Because I know my parents are getting antsy

Not much new or exciting to report. Here are a few pictures to keep 'Ramma and Nahnee happy.
David loves to shovel snow. I'm sure that will change in a few years when we actually want him to shovel snow. Alma took David to see Bob the Builder at Navy Pier. He loved it.

Another task David will no longer enjoy once he's old enough to be of service. (As a side note, it takes a long time to clean 3 filthy bathrooms. It takes twice that amount of time with the assistance of a 3 year old.) Eating dinner tonight in his hockey helmet.

David's birthday weekend

Here are some pictures from David's birthday weekend festivities. My parents flew in to partake in the madness. We had a party at Monkey Island (a kiddie bounce place) on Sunday. I think it was a success--not too crowded, lots of things to do/climb/jump on, pizza and chocolate cake.

Kevin and I took the day off on David's birthday Monday. We went to the Museum of Science and Industry and the Hot Doug's for lunch. After David's nap, he opened presents and then had a meltdown.

I am very proud of my baseball glove cake and baseball cupcakes

David at Monkey Island

Enjoying his new hockey helmet and driving a combine at MSI with 'Ramma

Giving me the stink eye and stuffing his face at Hot Doug's

Playing with his new hoop. At the Bulls game Tuesday night with Uncle Dave.

A special thanks to guest photographer Grandpa who contributed to this post.

Happy 3rd birthday, David!!!

Happy birthday to our monkey!!! Here are some of my favorite pictures from David's third year. Every time I put one of these together, I out sappy myself with my song selection.

Everything's bigger in Texas

Including the cupcakes. We visited Aunt Leslie and Uncle Stanley (with a special guest appearance by Uncle Adams) in Houston last weekend. We had fun and ate well. Much like hobbits, we had breakfast (giant cupcakes) and second breakfast (Chick-fil-A biscuits) Saturday morning. David took care of his cookies 'n' cream cupcake in no time.

We got to visit with Saira, one of my friends from my Loyola days and her family, too. David and her son Raafe bonded while burying Uncle Stanley alive. The other picture below is David using one of Aunt Leslie's chemistry nerd toys as an astronaut helmet.

David has started a gymnastics class once a week, which he loves. Unless I'm on call, it's early enough for me to take him, which is a treat. His favorite activity in our most recent class was the parallel bars. The kids were supposed to push themselves up and support their weight with their arms. Most of them pushed up a 2 or 3 inches and held it for a couple of seconds. David took it to the next level, flexed his hips to make his body into an "L" and then pushed himself up until his legs were parallel with the bars. At least 3 other moms commented to me on how strong he is. This from the boy who couldn't crawl when we brought him home at 15 months.

B^3

Huge day today chez Maas. Huge. This morning at 8am, David's big boy bed was delivered. The picture above is David at bedtime tonight. He had lobbied for a bunk bed ("I want BIG ladder!"), and Kevin and I are big enough suckers to go for the idea, but his room just isn't big enough. David agreed to settle for a bed with drawers. He has filled two of the drawers with hats and underwear and plans to designate another drawer for his cars tomorrow. He told me today "My bed have BIG drawers. I love it!" So I think he's over the ladder thing.

David's new bed, breaking his bed in, George dressed in David's Northwestern shirt and jeans (picture taken by David)

Today we also went to Mandarin class, played unreasonable amounts of hockey with the new hockey stick and puck the wise men brought David for Epiphany and had a delicious dinner at Szchuan Beijing. As usual, David out ate every adult in the restaurant.

It's a long way down

Greetings and happy 2010! We divided our time the first day of the new year between the Museum of Science and Industry, where highlights included giant farm machinery and tiny trains, and the Srokas house, where highlights included mountains of food.

MSI

Playing with Zach, Nathan and his new Thomas set from Steve at the Sroka's house

On the 2nd we decided to check out the new glass bottom overlooks at the Sears Tower observation deck. Very cool and more than a little disconcerting to be able to look straight down 1500 feet. Chances of getting my mother anywhere near there: 0%. After that we went to the Illinois-Gonzaga basketball game at the United Center with Adam, the always lovely Laura and Uncle Dave. David was pretty tired and crashed during overtime. He was out cold and slept through us wrestling him into his coat, the frigid jog to the car, the drive home plus another 2 hours after we got there.
Pictures from atop the Sears. David at ready to cheer for his Illini.

Because Kevin does not believe in staying home for more than 5 minutes at a time, yesterday we did a little shopping in the morning and went to the Blackhawks game in the evening. David loves hockey. LOVES hockey. For the last few weeks, the kid has refused to wear anything other than a Blackhawks jersey. We had to buy him a second jersey because we were doing laundry every day. It is nothing short of a miracle that we convinced him to wear orange to the Illini game. He really pays attention to the hockey game. We got a constant run down on when players were coming on and off the ice (which is about every 45 seconds in hockey, so that was awesome) and commentary on face offs. During the third and final period David took a shine to Dustin Byfuglien, so he just kept asking "Where is Bufflin?" over and over and over. He is currently undefeated in his 4 games so far this season. We'll try for 5-0 in a month.

The 6 months of Christmas

David's six months of Christmas, which extends from the early Christmas presents he receives at Thanksgiving through Gotcha Day in May, is in full swing. Last Monday we had an early Christmas with Grandma, Grandpa, GG, Uncle Dave and his fiancee. The run away hit of the night was David's (first of three this Christmas) tool set. He insisted on opening it first and spent the rest of the evening wearing his ear protectors and sawing Grandma's furniture.
Ear protectors are necessary not just for working with power tools but for helping Grandma open presents as well.

David has also been taking full advantage of the winter weather. Tuesday Alma took him sledding with Sabrina and took some pictures in the spirit of the Christmas Story snowsuit.

We left Wednesday evening for Columbia and made it to Nahnee and 'Ramma's house without much difficulty despite sleet and freezing rain in Chicago. We went to church Christmas Eve, and, much to Kevin's dismay, followed that up with the annual LaBorde viewing of Christmas Eve on Sesame Street. If you don't know how Santa makes it down all those skinny little chimneys with his big brag of presents, you really must see it.
We had a very low key Christmas day. I stayed in my pajamas all day, and David had a great time opening all his gifts. Unlike last year, when it took over a week to finish going through his pile, he tore through all of his presents and everyone else's in no time and then demanded "more Santa!"
David with items from tool sets #2 and 3

Another picture in his stylish new safety vest and his Gamecocks basketball jersey.

Christmas Day was low key because my parents invite every single person they know to their house the day after for a Boxing Day get together. It is a lot of fun, and you can't beat grits, wings and a Chick-fil-A party platter. Yum. We got to visit with lots of family and friends, and David got to play with some of his SC buddies, including the lovely Haley and Kendall. We also went over to Haley and Kendall's house later that evening and watched David and the girls ignore their newly opened Christmas gifts in favor of running back and forth across the living room as fast as they could for the better part of half an hour.

Torturing Bette. Playing with Haley (who was a fan of David's safety goggles)

Having fun at H & K's house

We made it home just before 1:00am last night/this morning. It will probably take a few days to get back into our routine and detox David from the nonstop attention he received over the weekend. So far he seems to be recovering quite nicely. He had a good time going to Sabrina's gymnastics competition this morning and spent the afternoon playing with all his loot.

Based on this picture, I think my decision to sign him up for gymnastics was a good one. The yellow hat has a working light which will no doubt drive poor Pete to the brink of insanity.