Ethan is 3!

Ethan's birthday was the 14th.  We knew it would be a busy day and Doug would miss most (if not all) of it, so we opened most of Ethan's presents the evening of the 13th.

Ethan was with me when I was shopping for gifts for him.  He had picked this out a few months ago and we had managed to "lose" it from the cart somewhere in the store.  He was heart broken.  (And let me tell you, heart break is not a quiet thing...)  This time, as we passed the Lightning McQueen toys, he swept it off the shelf and said, "Appy Birkay Gekan!"  I couldn't refuse him.

On the way home from the store, Ethan kept saying, "Open.  'Appy Birkay Gekan!"  When we got home, he fished the toy out of the bag before I even unpacked everything from the car.  He was carrying it around trying to convince me that is was his birthday RIGHT NOW.  I kept telling him that it would be his birthday soon and he just didn't like that answer.  I finally stole the present when he put it down to go to the bathroom and he knew just where to find it - up high in my closet.  The next morning, I woke to a little boy pushing a very heavy chair across the kitchen and into my room in order to scale the clothing and reach his toy.  It didn't work out for him.

Every day, several times a day he would tell me it was his birthday, sing himself a little birthday song and tell me it was time to open his present.  He was beyond thrilled when I told him he could open his present - and he knew just which one it was, wrapping and all.

Could he be any happier?  We tried to put him to bed then, but it didn't work out.  He played with the truck until after 11:00 when he finally passed out on the floor.

Wednesdays are our long days.  We leave the house at 9:30 to go to speech, which is 45 minutes away.  Ethan was up bright and early and playing with his truck when it was time to leave.  He had a very difficult time leaving his truck behind.

After speech, Nolan had gymnastics.  After gymnastics, Ethan had a doctor's appointment.  Since I made him get a shot on his birthday (what kind of mother am I?!), I took him to Carl's Jr. for dinner - that, and the fact that it is in the Safeway parking lot, so Doug could walk to our "party" and go back to work.  We were pleasantly surprised when Doug arrived to hear that he had been give the rest of the day off to play with us!  That just meant he had off until 7:00 when he had to be at the church for mutual, but still..., he got to spend more than 30 minutes with Ethan on his birthday!

Putting the candles in the cake

A remote controlled Lightning McQueen!

Since we had about an hour before Doug had to go, we went to the park to play and took a walk.

We checked out the dip netters on the beach

and found a fun tree to climb on.

I think Ethan had a good day.  I thought he would be very worn out, but for the second night in a row, he played with his truck until he passed out on the floor.  I didn't have the heart to take it away from him.  

We love having Ethan in our family.  He may be moody and slightly mean, but he is funny and charming and we all love him to pieces.  I yuv you, Gekan.