Baby

Somehow the mention of a lullaby came up several weeks ago, and I sang Rock-a-bye Baby. Since then Ishish keeps lying across my lap and asking me to sing it to him. I always use his name at the end instead of baby. He gets this very content look on his face. Maybe he just likes snuggling.

Swim Lessons

Ishish finished his first swim lessons last week, and it was a very interesting time. He was the oldest student in our parent/child class. He was unhappy (to put it mildly) with going under water and avoided the instructors as much as possible. By the end he would let them hold him a little, but it also took me more effort to convince him to get in the water to begin with! We were fortunate to have a friend from his gym class there. She loved the water, and I was able to point out all the different things she tried.

Birthday Aftermath

Ishish received a lot of great stickers as presents! When he wanted to use them I told him to put them on his body or clothes, because I didn't want stickers permanently affixed all over the house! Later I found him adding stickers on his foot. He let me take this picture so we could "show Dada". By the time he was done the entire top of his foot and part of the bottom were covered with stickers. He even had a hard time walking across the house!

3rd Birthday!

Ishish celebrated his 3rd birthday this week, and we decided to spread the celebration over two days. For his pre-birthday we let him pick where he wanted to eat for lunch. He chose the local frozen custard restaurant. He added that he wanted birthday cake first. Fortunately, he accepted the fact that we didn't have any yet. Then he said he wanted the ice cream right away and not the grilled cheese sandwich! I told him we had to wait until everyone finished their sandwiches. Then he happily ate the usual grilled cheese followed by a dish of vanilla. That evening we opened presents from our extended family, and he had tons of fun playing with them.

The next morning we asked Ishish how old he was and he said "Three!" while holding up three fingers. Dada and I find it so funny that he does it the European way (using the thumb instead of ring finger).

Next we picked up balloons from the party store. I wish I hadn't had Ishish along. He kept seeing ones he wanted "I want race car one! I want dollhouse one!" Fortunately our order was ready so I could just grab them and dash out the door. On the way home he said "I want more balloons! I want 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 balloons!"



Earlier in the week Ishish had picked out an underwater ocean theme for his party. I set out the decorations and picked up his cake. In the many, many times Ishish had a pretend birthday party he would include party hats so I made sure we had those on hand.



Some of his best friends were able to come to his birthday party that night. Comparing this year's birthday to the last there was quite a difference in his ability (and desire!) to blow out the candles and open his presents!

Everyone's singing Happy Birthday to me!


Bring me my cake, already!


That night Dada and I gave Ishish our present. I try to come up with gift ideas for him that I think are meaningful, and this year it took me a long time to come up with one! Airplanes are such a huge part of our conversations now that Dada's out of town a lot, and Ishish has a big airplane he likes but no little ones to go with his other cars/trucks/helicopters. So that was his primary gift. I added a couple other things to the package that I already had in the "give to him one day" bin. They were a Mr. Happy t-shirt and Mr. Tickle book, because he loves his Mr. Happy squeeze toy. When I tried to get a picture of him with his presents he ran into the other room and hid. So... you'll just have to imagine his pleased expression!

Getting Caught Up

I've been meaning to make a lot of posts, so I'll string them together.

Here are Ishish's friends riding in a car. I was dismayed to later learn that it was a used diaper. I had accidentally left it on the dresser before naptime, and he reached up and got it.



Somehow the idea of putting Ishish's old pajama top on Esnug came up. He thought it was hilarious! Then he tucked Esnug into bed (which meant he kissed him and said "nighty-night").



When I got him up one morning I found that he had been busy at work. He told me that he had put packages on the train.



One morning when I came in Ishish said "I making a bed you". He had the comforter laid out on the floor (perfectly neat) and was adding the sheet. I helped him with that, and then he rushed over to get Mama Ducky and Dada Ducky. At that point he asked me to lie down. OK! I pretended to sleep, and he stood there watching me. Then he put George and Esnug at my side too. While I generally like games that involve me taking a nap we really did have to get the day started. So I said it was daytime and got up.



Ishish still pronounces his name "Ishish", but he's learned how to pronounce it the correct way. Sometimes he'll say it that way, and then he laughs and laughs.