"No, I'm Two!!!"

As Nathan's birthday approached I was sad thinking about my little boy growing up. Kids are always in a hurry for tomorrow to come while most of us would love to freeze time for awhile and just enjoy the today we have. Nathan must be a wise soul for on the morning of his third birthday as we all rushed to wish him the happiest birthday ever, he became agitated when informed he was now a big three year old. He demanded we continue to address him as a two-year-old, but then inquired if he could still open presents. After threatening the older children with restrictions and the possibility of missing out on birthday party activities, they agreed happily to agree that Nathan could stay two and still have presents. We all laughed as he opened a pair of Thomas the Tank Engine sunglasses shouting, "These are the coolest glasses ever! I am so cool in these!" And, he is.


Elizabeth was so good to prepare party games for the not-so-big boy. We all took turns "pinning-a-car-on-the- track." As Elizabeth says, "I think this game is better than 'Pin-the-tail-on-the-Donkey' because there are more opportunities to win." She also made a Blue's Clues Game which took Nathan on a search for treasure. It was fun to watch all of the kids encourage him on his quest without trying to do it for him.

For the final activity we had car races using a set of car party favors that attach to piece you hit and the car takes off. Usually it is the birthday child that has the meltdown but this year it was poor Emma. She just couldn't get her car to go straight even though it zoomed into the next room. While Nathan's car barely moved five inches forward, he was as content and happy as if his car had gone miles.

Emma decided to forget her troubles and continued to help Nathan have a great day. She pushed him around in his new tricycle for the rest of the afternoon. I tried to embrace the love everyone was demonstrating towards one another and forget about the sensitivity of my hard wood floors.

The only request Nathan made for his birthday was that he wanted a BLUE cake. I am happy that not only was it blue, but it tasted really good too.

Nathan is my first 3-year-old to not have had friends over for a birthday party. I was "guilting" over this until he reminded me that his best friends are his brother & sisters. :) I am feeling better about him growing up since he still loves me like when he was two.