Birthdays

I mentioned in the last post that my extended family has too many birthdays in January. In my family, my husband was thankfully born in October. But Kaitlyn, Tyler and I were all born in January.

Last night we went to Pirate Island to celebrate with our kids. Tyler was sick on his birthday before we went to Vegas, and since they don't understand the concept anyway, they got their presents whenever we bought them this month, and we just went to celebrate when we could. We hadn't been to this place yet, but if you live in the area I highly recommend it! It is a theme restaurant, and is somewhere between Disneyland and Chuck-E Cheese. I wish I had pictures of the place, but my flash battery died while we were there. But it is a pirate theme in a classy way, with animatronics and pirate waiters and really awesome decorations. It has an arcade with tokens and tickets you redeem for prizes, and a little play area with a couple of slides, but on top of that it is a true restaurant with good food. Oh, and a stage where they had karaoke going. I want to try the "Lil Pirate Playtime" on Wednesday mornings, where a pirate reads stories to kids for lunch.

I decided we would bring the pirate hats for the kids, and I wore my pirate leather vest. Because where else can you do that?

And since I haven't done an update like this in a while, I figured it would be good to have a snapshot of what my kids are like at their birthdays.

Tyler:

*Tyler loves going to school. I haven't seen huge improvements in his conversation, but he is repeating a lot more and talking a lot more. And now he knows how to use scissors, trace dots on paper, and climb in and out of a school bus by himself.

*Speaking of talking, he has been calling everyone "sweetie" or "little one" for some time now. I guess that is what people call him, and he figures that is what everyone is called. So when he hands us things, he says "here you go, little one!"

*If you want to confuse Tyler, ask him how old he is. We finally got him to say he is three years old, just in time for him to turn four. So now he just gets the dejected, confused face when we correct him and tell him to say "four years old" instead. And then last night in the car Daddy was trying to teach Kaitlyn that she is two years old, and Tyler kept inturrupting to help out and tell her to say four years old. So not only does the answer to this question change, but it is different for every person? Good grief, you people are confusing!

*Tyler just moved into Sunbeams in church. On his first week in the new class, he got to come up to the front in Sharing Time and get a little flashlight on a necklace string for his birthday. He didn't take that flashlight off for over 24 hours. Not to eat, and not to sleep, and if we tried to take it off he put it right back on.

*Tyler is still my cuddler. And giggler. He loves being tickled, and will curl up in anyone's arms for as long as you will let him. He also loves slides, PB & J, and rarely gets upset about anything. But when he does, he doesn't know how to tell you what's wrong, so we just have to keep guessing until we have fixed the problem.

Kaitlyn:

*Kaitlyn just moved into a big girl toddler bed in Tyler's room. I was nervous about putting them in the same room, but it is a big room and there wasn't a lot of other options without rewiring the house to move the computer room. There were a lot of Tyler giggles the first night he got a roommate, but other than that they have been fine. And Kailtyn goes to sleep fine in her new bed. Except for naptime, when she has discovered that she can climb back out and keep playing. We're working on that.

*She loves cleaning. She will take wet wipes and clean walls and toys whenever she can, she asks for napkins anytime things spill while she eats, and she has a little broom to help me "swup swup" the floor.

*She loves to play with her Daddy. When he tickles her feet, she will screech "Ow, Daddy! Ow!" while she laughs. Then when he stops, she pauses, and sticks out the other foot to be tickled.

*She takes good care of her big brother. Whenever she has decided she needs juice or a snack or something, she finds me and asks me for it. And then when I get her set up she says "Tyla juice!" and refuses to drink hers until Tyler has some too. Despite the fact that Tyler was playing happily in the other room with his toys.

*Kaitlyn got a little baby set from Grandma for her birthday, and loves it. She is constantly telling me that the baby is going night night in the little crib or eating in the high chair. So cute.

*Kaitlyn loves pizza. And fruit snacks. And all kinds of fruit, or juice. And fruit snacks. And using a fork. But mostly fruit snacks. Which she calls "nack" and points to her neck when she asks for them. They sound the same, so they must be the same.