Happy Birthday Forest!!!

Happy third birthday to our son who is full of contradictions. He has insatiable energy but immeasurable focus. He is rough and rambunctious at the same time as being gentle and kind. His favorite toys range from monster trucks to stuffed lambs. He is fearless and confident yet socially timid and shy. He is headstrong and independent but remains an unapologetic momma's boy. He brings me to tears of frustration one minute and has me rolling on the floor laughing the next. One thing is for sure: there has not been a dull moment in the past 3 years! 

We are kicking off year 4 with a big birthday bash and a trip to DISNEY WORLD! I promise once things calm down from this week I will be back to blogging all about it. 

Happy birthday as well to my dad! I love that he and Forest share a birthday and I also love that he chose to spend his birthday with us this year. Happy birthday Pops! If you're lucky, Forest will share some of his birthday cake with you! 
 

We're Going to Disney World!

Four years ago I went to Disney World with my parents, my sister, and my sister’s 3 and 6 year old boys, after which I swore I would not take my own kids to Disney until they were at least 10. Which is yet another pre-parenting comment which has made me put my foot in my mouth. 

Apparently Costco offers amazing deals to Disney World and one of the perks of Jonathan’s work schedule is ample time to do things like take our 3 year old to the most magical place on earth for his birthday. And perhaps Jonathan also has a bit of daddy-guilt and is slightly over-indulgent with Forest these days. Either way, we are going to Disney World! 

Our main attitude is this: Forest will be 3. He doesn’t know if he misses a ride or doesn’t meet a certain character. He has NO expectations of Disney and I’m sure he will be stinkin’ ecstatic about everything he does get to do/see so we are planning to keep it as low stress and go-with-the-flow as possible. We plan on getting there when the parks open, staying until naptime and then leaving, returning to the parks after resting only IF we feel like it. 

We will have 3 days at the parks and plan on hitting Magic Kingdom basically every day and visiting Animal Kingdom one morning and Epcot one evening for the Food and Wine festival. We have a character dinner one evening which is the only firm plan we have. 

Thunder Mountain is closed for refurbishing during our trip which is a big fat bummer but actually takes some pressure off because it’s one less major attraction to scratch off the list. Just a bummer because our little thrill seeker isn’t tall enough for Space Mountain so I was really looking forward to riding Thunder Mountain with him. Oh well! Like I said, he won’t know the difference and Splash Mountain and The Seven Dwarves Mine Train will be plenty exciting for him, I’m sure. 

And also, the reason I have been slacking (more than usual) on the blogging thing is that there is a mountain of information regarding how to maximize your time and energy at Disney and I have ironically been using all my spare time and energy  to comb through the heap of data regarding the subject. Anybody have any insider tips on Disney with an adventurous, Pixar obsessed 3 year old?

Pacifier Confessions

You know how when you’re doing something you know someone wouldn’t approve of, you tend to avoid that person? Or how when you’re battling with a sin you don’t want to give up, your prayer life starts to lack? Or how when your nearly-3 year old still uses a pacifier, you put off their first dental exam for as long as possible before CPS shows up at your door for dental neglect? Um, yea. 

You are ‘supposed’ to schedule your child’s first dental check up when they are a year old and since Forest had 12 teeth on his first birthday, it would have probably been a good idea. But the pediatrician said reeaaalllly it’s not so important until they get their 2 year molars in, which is also the time she said I should reeeaalllly take the pacifier away. Well that was reaaaallllly only like 5 months ago so I’m not procrastinating too much. 

Here’s my defense:  he cut his final molar about 2 days before we started potty training. One transition at a time. After potty training we were house hunting and moving. One transition at a time. Once we moved, his dad went away for a month. One transition at a time. Once his dad came home he started preschool. One transition at a time. And basically, that’s where we are. 

But this week I finally bit the bullet and took Forest to the dentist. The week leading up to it, I tried, reaaalllly hard to sort of suggest to him that maybe he should give up his pacifier to sleep which he agreed to for all of 5 minutes. So I decided my tactic was to not mention the paci at all at his dental appointment. To let the dentist look at Forest’s teeth and if he could instantly tell then I would honestly say that ‘he only uses it to sleep and we have vague plans to take it away sometime before kindergarten’. 

Instead the dentist said ‘Great teeth! No cavities, they’ve come in well and have excellent spacing. Keep doing what you’re doing and we’ll see him again in 6 months.’ So I basically feel totally absolved to ‘keep doing what we’re doing’ (doctor’s orders!) and will casually continue to mention to Forest that he’s probably too big for the paci until he finally agrees, hopefully some time before kindergarten...

It's Fall! (Sorta)

These may look like summer temps to 90% of you, but to those in Houston, you know this is a beautiful thing!

I remember the first warm front after moving from Scotland to California. We put shorts on Forest for the first time and called it a milestone. 

I had a similar feeling on Friday when it was cool enough for him to wear jeans to preschool. 

It was the first time he'd worn pants since we left San Ramon. You could tell the sensation was different to him and he said, 'these cover up my boo-boos". Ha! His pants cover up his constantly battered and bruised shins while my jeans cover my cellulite and unshaved legs. Either way, we have survived the most brutal part of Houston's summer, and although I know that's not the last we've seen this season of 90 degree heat and 100% humidity, it sure does feel good to have shorts season mainly behind us! It also feels great to walk to the park without getting dehydrated.