You Say It's Your Birthday...

AJ celebrated his second birthday at the CRC's Creative Activity Room. It was big fun. I am too tired to give the blow by blow- but I am sad to see I did not take nearly enough pictures of all of our friends. It was great to see the people we see often, and visit with the people we don't see often enough. It was loud, warm, and a sort of sticky party. But that's the way AJ likes stuff.

Mike is in charge of bath this evening and just reported a major bruise. I wonder how many others will be discovered tonight!

The cake held a special treat inside.

Ta Da! Worth the four hours it took to make.

The Coles (Wake up, Hannah.)

The Choudharys

Lisa, Nicholas and Marina

Uncle Chris, Daddy and Uncle Joe

The ball pit was a big hit.

A big dolphin stopped by. I don't why. I did not pay for that option.

Coloring and eating. Eating and coloring.

The Albandia Family

Overall, a hit. Now, I sleep.

Hooked

AJ and I have been obsessed with watching this bear on the internet. Here's the story: The North American Bear Center rigged up a "Den Cam" in this bear's cave. She is a 3 year old Black Bear named Lily.

Anyway, she is due to give birth any minute. Although watching a bear sleep and occasionally scratch is as interesting as watching paint dry, we keep checking in when we come home from Ms. Melba's.

We like bears.

Check her out. Thousands of people love Lily. So many, in fact, that the server crashed tonight as she began her labor. Here are 2 links so you can have a little peek at one of God's many miracles. Visit Bear.org or WildEarth.TV and go to the den cam.

Photo is from WildEarth.TV and is a screen capture of the den cam that someone posted on Facebook.

hUGGable

Lola and Lolo came over the other night with a present for AJ.

Here's the backstory: on Christmas, Uncle Chris gave Lola a LOVELY pair of UGG boots. I was envious of her feet. She likes them a lot and they are really comfortable for her while she works at the hospital. So when they came over with a mini pair for AJ, I was REALLY envious. His little tootsies look so cute in there all snuggled up. He looks like a celeb kid when he is wearing them. (It is a good thing he likes them as he has developed a new hatred of socks.)

While AJ and I were hanging out the other night, Lola and Lolo stopped by with eggrolls, pasta, and my very own pair of chocolate "classic tall" UGGs. I have to admit, I always thought they looked a little weird, but putting your foot into one is like wrapping your foot in a warm, soft, cloud of loveliness. Love em or hate em, they are one comfortable shoe. Thanks Lola and Lolo!

AJ was wearing his the other night playing his fave game on my fancy know-it-all phone and I thought he looked cute. In a real ostentatious and snooty way, but cute all the same.

Hmm...Fruity

AJ has been playing, no he is obsessed with, an iPhone app that my invisifriend Julie recommended. Monkey Preschool Lunchbox helps him with matching, colors, letters, similarities and differences, and putting together puzzles. He helps the monkey pack his fruit in the lunchbox when he gets the answer right. Plums, oranges, apples, grapes, nectarines, lemons, limes...but the fruit of all fruits has AJ very intrigued.

The Kiwi. It is an enigma of the fruit world. It is hairy, which by my standards, makes it weird. It tastes like...kiwi. I have seen some people eat the whole thing, cut it in half and use a spoon, or slice it. It is slimy, and again-weird. I classify it's weirdness in the same category as okra.

But AJ is intrigued, as I said, so I picked up the lone Kiwi I found at the Super Target. We investigated it on the outside and when he saw that it was not a ball, we cut it open. "Kiwi!" was said numerous times at varying pitches and volumes. It looked just like the one in the game, you see and this, apparently, made AJ's day.

I scooped some out and gave to to him and he made that yum sound he makes when he likes something. I was pleased that he has added another fruit to his repertoire of healthy snack choices. Thanks, Monkey Preschool Lunchbox!

(photo from Google Images found here and here)

Tonight's Gonna Be a Good Good Night

I have a new friend named Val. She is pretty cool. She is the kind of fun person who wears sequins, but not just on some parts of an outfit, but ALL OVER.

She will wear these shoes even in -10 degree windchills and she will never complain.

She will invite a virtual stranger to her home and treat them with the kind of love you show when you've known them your whole life.

She invited me to her party and I had a pretty fun time. Very fun. Really fun.

I hope your headache isn't too bad today, Val! Here's a shout out to you!