Happy Belated Birthday, Grant!

So, It has been 3 weeks now, but Grant did have a Birthday and is now 3 years old.  My oh my, how time flies!!  He is such a delight.  I am so glad to have him as part of our family.

At Grant's well-child visit, he weighed 31 pounds (41st percentile) and was 36 1/2 inches tall (19th percentile).  In every way he is as healthy as a horse.  He is the funniest child.  He always makes us laugh.  He is still not potty trained.  Typical responses from when when asked when he will potty train include: "In 3 days. No, actually, 6 days." or "When I am a girl".  Needless to say, we haven't gotten too far in that realm.  When he's ready, he'll do it, I suppose. 

Grant loves train, tractors, cars- anything with wheels.  He enjoys playing with his sisters and loves to do everything they do- which unfortunately sometimes includes dressing up like a fairy and dancing around the living room.  (Let's hope he outgrows that really soon!)

One funny quirk about Grant is that he hates it when I pull my hair back in a pony tail.  He gets super upset and will at times go into hysterics until I take out the hair tie and leave it down.  Funny guy.  Not quite sure what that is all about. 

Here's his Birthday interview followed by some pictures of his Birthday:

How old are you now?
I don't know.   
How old are you now?
 I don't know.
Grant, are you 2 years old?
Yeah.  I am 2 years old.  I am 2.
Grant, you had a Birthday.  How old did you turn on your Birthday? 

6

You are 3 years old. 
I am 3 years old.

What is your favorite animal?
a tiger

What is your favorite color?
green

What is your favorite food?
white sauce, white noodles.

What is your favorite treat?
chocolate.
Chocolate what?
Chocolate mango. (I laughed)
Chocolate milk.
Do you have chocolate milk mom?
I just laughed again and told him no.
What is your favorite book?
My truck book that has lots of pages in it.

What do you want to be when you grow up?
a teenager

Who loves you the most?
Emma

What is your favorite part of the day?
ride bikes

What is your favorite thing to do?
play



The dining area all decked out for the Birthday Breakfast- the big 3 balloon was a gift from the kids' adopted Grandma.





It's all about the cream for this guy; I let him lick the beaters on his Birthday.  He wanted pancakes with cream and strawberries for breakfast.  He doesn't like syrup.  He informs us it makes him too sticky. 

He loves that cream!

Yummy pancakes!

Grandma Pilz sent him $3.  His exclamation upon pulling them out of the envelope was: "Three monies!!!!!!"  He then immediately handed one to each of his sisters.  So sweet. 

Playing with his new Lightning McQueen racetrack from mom and dad.

Birthday cake- I love the look on his face.  I am kind of selfish and if I can get away with it, I make a cake that I like.  Since Grant's only request for his Birthday cake was that it had cream and berries on it, I got to make my absolute favorite pound cake recipe.  Delicious.  I was glad to see that he was delighted as well.  (Emma has even requested it for her Birthday in May!)

Enjoying his cake

After lunch and cake, we packed into the van and headed for the Central Valley.  We stayed one night in a hotel, went out to dinner and the next day went to "Color the Skies"- a hot air balloon festival.  Of course, what did the children do upon entering the hotel room?  You guessed it!!  Jumped on the beds, of course!



We spent some time in the pool, too.  Here's the Birthday boy enjoying the steps.



It was not much of a surprise that by bedtime they had gotten quite daring!

Here we are early in the morning at the festival.  Unfortunately, it was too windy for the balloons to actually take off.  There were many more things to see, luckily!

The petting zoo was the most favorite attraction for the children- the girls especially.

Sky divers!  It was so neat to see them land.  There were about 12 of them total!

Synchronized kite flying show set to music.  Very impressive.  I had never seen anything like that before!

A *Little* Perspective

Just had to share some of the memorable things the kids have said lately. It sure is interesting to get peeks into their little brains every now and again.
Perspective #1:
The other day we were getting into the van at the park getting ready to go home. I noticed that the car next to us was a Lotus. I have always been interested in cars. I mean, knowing the names of cars, not working on them or anything. So, I was impressed. I also have a 3 year old boy that is all about cars, if you know what I mean. So, I pointed it out to all of the children.
"Look at that car next to us." "It's a Lotus."
"That is a very expensive car. It costs a lot of money." I said.

Emma then said, "I think I saw a white one the other day."

"Probably not", I said, "You really don't see them very often. I bet it was another kind of sports car. They are so expensive and most people don't have enough money to buy one of those. We don't have enough money to buy a car like that."

Little Arianna then pipes up in the back seat, "Yeah, we gave all our money away."

I was confused because I thought she was referring to our money as in our family's money.  I thought, when did we give away all our money?
As I was having these thoughts she said, "We gave all our money to the library."

At which point I had to laugh out loud. To explain: A couple of months ago, the children cracked a DVD from the library. I was not pleased with them and to teach them a lesson, I made them give me all their money to help pay for it (all 2 dollars and 30 cents of it combined- from all three of them) (Nevermind that the stinkin' DVD cost us $25!!!!!) Anyway. Arianna will apparantly never let me forget that I made her give away her entire life- savings at the young and tender age of 4 years old!

Perspective #2:
To preface the story, each Sunday, except on fast Sunday, the Bishop of our ward gives the children goldfish crackers after church if they tell him what they learned in class that day.

Kenneth picked Grant up from Nursery and was carrying him down the hall when Grant asked, "Dad, is it slow day?"

Kenneth was confused and asked him what he was talking about. Little Grant then proceeded to explain what I did above, saying that on slow days they get treats and on fast day they don't.

Perspective #3:
Grant has asked me 2 or 3 times now since I've been pregnant: "Mom, why do we have to have babies anyway?"

I think he senses a great change coming in his life. . .

Speaking of the baby, I had the ultrasound today. (I am 19 1/2 weeks along) The baby looks healthy and perfect. I got teary-eyed watching the ultrasound today. It is such a miracle that a little person is forming inside of me. I feel so thankful that we are able to have another baby.  And no. . . we did not find out the sex of the baby. . .