat!) and a bully constantly knocking his Thomas hat off (to which Charlie's frustrated reply to the bully was "Stop!  I'm going to get sun-burned without my hat!)...I realized that I think there was just a lot of "Thomas hat envy" by the kids - I would hear kids point it out and ask their mummies for a hat like Charlie's.  Charlie loved running around with the kids, but more than that, he enjoyed picking mint, oregano and parsley leaves from the herb garden and eating it like a salad. And he enjoyed watching the bees pollinate the flowers...

Then we flew back to Wellington (Charlie did well the whole trip, but had a short meltdown in the airport, where he flailed and whaled, rolled on the floor...in line at the bag security check...as we literally drug him along the dirty floor...through the checkpoint...as the pilot behind us said..."and I thought my kid was the only one who did things like that."

So he finally got to bed tonight...but when we thought he was asleep, he opened and slammed the door...telling us how hard it was for him to go to sleep when he smelled us popping popcorn.  So he sat up and ate popcorn with us..til really late...

Oh, and how did Charlie do tonight without the paci?  Well, for a second, he panicked when he realized he didn't have it.  But when we told him that Liam didn't even have one, a light bulb went on in his head, and I think he realized that if Liam could go without it, so could Charlie...and he knew that he was now going to be 3 years old, and all grown up like mommy and daddy (and he is proving this more and more everyday...case in point, he pooped, wiped, flushed, washed his hands and brushed his teeth...all by himself tonight...well...98% by himself...daddy had to go back and ensure his wipe job was up to standard).

Train Table Trouble

Growing up, Halloween always seemed to inaugurate the holiday season.   It seems somewhat appropriate that my children are born at the front and tail end of the "holiday" season.   Charlie is greatly anticipating his third birthday.  I didn't really do parties for his first or second birthday, but I'd like to do a little birthday party with his friends.   We'll probably do something casual at the botanical gardens near our home. 
When you ask Charlie what he wants for his birthday, he always answers, "train table."  So, do you get the gift that your child wants or what you want to give him?   I've wrestled with this for several weeks, and I finally decided to make his birthday dreams come true.  Unfortuantely the world of toddler train tables is saturated with different incompatible train sets.  For instance, Thomas the Tank Engine has four different train track sets -- none with interoperable pieces.   Last summer, at a garage sale, I found a $10 train set for Charlie's 2nd birthday.  It turns out that $10 train set would probably go for $75-100 on craigslist.  The brand is Fisher Price Geotrax, and it is a great, albeit expensive set.  Am I vested in Geotrax because of my $10 purchase, or do I go and order a whole new set and train table?   I even showed Charlie a bunch of pictures of different trains and train tables and I asked him to help me find a good train table present for Aldous.  In the end, I decided to stay with Geotrax (mainly because they shipped DPO to NZ) and ordered this train table this weekend:  http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11682995&prodFindSrc=search .

With all of this talk of Charlie's birthday present, it got me thinking about Christmas.  For several years now, I've wanted to abstain from gift-giving Christmas.   It sounds so bah-humbug, but I think it would be a radical stance again the hyper-consumer emphasis at Christmas-time.   Maybe this isn't something that we want to do every year, but we'd like to do it this year.  Appreciate thoughts from family...    That being said, we would also like to be better gift givers with birthdays.  We have plenty of opportunity to practice in the months surrounding Christmas time (Charlie, Nana, Maria, Me, Emily, Juliet, Nate, Gran, Liam, Ashley!).