Happy birthday to Eli

So now our baby is 3 years old! Hardly a baby anymore. Well, kinda. He's pretty babyish still, which works for me.

We went out to eat on his birthday, someplace with prawn dumplings and spring rolls and rice and veggies. His kind of food.



Then we came back to our place for some cake (we made a hobbity banana coconut pecan cake, wholemeal spelt flour, deliciousness) and presents.



My mom MADE this hoodie! She's awesome! Make me one, Mom!



He loved his little green remote control car. What's not to love?



First, getting the business of blowing the candles out out of the way...



Then back to fun. Check out the wheelie:

Christmas, Part 3: The Day

Stockings, very exciting.



Because my kids are rad, they were totally jazzed by their new toothbrushes.



Here is our tree and our modest present presentation (we wrap with fabric and ribbon so there's no waste):



Presents!



Awww, soft new blankets bring so much joy.



Just what Maya wanted:



And so, of course, Eli had to get right into it.



As did Maya!



Boxing kangaroo (Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!)



The thinking tongue means she's really concentrating. Got it from Grandpa, methinks.



Just what he wanted!



New chess pieces, too? Must be Christmas.



This microphone was very well received.



Here's Nate giving Grammy a painting he made of the two of them.



And reading. You can hardly tear him away from books these days. He's so my kid.



Microphone (as if he isn't loud enough without it, hehe).



Boots! They all got new boots, and they all love them.



Princess Maya, feeling very proud and beautiful. It's a good feeling.



Adjustments:



And here's what I spent a big chunk of my day working on:



Phew, we took a LOT of pictures that day. Hope you enjoyed them!

Eli being adorable

The walk

One super cold day last week, we decided to walk to the shops to buy some baking materials. The littlies hopped into the wagon, and Nate pulled it almost the whole way there.

Best walk ever.





Look at this happy guy:



And these two lucky little siblings:

Christmas, Part 2: The City Tree Lighting

There were some holiday crafts at the library (reindeer headgear):



Some super cute family moments:



Santa and Mrs. Claus (allegedly):



And a giant living Christmas tree in the park:

Christmas, Part 1: The Tree

Reading and writing

Nate is reading so much now. It's amazing to me that 6 months ago he was not at all interested in reading, and upon discovery of comic books, he decided he could read.

Writing, though, has been something that he loses patience with very quickly. For awhile (in the pre-reading days) we had him doing workbook stuff to get him used to writing, but he absolutely hated it. I completely dropped it.

Yesterday he was filling in the information on a family tree birthday card that my mom gave him. I commented that he has really neat handwriting (he does). He said, "I just want to practice writing a bit more so that it gets easier. I want to like to write."

Blew my mind. What a smart kid. I'm so glad I laid off.