Eli's Third Birthday!

Balloon Tunnel
Originally uploaded by pure_h2o

Oh my goodness...so much has happened! I can't believe Eli's three!

We started off the festivities by counting down the days until his birthday from, oh, say a month before hand. I am a huge fan of my birthday and I am determined to have both of my boys do the same. I think its working. As a side, due to the count down for his birthday, he has taken to counting down lots of other things, from the good night song that Franz and I sing to him before bed to when I push him on the swing. It's awesome.

On the day of his birthday, Eli woke up to a big pile of presents to open in the living room. It was adorable, after opening each present, he would look at the next present and ask, 'Is this one for me?". Franz and I figured out that Eli's only reference for presents in this quantity was Christmas, where there are presents for everyone. And whenever someone wished him a happy birthday, he would respond with, 'Happy Birthday." He didn't quite get that the day was all about him. I have a feeling that this is the last year that this will be a problem.

Franz and I thought it would be a good time to get him a bike, as he's shown an interest in other kids' bikes for a good while now. I thought that would be the coveted special present, but no. Surprisingly, it was the toy Hoover that took center stage. And to think that that little number was a last minute gift. After hours of obsessively "vacuuming" he told me, "Momma, you can't touch my vacuum because it is very special to me." Check. I just wish that that thing really worked; the house would be spotless.

Later that day, I took Eli and Max to the park to meet up with Julie and Galen. They were really sweet and brought him presents, but Eli wanted nothing to do with them. He was too entranced with running back and forth on the suspension bridge. He turned into the proverbial troll, and wouldn't let anyone cross, and even pushed a little girl. I couldn't believe it, he has never been a pusher! I hope that this isn't what three is all about.

We couldn't stay at the park for too long because Max wasn't feeling it. He wasn't too concerned that it was his big brother's birthday and that he was cutting the fun short.

After the park, we came home and while Max slept, Eli and I baked his birthday cake. He loved using the hand mixer (shock) and it took over an hour for him to put on all of the sprinkles. But really. He took a baby spoon with six sprinkles in it and would dump it all in one spot, look at it, and tell me that it needs to dry, and then proclaim, "I think it needs onnnnnne more scoop." This happened until the entire sprinkles container was empty. Had we gotten like a Costco sized one, I'm pretty sure we'd still be putting sprinkles on that thing.

We had Eli's birthday party on Saturday at the pool where he takes his swim lessons. Eli had a great time. This was the first time that Franz and I got to swim with Eli, let alone with all of our friends. It was a blast. Eli sort of went down the slide, he was too scared to go from the top, so someone had to put him on halfway down. But he loved every minute of it.

After swimming, we had pizza and cake with all of his friends. It was so funny, Eli's never been one to really care about opening presents, so when it was time to open them, all of his friends took it upon themselves to open them for him. He didn't mind one bit. He's so weird.

As an added treat, Autumn came down with Summer and Conner and stayed the night. Up until Eli's party, we hadn't even met Conner yet, and he's three weeks older than Max. Eli and Summer played and played, well, rather they ran and screamed. That was loud and took some getting used to. But I have to say they really get along very well, and this morning, Eli asked where Summer was.

On Sunday, Eli had his first swim class by himself. My god that was hard to watch. He shared the class with two other kids, who were much older than him. At first, he had a really difficult time listening to the teacher. She would call the kids one at a time to swim to their designated spot, and Eli just couldn't wait his turn. She would ask one kid to swim, and that kid would go, and a few seconds later, Eli would take off, causing the teacher to have to go back to him and ask him, "Did I call your name? You are going to have to wait until I call you. Now go back." She had to do this at least fifteen times. Franz and I had a hard time not stepping in, but we didn't want to cause an even bigger distraction for the poor kid. Thankfully, by the end of the class, Eli got it, and he was listening and doing great. And perhaps we might be a little biased, but we both decided that Eli was by far the best swimmer in the class, you know, once he listened to the teacher.

After swimming, Nani and Grandpa held another party for him on Sunday at their house. He had a great time showing Summer all of his toys. I would have to say Eli's favorite gift of the day was the Hungry Hungry Hippos game. He loves that game, (in fact, we played it quite a bit today). By this point, all of us were pretty pooped from all of the swimming and birthday festivities, so it was nice to have a relaxing party.