3rd birthday!

We woke up to (well, actually, were woken up by) a very excited three-year-old! He was up at 5:30 am as usual and raring to go. We finished most of the last items on our party to-do list and then went out to breakfast, where, as Sacha said, he ate about his weight in bacon. Mmmm, bacon.

Then we got home and had his party, and was it ever a party! Lots of friends and fun and only a few meltdowns were had by the birthday boy. Above is a photo of everyone's shoes, which I had to photograph. And, the cake stayed standing and it looked pretty cool, if I do say so myself. Here are some photos:





Happy 3rd birthday, Mateo!

Cake

So, this cake is going to be more like a Cake with a capital C. I just finished frosting it, and I believe it must weigh 10 pounds. I actually considered putting it on the scale, but I would have ended up waking the kids in the process of getting to the bathroom, so I guesstimated. I believe the appropriate phrase to describe this thing is "bastion of frosting." Will anyone be able to eat an entire slice? Will the whole thing slide apart as the layers unfreeze? Only time will tell.

Here it is, midway through the frosting process....


And, the final version. It's chilling in the fridge right now and I'll write on it and such tomorrow morning. That is, if it's still standing.


Finally, I have to post this picture of Sacha and Natalia. I love my girls!

Let the festivities begin

So. A few things. Mateo is turning 3 on Saturday. This is so oversaid that I can barely stand to say it, but we just cannot believe he is almost three. For his preschool, we were supposed to make a poster with photos of him at each year since birth. I dutifully did this (see below) and now I REALLY can't believe he's almost three. He was just so little before, and now he's so big! He can see over the windowsill in our front room, for goodness sake.


And, I have started making the cake for his party. I'm making this cake. It is everything I would never normally bake - a cake from a mix! With food coloring! But, it is too much fun and even though I have guilt about making a cake from a box, I am still making it. My mom has always made us birthday cakes from scratch and I actually don't think I have ever made a mix cake before...but there's a first time for everything! I did the first three layers last night and then the second three this morning with the kids. They both thoroughly enjoyed watching the food coloring get added to the batter.




I froze all the layers and am planning to frost them all into a cake (which hopefully will stand up straight and not topple under its own weight!) on Friday night.

Finally, Apa came over tonight to take Mateo out for an early birthday dinner. Mateo wanted to get all dressed up for it and we all made a big deal out of it. I took this photo of them as they were leaving. It was just so cute, I can't even describe it. When they got back, they had made up a song about the dessert they had had (a lemon pudding cake with strawberries and cream - yum). Apa has taken Mateo out for every birthday and it's becoming a great tradition! Look at those handsome boys...

Le weekend

Here are some photos from our weekend. Sacha's parents came down to visit and we had fun going to the park and carving pumpkins, among other things. And, of course, after I wrote that last post, Mateo had a weekend of pretty good behavior, which was a nice reprieve.

I took a bunch of the later photos without the flash because it was washing everything out...but then, of course, the photos were less clear. Win some, lose some, eh?

Opening early birthday presents from Bubby and Poppa!


Boys carving pumpkins...



Drawing on newspaper, and on himself.


I love this one. She's leaning against the door like, hey, what's up?


Brother and sister, laughing.


This kid loves being upside down. Seriously.


The one-armed strongman move that Mateo is now almost too big for. You can't see it from this angle, but he has his arm straight out. Wish I could do that!

Awww....


Cracking up over a shopping bag:


Hot mama (well, mommy) grading papers:

A serious case of the almost-threes

Well. We have been having an interesting time with our older child lately. Despite being sure that we, unlike anyone else we know, would be immune to the child-starts-preschool/daycare-and-becomes-more-aggressive syndrome, Mateo, indeed, has started preschool and become more aggressive. Or something. It's probably a combination of starting preschool, picking up the tension relating to the unbloggable thing, plus picking up on the stress Sacha's been dealing with at school, plus being almost three, plus the cat suddenly dying over the weekend...but wow, he is a handful lately.

He's been throwing things, hitting us, shoving his friends, running away from us outside and inside, and generally testing limits all over the place. Unfortunately, social events like playdates seem to unleash the worst behavior - he doesn't want to see his friends, doesn't want them to come over to our house or us to go to theirs, doesn't want to share with them when he does see them, and will reliably hit/kick/knock them down the minute I turn my back.

I know this is a phase, but it's not much fun for anyone. We've been trying to give him more positive attention, reassurance, and cuddles, as well as being consistent with consequences for negative behavior. We also spend a nice long time at naptime and bedtime snuggling him and helping him wind down. I'm going to try just having him stay with me (ie, attached to my body) at the beginning of playdates, until he gets comfortable, which did help a little today.

Sacha and I were talking last night about how these periodic difficult episodes (with behavior and sleep, mostly) usually last a month or two and then taper off into something better, so let's keep our fingers crossed that that is the case this time! This has been going on since early September, so we should start seeing improvement soon, right?

Buddies

We continue to swap older kids weekly with our friends down the street. By this point, Mateo and his friend, D, have been hanging out at one house or the other for going on two years! They are such buddies and it is a ton of fun to hang out with them. And, it's even more fun now that Talia is on the scene. She just trots along after them, like all little sisters throughout history, and they do a good job of playing with her, at least at this point.

This morning, we played at our house. The kids played upstairs while I got dinner going in the crockpot, and then we went downstairs and tore the basement to shreds. Good thing we have company coming this weekend - guess I'll have to clean it up!

Then, we went upstairs and got our rain clothes on and went on a puddle stomping adventure. We found a huuuuge puddle around the corner. It was right at the bottom of someone's sloped driveway and D, being nearly four years old and quite a big boy, taught our two how to jump off the driveway into the puddle and make a gigantic splash. This opened up a whole new world for Mateo and Natalia. Mateo could jump on his own and Talia seemed to enjoy having me lift her up and then splash her down into the water. We didn't stay for too long, as the little one gets cold pretty quickly (especially when she is soaking wet), but we had a blast.

We capped off the morning by opening up the care package my mom had just sent - full of cookies and brownies! Thanks, Mom! Yum.

Above is a photo of the two boys in their rain gear. They looked like this afterward, too, just drenched in water and mud from head to toe.

Photo shoot

Natalia woke up from her nap before her brother did today, so we had a little photo shoot in the sunshine. Seriously, could she be any cuter? We love our little Tali bear soooo much!