Is he still my little baby boy...?

My baby boy Nile turned 3 on Friday. We spent most of the day at home. Cousin Emily came over for the day, so we didn't plan on doing much of anything. Nile didn't want to get dressed in the morning. I figured, "what the heck? It's his birthday!" - so I told him he could stay in his PJ's as long as he wanted. So here he is at 3:30 pm, eating a snack with Emily, still in his frog jammies.

We had been asking Nile what he wanted to do for his birthday for the last several weeks. It was always one of two things: Stay home and have his friends come over, or go to Monkey Joe's. The one consistent statement? "With Andrew, Alex, and Emma!" Since Tom didn't feel like hosting a party, Monkey Joe's became the plan.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Monkey Joe's, it's basically a large room full of inflatable bouncy things and slides. It's loud, crazy, and at least 50% of the times we've been there, absolutely packed with sweaty kids. But, the kids love it. They claim to cater to the parents - if you read on their website this is the statement they have: "While your kids monkey around, you take advantage of our adult area, which features comfortable seating, free high-speed wireless Internet, flat screen televisions, and computer stations."

This "adult area?" It consists of about four chairs in the middle of this room of craziness. Not really what we pictured. But, we're talking about preschoolers and toddlers. We know when we go there, that we aren't going to be sitting down and relaxing any time soon.

So, last night, as soon as Tom got home, we headed out to dinner at Old Chicago, then off to Monkey Joe's for an hour or so of running, jumping, climbing, and bouncing. (With Andrew, Alex, and Emma of course!). We only stayed an hour because that's all the time we had, they close at 8 pm, and dinner took until 6:45!

Nile got to open one present at dinner - from Andrew, and Alex. It was, in his words, a "rock guitar!" - when he opened it, this is exactly what came out of his mouth. I quote: "No way, Jose!" Here he is this morning (he had to get it out right after breakfast). Emma got him some new books - a Mater (from Cars) book, and "Where the Wild Things Are" - we've already read them at least once.

Tom and I had also bought Nile a guitar. But we got him (again in his words) a "John Denver guitar." These two guitars haven't left his sight all day. Guess we did okay, huh?


Back to what I said at the beginning. My baby boy Nile turned 3 yesterday. I told him I probably couldn't call him my "baby boy" any more. So I asked him what I should call him. He told me, "You can call me baby boy." So I guess I'm off the hook. He's still my baby! :)

a grand finale

I was sitting in the kitchen drinking coffee when the boys started making a huge amount of noise. It turns out they were playing "rock and roll." They had pulled out all the musical instruments in the house and were switching around, each time playing a different instrument (and occasionally "singing" with the microphone, which is what was making the most noise!).

I took a few videos of them (the first before they knew I was doing so), but this grand finale has to be the best one. I hope you enjoy it.



You'd think that all we listen to in this house is heavy metal. (not true!)

rock band

Tom bought the family Rock Band 2. We promised the boys that we would set it up today. You can see by the photo how excited they were (you can see in the background that the program was still downloading updates).

Nate already had the "drummer wink" going.
Nile and Tom were rocking out.

But the best performance, by far, has to be Nile on the drums. We had turned them off because he kept hitting the buttons on the unit and shutting off the game. So he was free to rock out without consequences. :)

Pink Floyd Lessons

Something I learned today:

When selecting Pink Floyd albums to share with your children, select carefully.

"Ummagumma - Studio Album" does not go over very well. A much better choice is "A Momentary Lapse of Reason."

It's odd, isn't it? ;)

If you don't know, Ummagumma is a kind of trippy, sit-back-and-let-the-music-sink-in type of album. Not really geared towards those in the under-5 age group. "Momentary Lapse" has more listener-friendly "radio-ready" music. Much better for the air guitarists in our house.

New Year's Madness

We went to the home of our friends the DeBaene's for New Year's Eve. Their daughter, Emma, is three and Nate and Nile love visiting her house - mostly for her really cool toys.

Nate loved dressing up in Emma's "superhero" stuff. He started out as Robin, wore that for an hour, then changed into Captain America for a few hours. Finally he finished off with the Spiderman gloves and mask (we did draw the line when he asked to wear the sparkly Spider-Girl outfit).

Here he is as Captain America.


Nile put on a guitar concert for the kids. Basically he was playing with Emma's Barbie guitar and microphone, so the rest of the kids set up chairs and pretended they were at a concert. I think he was oblivious to them. But...maybe he did know what was going on. Either way he entertained them for quite a while.


We got home late (really late) and Nate was worried that he hadn't gotten to open the "poppers" that the boys had made with Grandma Elaine at the Bettendorf Children's Museum. So, on New Year's Day, right after breakfast, they were excited to find out "what was inside" them. (Although they made them, so they knew what they had put inside...)




We spent the rest of New Year's Day hanging out at home with Grandma, Papa, and Becky and watching four college football games. And of course, we ate our lucky black-eyed peas.

ColorSplash

I downloaded a new program for the iPhone that lets you selectively remove (or add) color into a photo. It really makes average photos look great, I can't wait to use it on a good photo!

Pablo, Uniqua, Tyrone, Austin, Tasha... Nile!

Attention Backyardigans producers: We have a candidate for your next casting call. Call me. I'm willing to talk signing bonuses and benefits...my client would give Austin some pretty tough competition...