New bed!

We bought Dashiell a new twin bed a couple of weeks ago, and it has been a huge hit!  He loves his "big kid" bed, and so do I!  No more crouching nearly to the ground to give goodnight kisses!  However, with the big bed comes a bit of a learning curve...

This is how I found him one afternoon when I was about to wake him up from his nap.  I love the blanket hanging off his foot over the edge of the bed!

Later that night, I went to check on him before I went to sleep:

Yup, that's him, curled up on the floor on top of the piles of pillows and stuffed animals I left next to his bed.  I'm sure he would have been fine if I left him on the floor, but I did feel the need to pick him up and put him back onto his bed.  With barely an eye-flutter!  Solid sleeper, this kid.

I'm happy to report that this was the only time that Dashiell has completely fallen off the bed.  Some day soon we may be able to get rid of those pillows on the floor!

On a side note, check out how bright that flash is in that picture!  This was 11 pm, pitch dark in the room.  One little flash and it's like it's mid-day!  And yes, these two pictures were taken with different cameras (as if you couldn't tell!).

And on a second side note, Rick and I became so envious of Dashiell's new bed that we just went out and bought a new one for us, too!  King size, baby!  I CAN'T WAIT until it's delivered next week.  The room!  The comfort!  The new linens!  Sigh.


New beds are the best.

Catch up!

Yes yes, once again I went a full month without posting anything.  I'm a horrible blogger these days, however it should be noted that until this week work was CRAZY busy, and the last thing I wanted to do at home was type on the computer.  So that's my excuse.  This time.

So this is a catch up post, with plenty of pictures!  

Rick and Dashiell were finally able to go visit the animals at the farm last month (after a very unsuccessful attempt a month prior) and Dashiell discovered this cool rock wall to climb and walk on.  He's been very into climbing on stuff lately.  He was never much of a climber before so this is fun to see!

Dashiell had a great time coloring Easter eggs this year!  We attempted it last year but he only wanted to dunk the eggs for about a second before taking them out.  This year he let the eggs soak a bit longer, however he did feel the need to make sure the eggs were dunked in every color we had.  And by "dunked", I mean "thrown forcefully into the dye cups".  There were quite a few cracked eggs.

Here's D on our way to Easter dinner.  This is one of my favorite pictures of him right now.  Note the knit hat worn with the short sleeved shirt - it was definitely warm enough to go out without a hat on, but Dash insisted.  Can't you picture him being that kid in college who wears a hat every day of the year, regardless of the temperature? 

And here he is that same day, face filthy from playing out in the yard.  Love it!

We were able to get him cleaned up just enough to take a photo of us all together.  This is the best we could do.

The other day at playgroup one of the other kids wanted to do a little work under the snack table.  Dashiell was kind enough to pick up a hammer and help him.  Very industrious of them.

And lastly, this was over at a friends house.  A house that has egg-shaped chalk.  D is obsessed with eggs, so this was awesome.  I personally love how he felt the need to line up all the eggs, so perfectly...

There's a month in the life my my kiddo!  Life is fun, that's for sure!

Nesting

Dashiell in his nest, made of "bugs, leaves and bees".  I don't know if I'd like a nest of bees.  Too stingy.

This picture is the perfect example of how difficult it is to get rid of toys Dashiell should be beyond, developmentally.  He mastered those stacking blocks ages ago, and that small bead maze?  You'd think he'd be bored with it by now.  But he finds new ways to play with old toys, and as soon as I put something up in the attic he's asking for it again.

Oh, one other funny thing he did with the stacking blocks the other day - made a tower, then knocked it down and said "I'm an Angry Bird!"  Hee.  :)

Three? THREE? How can that BE?

Today is Dashiell's third birthday.  Wow.  I mean WOW.  The day of his birth seems like yesterday and forever ago all at once.  And daily I am amazed by this little guy who Rick and I are raising.  This morning he typed the alphabet backwards (from Z to A) on the computer.  Yesterday he started getting upset at play group because a smaller child kept taking away the toys he was playing with, and fighting back tears he came up to me and said, "it's his turn now but when he's done I can play with it?"  Both hugely amazing accomplishments, in this mommy's opinion.  The first because he's weirdly talented when it comes to letters, and seriously, I can barely get through the alphabet backwards, how is it possible that my 3-year-old can?  The second because he's really starting to understand that in social situations sometimes you have to be the bigger man (well, kid) and just let things go, even if it makes you a little upset to do so.   I'm just so proud of my guy.  What an awesome 3-year-old I have!

Alright, enough with the wistfulness!  In celebration of this momentous occasion, we threw a HUGE birthday party for Dashiell's friends and family on Saturday, and it was a big hit!  Our theme was Dr. Seuss, and it was easy to go overboard with it!  Here are just a few pictures of the decorations:

I found a Dr. Seuss font online so I could make the banner, and scanned and printed up every single Dr. Seuss book we could get ahold of (most of which we own but I had to borrow a couple from Nana Hanson).  The book covers were all over the living room and dining room, with a couple scattered in other locations as well.  I also mounted a few quotes from Dashiell's favorite books to include in the decorations.  I couldn't find a local source for Dr. Seuss balloons (I did find one online but would have had to pay for rush shipping, and the balloon wasn't that impressive anyway), so we went with a blue star with Dr. Seuss stickers on it. 

The food:

I tried to go with mostly Dr. Seuss themed food - Green Deviled Eggs and Ham Sandwiches, Dr. Seuss's ABC Cookies, Who Pudding, colored Goldfish for One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, I labeled the pasta salad "Poodles Eating Noodles" from Fox in Socks, and the beverages we had were Pink Ink (from One Fish Two Fish) and Moose Juice and Goose Juice (from the Sleep Book) - unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the beverage table, but it looked awfully festive!

Here's Dashiell enjoying the first of many (and I mean MANY) ABC cookies:

His cake was amazing!  Our talented friend Lauren Cotter made it for him, and she did such a wonderful job!  And it was HUGE!!  We still have the whole bottom section left.  I probably should have made everyone take bigger pieces, but even slicing it fairly thin the pieces were enormous - that's a tall cake!  And super tasty, too - chocolate with cookies and creme filling...yum!!



And of course the presents we awesome too.  But of all the fun things Dashiell got, it was a map that his great-aunt Sue laminated for him that was the biggest hit:

So much so that he didn't want to open anything else!  But he did also like the beautiful quilt his Nana Hanson made for him - Dr. Seuss themed!

He's been sleeping with it every night and at naps.  I think he feels very grown up with this "real" blanket, instead of just the knit blankets he's used to.

All in all it was a great day, and we get to do a little more celebrating tonight!  It's the birthday that never ends - yay!  I should note that when I left Dashiell and Rick this morning, they were busily playing with Dash's new Bat Cave!  I don't know who was having more fun, Dashiell or Rick. :)

Happy Birthday to my big guy!  I look forward to seeing what's in store for next year!