Back in December... part 1 - Bday Recap

December is a very eventful month for our little family.  Our anniversary, Gobbles' birthday, and of course, Christmas.  I spent the last two weeks of the month praying each day that I would not go into labor early enough to have another December baby, because I already feel bad enough trying to give Gobbles his own time amidst all the holiday chaos.

But, we survives, and it looks like I'll be having a late January / early February baby after all.  So back to December.  I left off with my little boy turning two.  We anticipated having a large party for him, but when we hadn't moved into a larger house by then as planned, we had to improvise, cutting down the guest list to family and only about a third of our parent friends.  Again, the woes of having a winter baby - no big backyard party! 

We kept it pretty casual getting sandwiches and chicken fingers from the local deli, while hubs cooked up Gobbles' favorite homemade mac 'n cheese.  I baked some cookies and we ordered a cake with a fire truck theme.  We hung a few streamers and blew up balloons, and called it a party.  The entire week of his birthday we told Gobbles "Your party is on Saturday, and these are the friends you're going to see".  He was thrilled and kept telling everyone all week - Birthday Party Saturday! 

By the time Saturday came, he was raring to go.  With a recent string of birthdays in the family and school, Gobbles knew that the best part of birthdays are CANDLES!  He had almost perfected the Happy Birthday song and was singing it to himself in preparation.  We had no set agenda for his party, just basically, playing, presents, and cake since the guests ranged in age from 6 weeks to 60 years.  It suited us just fine, as Gobbles played with his buddies by coloring, using punch balloons, and pulling out a number of toys in the basement that he hadn't seen in ages. 

The one thing I was afraid of was that my boy would not be very good at sharing his own toys on his own turf.  To my relief, no tantrums were thrown.  He is a manipulative bugger though.  If a friend was playing with something he wanted, he'd offer them a trade.  For instance, there was a yellow balloon that was just that much more appealing than the rest, so he kept insisting that his friend take the orange one.  After the friend would release the yellow, Gobbles would grab it.  Sneaky sneaky little boy!

My favorite part of the day was when we actually sang happy birthday to Gobbles.  The look on his face was absolutely priceless.  He was so happy and proud that all these people  were singing for him!  His smile was so wide I nearly shed tears.  That's all we wanted from his party.  Of course, everyone was overly generous with gifts too, and Gobbles was a trooper lasting through opening about half before he wanted to actually stop and play with them. 

He talked about his party for weeks afterwards and how much fun he had.  This age is so much fun,  Gobbles has started retaining his memories enough to talk about them days and weeks afterwards, and they are always joyous and happy, which is all a mom could ever want. 

Here buddy- use this color; I'll take the red!

Playtime!

Here - you take this awesome remote and I'll take that there balloon!

Mr. Mooshie Man just hangin out!

Everyone is singing to me!  YAY!

Yay Candles!

Mmmm Cake!

Chillin with my pal!

HAHAHA so SILLY!

Awkward hugs, just like our BFF daddies!

yup, all of the present opening pretty much went like this - RIIIIIIP

Gobbles & Moosh!

I loved my party! 

"here it comes!"

i feel like there's always a lot of pressure on the first blog after a long hiatus.  do i discuss recent events?  go back to where we left off?  somewhere in between?  the month of december was a whirlwind with gobble's birthday, christmas, and an end of the year cold / flu that seemed to knock my whole family on our butts.

they were all so exciting to see gobbles enjoy all of the holiday events, but i'll catch up on them another time.  right now it's a milestone i want to discuss. 

the big P.  spelled P-E-E.  yup.  in what was likely a fluke, my boy peed on the toilet on sunday night.  for a few months now, we've had the potty chair out in the bathroom and occasionally offered it to gobbles at random times.  more recently, every time i've gone, he's sat down on his potty and played with the flusher.  we tried a few times to get him to take his diaper off while he sat, but he always refused. 

my mom had him at her house on sunday during the day and he asked her to use the potty.  she doesn't have one yet, so she offered him the toilet.  she told me he sat there for a minute or two but nothing happened and they were on their way.  later that night, back at our house, gobbles went to the steps and asked to go potty.  hubs and i took him upstairs and got out the potty, but he refused to take off his diaper.

i offered gobbles the "big boy potty", aka toilet, and he ran over, ready and proud to sit on the throne.  i sat him up there, made sure his aim was downwards, and we waited.  of course in my pregnant state i got uncomfortable squatting in front of the toilet helping him balance, so hubs took over.  less than a minute later, our son proclaimed Here it comes!!! Here comes the water!!!  and promptly started peeing.  it was both hilarious and shocking.  my boy, the toilet man.  we cheered for a few minutes and then i had to ruin it by telling him how exciting it would be to not have to wear a diaper anymore.  with that, he started shrieking at me to Put diaper back on!  Diaper back ON, mommy! 

so, it most likely was a fluke, he hasn't asked since, and daycare doesn't really start to push the potty training until the next classroom (2 1/2 year olds).  all this coupled with the fact that the lil lobster roll will be here in the next few weeks, i'm sure any progress he does make will be halted and reversed as soon as she arrives.

nevertheless, i'm quite proud of my little gobbles.  and of course later on that night i shed a tear for another milestone gone, and the shock of just how big my boy is getting.

and since we wouldn't go as far as taking pictures of potty training, i'll leave you with pics of gobbles and his new big boy bed.  we had to reclaim the daybed and convert it back to a crib, so he gets a regular ol' twin bed.  and until we move, any guests will be sleeping in princess sheets and sharing a room with a newborn.

oh just reading a book, hangin out!

'scuse me spoonsie da bear, you're on my bed!

cheese!

i suppose there's room for two of us - but no more pictures please!

all pinked out and ready to go... hoping the princess room will be the clincher to sell the place!