My "first" birthday party

Yesterday I came home to the best birthday surprise. When Rebecca
told John it was my birthday yesterday, he was so excited and
immediately began planning. He told her they had to get me birthday
balloons, birthday streamers and birthday cake. She apparently took
him to the store to by all of those party ingredients while I was at
work. I arrived home with yellow and blue streamers over all of the
chairs (done by John himself) and hanging around in other low-lying
areas. He was apparently upset when he realized he'd forgotten the
happy birthday candle for the cake, so yesterday I celebrated my first
birthday (from a candle left over from Grace). Two and 1/2 and I
think he's got better party-planning skills that Rebecca and I
combined.

Thanks John [and Rebecca], it was the best birthday party ever;)

Being different only okay so far...

One of the books we've been reading at bedtime lately is a Todd Parr book on "being different." The book is well illustrated but, I think, poorly written and no fun to read. Anyway, this is a story about John, not a book review. So for whatever reason, John likes the book. We read pages like the following:
"It's ok to have missing teeth."
"It's ok to have no hair."
"It's ok to be small, medium, large, and extra-large."
"It's ok...", Ok, you get the idea.

So John is all smiles through the most all of the book, enjoying the illustrations and such.

Then we come to a page that reads, "It's ok to eat macaroni and cheese in the bathtub," and John looks at me every time and says, "No way, it is *not* ok to eat in the bathtub. You eat macaroni and cheese at the table Daddy."

2 and a half years-old and he's clearly a lot brighter than this Todd clown.