He loved his cake!
Blowing out the candles
WALL-E was more fun than cake though!
He absolutely loved his WALL-E and EVE toys from the cake!
and… a cute one of Ethan and Opa, just because 🙂
We celebrated Sammy’s third birthday a little early this year since we weren’t sure what this week would hold, and I’m really hoping that I’ll have a baby by Friday (his real birthdate!). Due to so many unknowns, we decided to make the celebration rather small this year. Rachel was in town because of a wedding, and she had three of her college friends with her. We went over to my parents’ house after church and had yummy beef and chicken shish kabobs, along with wings and baked beans (which Dad made WAY too spicy this time!), rice pilaf, caeser salad and bread. Afterwards, we had a WALL-E cake with ice cream. Sammy absolutely loves the movie, WALL-E, so I ordered him a special cake from Safeway. This was the first time I didn’t make a cake for any of the boys’ b-days, but I seriously didn’t know if I’d be able to even make him one this year, which is why we opted for a store bought one. It was a marble cake with fresh strawberries in the middle and a white buttercream frosting- it was really good! Sammy absolutely loved it. I almost think he liked the plastic WALL-E and EVE toys on the cake more than any of his other presents! Well, I don’t have pictures to post just yet- I had forgotten my camera at home, but Jon and my dad were able to get some good shots of Sammy with the cake, so hopefully I can get some up later!
I like to change out our laundry detergent every once and a while, especially if I see something new around the time when we’re running low. It’s nice to have a new scent every now and then. Well, a few weeks ago I got some new Gain detergent from Costco, which we immediately started using. After the first load of laundry I realized that all our clothes smelled like cedar. We’ve had a number of gerbils and a hampster since we’ve gotten married, so that whole cedar scent was reminding Andrew and I of the gerbil bedding we always bought. Now the boys’ room smells like gerbils and we smell like gerbils and, while it’s not a horrible smell and gerbils are actually fairly clean as far as rodents, I have to admit that I don’t feel very clean when my clothes smell like that. The problem is we bought a big container of it at Costco, which means we’ll be smelling like this for at least a month, if not more. I did just put a load of laundry in the dryer this afternoon where I had added fabric softener, and it did seem like that helped remove the cedar scent. I have to admit that for the past year I’ve fallen out of the practice of using fabric softener because I was concerned that it could possibly leave a residue in the washer and dryer, which could potentially coat my cloth pocket diapers and cause them to repell. However, since we’re now using mainly fitteds, I actually use an organic fabric softener for the diapers to keep them soft and squishy and I’m guessing that using the plain old downy for all our clothes shouldn’t be a problem anymore. However, in the event that you happen to sit near one of us during church or walk by us and get a good sniff of cedar, please remember that we have not been rolling around in gerbil bedding, it’s the detergent! I promise!!!!
You probably may remember this post, where Sammy was trying to be helpful in feeding our two betta fish and ended up getting fish food all over the kitchen. Well, several nights ago I was feeding our fish and thinking to myself how they were just finally starting to act normal again, after being rather sickly for about a week after their overfeeding. They were finally swimming around and fanning their tails and looking like happy fish. So, of course the next morning what happens? Sammy decides to overfeed them AGAIN. Only this time he dumped the entire brand new container of the fish food into the aquarium. Andrew discovered it first- everything looked just fine and normal until you took a good look at the aquarium. Both fish were doing very poorly- one of them was trapped under about an inch of rapidly soaking fish food. So, I quickly filled two bowls with water and grabbed the fish net. I was able to get the first fish out with no problem, but the second fish (the one under over an inch of food) did not look so hot and I could not get him into the net. So, I started to slowly pour some of the water out of the bowl, hoping to get rid of some of the food so I could reach the fish. Well, in the process the fish managed to go over the edge… yup, that’s right… despite how hard I tried to avoid that. He went straight down the drain, on the side of the sink with the garbage disposal. I felt sick to my stomach and immediate turned on the water. I called for Andrew to come immediately to feel in the drain to see if he could feel the fish, but he said that there was nothing down there. So, poor sick fishie ended up getting washed down the drain unintentionally. To be honest, I don’t know if the fish was going to recover after this incident even if he hadn’t gone down the drain, but I still feel bad that his death was hastened during efforts to save him. Oh, well. So, now we’re down to just one fishie and I’m afraid of buying any more fish food. We have a very little bit left in the container, just little enough that I don’t worry about killing that last fish if Sammy tries to feed him again!
