birthday week: day6: snowed in; ate cake

As forecasted, today it snowed and snowed and snowed. Fortunately we read the weather report so we stayed in for the most part and watched march madness. This was totally alright with Tobo. He played with the old stuff and the new stuff and some other stuff that showed up after a quick run out to the fabric shop and toy store to break up the basketball. We had to take the 4-wheel drive to do it though. By the end of the afternoon, Tobo was digging through Gram gram's bag to see if there were any more presents inside. (dangerous precedent that)

Since we were in, I made the upside down pineapple birthday cake for the 3 birthdays that happened this week. All I got was this kind of blurry picture because I was having camera failure while Tobo was blowing out his candle. We barely got the cake cut before he started picking at it. Though not the prettiest cake, it was quite delicious.

birthday week: day5: so many animals at the zoo

What a gift today was! Weather was nice and sunny! We spent the morning lazing around the house, but we were all kind of antsy by about 10am so we all tumbled into the cars and headed out to the Denver Zoo. Paul and Tobo had been once before about a year ago, and it just hadn't been a hit. Well, that's all changed now. Tobo continued to announce well into dinner that he had "seen animals" today. We only got to a 3rd of what was there, but we saw a lot of important ones like elephants, giraffes, lions and gorillas. We've signed up for membership now because if we go at least 2 more times this year it will have paid for itself. Tobo walked for about half of it, with us trading off carrying him the rest of the time. At lunch time we ate right by the train, which of course we had to go on. Tobo enjoyed the ride, though I think the engine was a little bit louder than he expected it to be in real life. We were all kind of warn out by naptime (as apparently were all the animals at 2p) so we headed home, finishing with dinner at home. Gram-gram is our new favorite bedtime specialist. We're gearing up to be snowed in tomorrow and Saturday. That says to me birthday cake time!

birthday week: day4: Snacks & Leprechauns

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Today Tobo learned a few new words at MsJ's: leprechauns and rainbows. They made up silly names for each other and Tobo brought his birthday treat in to his friends: doughnuts to share. Apparently the leprechauns turned the milk green at Ms.J's house and they had a silly afternoon.

I got even more birthday by my awesome coworkers - balloons and streamers everywhere in the communication dept. JB shares a birthday with Tobo, so it was all day all party including lunch out with the team. I batted balloons at anyone who came in my office to chat. Personally I think they make meetings more fun. ;)

AND Gram-Gram and Papa from the farm flew in today! Tobo helped me "clean up" the house (i.e. I did the cleaning and he helped) and we had a nice dinner at home, including getting a number of bed time stories from everyone. The Grand's are mighty impressed with his vocabulary. We have a nice day, a rain day, a snow day, a cold day, and then a nice day again currently in the weather forecast so who knows what we're going to do! No plans, only possibilities.

birthday week: day3: potters clay

Today is my actual birthday. Again, by happenstance, I ended up with an extra day at the sitters. With only a slight twinge of guilt I dropped Tobo off at MsJ's as arranged and then rolled on out to Boulder to sling clay at Mudslingers Pottery School. They offer lots of different options, but I was able to get a one-on-one lesson on the pottery wheel for about $40 for the session. I have had a quick intro to the wheel over 20 *ahem ahem* years ago when I was an art teen. What I know now after this session is I had a quick run in with "centering" but nothing really more concrete than that. I met J and we jumped right in. I learned a lot of technically stuff but really what I took away from this was:

• it was something messy yet controlled with a different part of my brain
• I had to remember how to let go of "fixing it" and instead pay attention with my hands to what was happening on the wheel in front of me.
• I had to slow down and not rush. When I first started J said my motions were random and erratic. Took a few big breaths and I was able to focus on what was actually happening instead of what I thought was suppose to happen.
• A lot of what you learn is the different tools your hands become when you are working with wet clay. There are something like 7 steps to get to a pot/cup/whatever and you use your hands differently for each step.
• You work with the wheel instead of against the wheel.
• You work at removing the wet clay with your hands. That's it. No force necessary.
• You build the inside first. This is a very novel idea to me. It is a new way of looking at creating than anything I've ever done.

Overall this was a refreshing attitude adjuster for me. When I first started it also highlighted a couple of mom things I do now that are not normal Cat things, like obsessively rinsing my hands in the bucket through out the project or counting Everything. It was nice to put these things a side for a morning/afternoon. I spend entirely too much time doing that sort of thing as a way of staying on top of all the mom stuff.

The only sad thing is I forgot to take a picture of my cup and the bowl I made. I hope to change that when I go back in a week or so to glaze them to be fired. Many other good things happened today too (day started with me getting a book in the mail, lots of birthday wishes, joygirl's rendition of happy birthday on my voicemail, flowers from paul when I got home, home cooked dinner with JN) but this was the thing that was just for me. I think I've found a new birthday tradition.

birthday week: day2: a really useful engine

Today was Tobo's actually birthday. We had a quiet day at home. He stayed in his pj's till about 1p and stopped playing with his new fire engine only long enough to introduce his trains to each other. He repeated the thomas the tank engine storyline from a morning video in Toboese (alotta nouns with haphazard verbs.) He spent an hour or so in underwear (completing his thomas ensemble) then went down pretty easily for a nap in the afternoon. I think part of the reason he was so calm today was Paul was home sick with us, so everyone was right where Tobo wanted them to be. After nap, we ate dinner and opened birthday cards. So quiet day. We read a number of books about birthdays, but didn't really have a party per-say.

birthday week: day1: the paper trail

Not by design but by circumstance, we are going to end up celebrating Tobo's 2 year old birthday all week. In light of that fact, I've decide to try and post for the next 7 days about what we're doing and how it went. Today is Sunday, daylight saving time begins and the day before Tobo's actual birthday. We decided to open presents today, after nap since Monday is a bit hectic. Notice the nice paper trail. Tobo has figured out how to open presents a little bit faster than at christmas. Today included gifts from Gr.Aunt Nancy, Godmother/father Tara and Richard (and gaggle of god brothers), our tiny yet *expensive* tank engine (yikes!), and Thomas & Friend dvd's from Gram gram and Papa in florida. He was very please with all of it and proceeded to play with everything until dinner time.

We have a number of activities planned (well, thought of) for when his grandparents from the farm our out later in the week, which I will reveal as we go along.