Toothless

Mitchell lost his first tooth! It has been loose for a couple of months but he had to have it extracted due to an infection that formed on his gum just above it. (Probably had something to do with his past tooth drama I blogged about here.) He handled it like a champ and now he has nice green dollar from the tooth fairy in his piggy bank.

Self Portrait

Mitchell's first self portrait at age 4. (Love the crazy hair.)

Thank You Postcards

These are the thank you cards Mitch sent out after his birthday. Although I don't do it nearly often enough, thank you note writing is important to me so I've tried to encourage it since Mitchell was just a little guy. Before he could talk, I would write the note and then let him scribble on it. Although he still can't write, he is now old enough to formulate a really cute and sincere sentiment of gratitude which I simply write down for him. Also, I still let him decorate the notes which makes it all the more charming.

Birthday Boy

Yep. Mitchell had a birthday and there were four candles on his cake!

Sprinkler

We had some good old fashioned fun playing in the sprinkler last night. Definitely the best five dollars I've spent in awhile.

First Drawing

This is Mitchell's first recognizable drawing from 6 months or so ago. (I have been meaning to scan it for awhile and luckily it just resurfaced after our move.) An abstract piece which he aptly titled "Clothes in the Dryer." We may have a little Picasso on our hands. :)

Stuck in the Mud

And this is reason number 543 why you should never try to paint when your kids are awake. I guess that "mud" (according to Mitch) was just a little too tempting.

Birthday Festivities

We celebrated Mitch's 3rd birthday on Saturday with a few simple presents (including a cute Ohio State ball cap) and cupcakes at OSU's half time. I don't think any birthday is free of the shambles, and apparently Mitch is no exception. However, after about his fourth cupcake, he managed to pull it back together. :) Here are some pictures from his little celebration:

Three Weeks to Three Years

Wow, that went fast. My first baby boy is three years old today. He was born on Labor Day (ironically) in 2005, ten days past his due date. While he took his merry time arriving, we couldn't be happier with his relaxed, (usually) sweet demeanor and all the joy he brings into our home. Happy Birthday Mitchell!

(Jared is out of town today so we'll have a small celebration tomorrow. Pictures to come next week!)

Tomato Time

We seem to have an all out tomato production facility in our backyard. First, Mitchell picks each tomato from our garden at it's peak of perfection. (Okay, not really. We are still working on picking the RED ones only!) Next, he carefully loads them into his dump truck...... and then transfers them into his front loader.
Once loaded, he hauls them across the yard where they are delicately transferred to Spencer in shipping.
Before I know it, I have garden ripe tomatoes in my kitchen ready to eat! And a good thing because I just made this delicious recipe Vanessa posted and my fresh tomatoes hit the spot!

Touch the Truck

"I'm so excited...But I'm just so scared!"
-Jessie Spano, Saved By the Bell (The Caffeine Pill episode)

Mitch had an awesome time at the Touch the Truck event we went to on Saturday. Can't you tell? Not sure why he had a meltdown because he absolutely LOVES anything with wheels and an engine. Maybe the opportunity to actually touch them and sit on them was just too much to handle? I don't know but that picture bears a striking resemblance to me at Cedar Point two weeks ago.

Mitchell's Medley

Yesterday Mitch walked into the living room where I was standing and said, "Mom? Did you put those pants on all by yourself?" My reply, "Yes Mitch. I did." Then Mitch in a very firm voice says, "You're not going to wear those pants. RIGHT NOW!"

Apparently Mitch decided to recite back to me (in medley form) several phrases I say to him pretty frequently. Kind of scary.

Little Pea Picker

Jared took some cute photos of Mitchell in our garden last night:

Summertime

With temperatures in the 90s, we decided to make our first official visit to the Ballantrae fountain park today. Definately one of my favorite places in Columbus for kids on hot summer days. The best part? It's FREE!(This last photo made me laugh. This is Mitch doing his famous high-pitched squeal. Toddler talk for, "It's time to go.")

