Birthday Blurbology, Part 2

Continued:

•  If your newly 3 year old son excuses himself from the breakfast table to go to the bathroom and takes a really long time and comes back with really dirty hands (even though you were sure you'd wiped them off before he went), don't blame the frozen blueberries he was eating. Blame the wonderful friend who sent you the Color My Bath tablets. You will find this in the bathroom sink:

• Also, if you should happen to have a baby (who is no longer a baby) who likes to hand feed every meal to the dog (who ate yesterday's cupcakes), do not be surprised if you come home from dropping off your oldest son at Mother's Day Out and discover that the french toast you put in a ziplock bag and left on the counter is no longer there. Doggie spent the rest of the day outside in the Yard of Shame.

• This makes me smile every time: 

I don't know if it's the line of clothespins or the cute basket or the card that says, "Kids, I have fresh towels for you to leave rotting on the floor. Come and get 'em!" (thank you, Aunt Becky), but it's probably the latter. Also, I hung my Christmas calendar in the laundry room so that every time I do laundry I can think about being on a warm, sunny beach instead. So far, it's working really well for me. And my laundry is caught up because I want to spend time dreaming about being on a beach.

• What three year old do you know whose ideal birthday cake is covered in fruit? I made him eat my blueberries. And yes, he's stuck his finger in the icing right after the Man took this picture. He also ate the back wheel before I got it iced, so I had to fix the flat with extra cake bits--true skill, I tell you. One final note of cakeness: the candles are in the funnel. Where else would they have gone?

• Have I mentioned that this face is taking over our family photo albums? I'm so over it. I mean, not over the face itself but over The Face that the face is making. Seriously, what does he think he is? A toothy squid?

• And one final, not really birthday related blurb, this week I have been thinking about what it means to extend grace to myself so that I can truly delight in my children, my husband, my Savior, and my life. This is playing itself out in interesting ways. It's allowed me to shift a couple of my To Do's from one day to the next, to stay late at a friend's house and accept help from my dinner guests, to not finish my run but instead enjoy a cup of coffee and some time of quiet, to eat popcorn for lunch with my feet propped up on the coffee table. This year I am seeking to make different choices. Keep an eye out on the blog; I have some words waiting in the wings for you. I just had to get through the Birthdays first. So: stay tuned. And in the meantime, take another good look at the above picture and shudder at its Terrible Awesomeness.