While I sit around the house waiting for something, anything to happen, the boys continue to grow and change. Here’s what they’ve been up to:
Patrick
Patrick just started VBS at Pilgrim Lutheran Church, which is where he attends preschool. I am amazed at the level of detail that has gone on with this VBS program! Not only do they have teeshirts and little plastic wristbands and a fully decorated sanctuary, but this VBS program, entitled “Crocodile Dock”, has things like a website where you could register your child for the program and music videos of kids doing all the song motions to the music that goes along with the VBS theme, which they had playing on an overhead projector. It looks like a lot of work went into this VBS. Interestingly enough, I’ve heard that several other churches, including the Methodist church across the street, have or will also be using this same program.
Besides VBS, Patrick has spent a lot of time learning how to spell words. He loves asking me to spell a word for him and then spelling it himself on the fridge with his magnetic letters. He also loves to draw and color, and he’s getting really good at it. He’s a pretty good older brother, and will often help Sammy use the potty or put on his seat belt, and he’s also very good at letting me know if any of his brothers are up to trouble!
Sammy
Sammy is on the verge of turning 3! His birthday is next Friday and we’ll have a three year old!!! He’s been busy learning how to dress/undress himself, use the potty, and prepare for preschool. We’re not totally there with the potty training just yet, although he’s made a TON of progress just in the past three days. On Sunday he only had two small accidents and for the past three days he’s managed to poop only in the potty. I’m hoping this continues because I was starting to get worried about him, with September and the start of preschool just around the corner.
Lately, Sammy has become the trouble maker of the three. It’s funny how at different times we’ve seen different kids as being the most work. Lately, that honor has fallen on Sammy. He’s constantly getting into things and encouraging Ethan to get into things as well. I can’t say how many times I’ve found Sammy and Ethan playing in Liam’s room with the perfectly sterilized toys and pacifiers. The only way they could have gotten in is through Sammy opening the door, since Ethan isn’t quite there yet. It’s been very frustrating, and I’m hoping that Sammy will start obeying us better soon.
Ethan
Ethan is actually the kid that up until a month ago we considered the trouble maker, until Sammy took that honor. Lately Ethan has been a real joy! He’s not as whiny as he use to be, he’s become a lot more cuddly and smily, and he’s becoming a very cheerful little man. He still has his bad days and when he gets angry, he really gets angry! But overall Andrew and I feel like he’s improved a ton!
Ethan has shown himself to be quite clever at figuring things out. He’s been fine tuning his motor skills and sometimes it seems like he figures things out faster than Sammy. He is always copying the actions of his brothers. He likes to help put away his dishes, put the electrosol tab in the dish washer, and load clothes into the dryer. He also will help pick up toys, but usually as soon as he’s done he’ll knock them all out again! He also seems to be very interested in animals. Whenever we go somewhere or watch a show on TV where he can see an animal, he’ll get all excited, point at it, and make this cute really excited noise. Unfortunately, his love of animals also led him yesterday to gleefully carry a dead rat by its’ tail all around our backyard until I was able to get him to drop it . We’re not sure where the rat came from, but Andrew said it looked like a cat had recently mangled it and it crawled in our backyard to die. So, yeah, it was really gross and Ethan not only got a bath but a good covering of anti-bacterial gel as soon as we got him inside!
So, never a dull moment around here, and I’m hoping in a week from now we’ll be able to update on the status of yet another little Flanagan boy!