Happy Birthday, Nathan!

Where have 3 years gone? I used to wish I could just bottle him up to keep him as my baby forever, but then again I love watching him grow up into this independent little boy. No matter what age, one thing is for sure, I feel like I'm the luckiest person in the world to get to spend my days in his company. Happy birthday, Nathan. No matter what your age, you're always going to be my baby boy.

Steve has to fly all day today, so we celebrated Nathan's birthday yesterday. After I picked him up from school, we went to his second favorite restaurant (McDonald's is top on his list), Chili's. He likes that place because Paw-Paw spilled his drink there once and he thinks it's fun to give me the play-by-play of how the spill occurred.
While we were eating, our waitress came over and started gushing over Baby Sister. Nathan sat there nicely eating his chicken and fries and watching as the waitress went gaga over Kathryn. Without directly saying, "I need attention, too," Nathan took the attention away from Baby Sister by blurting out, "My name is Nathan" in hopes of putting himself back in the spotlight. I just wanted to go over there and give him a big hug. Then the waitress went over and gushed on him, satisfying Nathan's need to steal away all of Baby Sister's attention.

Then he came home to find a big balloon bouquet waiting for him. I didn't mean to get it that big, but when I saw the animal print balloons, I had to add them to the mix.
Nathan likes cookies way better than cake, so we got him a big cookie from his favorite cookie shop.
This is his ideal party. Sit and eat a cookie at home with his family.
We tried getting him to stop eating his cookie long enough to open presents. He refused, but we really wanted him to open his presents. This was the result of Steve taking the cookie away to try and get him to open just one gift.
This was the one gift that Steve was so excited to see Nathan open. One day, as Steve was leaving for work, Nathan looked down and said, "I don't have a flight suit." At that moment it hit me, Nathan needed a flight suit. We had a name patch made to match Steve's, complete with the B-1 and pilot wings on it. Sure enough, Nathan didn't care anything about the flight suit and refused to put it on.
This shirt was part of his gift from Uncle Joe and Aunt Lexi. It says, "My entire life is being blogged." How fitting.
Baby Sister and Daddy got front row seats to watch as Nathan finally decided to open the rest of his gifts (after an hour of Steve and I begging him to do so).
As he was opening this one, he said, with fake excitement, "I got some wipes!"
He's so funny as he tries to be polite when he thinks he's getting crappy presents.
Turns out, it wasn't wipes after all. It was this squishy ball that he fell in love with at Target.
At this point, he didn't want to open anymore presents. He only wanted to play with that ball.
We forced him to open more. See, I wasn't being mean when I said not to get him any toys for his birthday. He has so much stuff already that he doesn't even get excited about getting new stuff.
He was happy to get this rocket-shaped alarm clock. It projects different space images and the time on the wall or ceiling.
He's pretty much into anything that lights up.
Which is also why he got this spotlight/lantern.
We were tired of always changing the batteries in his other flashlights that he left on when he wasn't playing with. This one turns off automatically when it's not in use.
He took a break from opening presents to play with the ball for a little while.
Opening more presents.
He got a Scooby-Doo DVD from Paw-Paw and Lady. He likes staring at the cover.
He stares at the cover and tells me what everyone is doing in the picture.
He also got a Charlie Brown DVD. He was first introduced to Charlie Brown while were living in the hotel and he didn't have Nick Jr. to watch. The Valentine's Day Charlie Brown movie came on TV and he was glued. He kept asking if he could watch "Charles Brown" for several days after that. Then it was funny when a MetLife commercial with Snoopy came on TV and he got excited about getting to watch that short skit.
I told Lady that story, so of course, a Charlie Brown DVD was a must have gift.
Paw-Paw and Nathan can go out and take nature pictures together now that Nathan has his very own camera.
I'm sure we'll be seeing lots of tree pictures in the near future.
Once he finished the chore of opening all those gifts, he was ready to watch Charlie Brown.
He thanked Paw-Paw and Lady for his gifts.
After all that new stuff, he went right back to playing with his airplanes.

Then when he got up this morning before school, he said, "I'll go to school after I watch Charlie Brown two times."

After school, Nathan came home to find two big boxes addressed to him.
So far, so good. Everyone is accommodating my begging and pleading not to bring anymore toys into this house. It's for my own sanity.
This is going to be fun. I love getting new crayons. Errr, uhhh, I mean, Nathan loves getting new crayons. We actually both benefit because when he has good crayons, I color with him more. (This picture is funny with Kathryn just lying on the floor in the background.)
Don't you worry Aunt Ruth and Uncle Larry, Nathan will definitely be up for drawing you some pictures. I hope you like trees.
Oma and Opa are coming in for a visit with Cousin Emily tomorrow, so I'm sure we'll have more birthday celebrating ahead of us. Stay tuned.