Quintessential Mitch

I find matchbox cars lined up in random places around my house ALL the time. Sometimes they're in order by size, other times they're in order by color or model-type. Sometimes there's no order at all. Anyway, I love it. I'm not sure why but there is something so cool about watching a young mind at work.

Look Who's Laughing Now

I remember when Jared and I were young, naive parents shopping for diapers for the first time. I distinctly remember being in the diaper aisle at Target with Jared, happily purchasing the smallest newborn diapers for our precious little one. I also remember looking at all the other diapers and imagining our tiny baby boy growing into the size one, size two, size three and size four diapers. (Ahhh, happy sigh.) I also remember seeing the size five and size six diapers and saying out loud to Jared something like, "Ha! Who's child needs to wear a size FIVE or a size SIX diaper!? Why don't they just buy Depends! Surely our perfect little baby will be potty trained by that time!" Then we both threw our heads back in arrogant laughter and ignorantly toted our little package of newborn diapers out of the store. Now, two years wiser and more mature, I realize it's okay and completely normal for a toddler to wear a size five or six diaper. I also realize (much to my dismay) that it's okay to be 2 1/2 and not potty trained. Even though I understand all this, I just couldn't shake that first diaper buying experience from my memory and have been squeezing Mitch into a size four diaper for as long as I possibly could. That is, until this week. Now, let's just say Mitch is the one doing all the laughing and you guessed it...he's doing it in a size five diaper.

Poor Mitch

To say he has had a rough week would be an understatement. It all started Tuesday afternoon when he fell getting out of Jared's van. His chin caught his fall which forced his two front teeth into his lower lip and one of his front teeth up into his gum slightly. (So one of his front teeth is halfway gone, not chipped but "intruded" back into his gum- ouch!) This was traumatic. Probably more so for Mitch because he was the one bleeding but I was still traumatized - especially because I felt his future dental wellness was on the line! However, Jared's older brother, a dentist, was able to talk me off the ledge. He reassured me that he would be fine, that the tooth could potentially come back down on it's own and that he probably didn't damage the permanent tooth behind it. Okay, I was feeling a little better until Wednesday morning. We decided to make a family trip to Wal-mart. (Of course. Because isn't that where all the white trashy parents take their battered children?) As soon as we walk in the door, Mitch trips, falls and hits his already bloodied and swollen mouth on the wheel of the shopping cart. It took all my will power to hold it together at this point. I thought for sure we were going to pick him up and he was going to start spitting out all his teeth. His mouth did start bleeding again but we were able to calm him down quickly. No more damage to his teeth but his lip is now EXTRA swollen. Mitch seems fine but I'm feeling more and more like a negligent parent and I'm also feeling paranoid, thinking the sweet old lady who greeted us is busy calling social services. I'm guessing at this point many of you are probably thinking about calling them too. (FYI: The sharing of similar experiences: "You'll never guess how my son got a black eye..." and/or a little stroking of my shrinking ego as a mother: "Kim, you're the greatest mom ever!" would certainly make appropriate comments, but no pressure.)
Here you can see his swollen face and partially intruded front tooth after the second fall:

So, while that's the end of the tooth drama (for now anyway) Mitch woke up Thursday with a cold that made his eyes very swollen and seeping fluid. It was a lovely addition to his fat lip and gimpy looking tooth. And as if that were not enough for one week, last night he woke up in the middle of the night with the stomach flu. He can't keep anything down. Since all his sheets and blankets are being washed, he just fell asleep on our living room floor:


Poor guy! Hopefully next week will start and end on a brighter note.

A Tractor Full of Nail Polish

This is a pretty typical scene at our house. All my nail polish piled into the front loader of Mitchell's toy tractor. When I find stuff like this it always amuses me and makes me glad to have little boys. Especially a little boy who likes trucks and tractors. I'm not sure what I will do if my boys get into bugs. I don't think I can handle that.