choo choo

Ok, so I figured I would post a little ligh-hearted blog since we've had some fairly intense ones lately. Liz, I'm so happy to hear that katie seems to be doing so well in her progress at this point. Keep the updates coming! And Kim, have you moved yet? How's all that going? I love the updates from you girls. So, Seth is turning 3 on April 7th. We are having his party on Saturday. He is really into trains right now, so he's having a choo choo train party and a lot of Thomas the Train paraphernelia. First of all, I just want to say that kids' birthday parties are expensive! I'm doing it cheaply because I borrowed a lot of stuff from some friends here. Even with that, I just spent $70 on party favors and plates. I still have to buy all the food and balloons and Seth's presents. If you rent a room somewhere or have entertainment or something, you'll easily pay between 300-500 dollars for a kid's birthday party! (We're not doing that, our party is at home with no entertainment except some borrowed train toys) It's a little crazy, but he's old enough to get into it now. Fortunately, my mom is making a giant choo choo train cake, so I don't have to worry about that and Vicki is helping with some food too. That will be nice, but it's still ridiculous how much goes into a 3 year old's birthday. And then it starts to get a little competitive, because you don't want your kid's party to be crappy compared to all their friends's parties... I swear, when you join the mom world it becomes this whole new kind of elitist competition to see who fits into the group. Who's parties are the coolest? Who has the best play room for playgroups? Who feeds their kids only organic and whole grains? Who uses only "green" cleaning products so that their kids don't die of cancer? How much TV do you let your kids watch, because their brains will rot after 30 minutes of Dora (everyone knows that)? Which preschool are your kids going to? Do you spend at least 30 minutes reading to your children every day? And the list goes on and on.... Don't get me wrong, most of those are things to pay attention to for the most part, but it can get a little out of hand. Fortunately, most of my actual friends are pretty laid back about things. But when you throw a birthday party, the pressure is still on a little bit. One of my friends was just mentioning the other day how she always homemakes her birthday pinatas, and how there's no reason to really go out and buy one. I simply thought, "yes there is, and now I don't want you at my party." (I'm kidding, I like her very much) But I didn't get a pinata anyways because we already have too much candy and the Thomas pinata was like $25. So I will let the kids each pop a balloon to find a piece of candy inside, and they will probably think that is more fun anyways. Today I have to turn a cardboard box into a train car and paint some little rocks black like coal for a "coal toss" for the game. I hope nobody throws a rock at someones head. But they're small and I don't want to sew my own black bean bags. Seth has been talking about his birthday for a couple weeks now and I'm about to lose my mind. Vicki bought him some new Thomas sunglasses and Thomas shoes so that he could "run to his birthday party." He's literally been "running" to his party ever since. He woke up at 11:00pm the other night and when I went to his room to make him go back to bed, he was waiting for me with a smile and said "it's time for my birthday!" "And Nina's going to bring my choo choo train cake and I'm going to ride on it!" Since then, he probably asks if it's time for his birthday about 20 times a day and regularly talks about grandma bringing him presents and how he's going to blow out his candles and eat candy and play with his friends. I am SOOOOO glad I decided to do his party this weeknd and not next weekend. We went to the party supply store today and Seth wore his birthday hat the entire time. It was pretty cute and he has been pretty funny about the whole thing. It is a lot more fun planning a party for a kid who actually cares and is excited than in the past when the kids are too young to even know what's going on. Seth is getting so big, he's really a big boy now. (Other than refusing to use the toilet or wear big boy underpants) but we're working on it. And on his birthday, we're sending all of his binkys to the "binky fairy" via mail for all of the new little babies who need them. Then the binky fairy will send Seth a special "big boy" toy that only children who don't use binkys anymore get. We'll see how that goes. I'm expecting the biblical weeping and gnashing of teeth the first few nights and naps without the binky. So that is what's going on with us lately girls. Birthday planning and kid stuff. I'll post pictures after the party so you all can see my big 3 year old and his train day. Love you all!