Birthday Boy

I can't believe I haven't shown you pictures of my birthday yet! My how things get away from me in my old age.Anyway, here I am on my real birthday. Vati made banana muffins for me to take to school, so we put a few candles in one so that I could blow them out. I also woke up to a hallway full of balloons and a Happy Birthday banner!

Then, on Saturday we had a real birthday party with my family.
Pop grilled burgers and brats for lunch, and then we ate the pumpkin cake that Vati made for me. I was still pretty excited about Halloween, so I really liked the pumpkin cake. And I was really excited about singing "Happy Birthday." My guests were a little slow starting the song after my candle was lit, so I had to get them started.
Then it was time to open presents! My favorite part! I got a great track suit from GG, and Clare even got some gifts. Here we are playing with the tools I got from Mama and Vati. It was a great birthday.

Biker Babes

Rumor has it that Joshua's been sitting on Mike's motorcycle for years now. This time I decided I'd scream until I got a chance to perch on it, too. What do you think? Is it me?

A Big Trip

The weekend before Thanksgiving Vati and I went to Chicago for a little father/son vacay! No reason, really, just seemed like a good idea.
Our trip started a little inauspiciously as we missed our plane. But we quickly got back on track and arranged to get on the next flight. As you can see, that flight took place during my naptime, so I took advantage of the comfy seat. I fell asleep on the tarmac and didn't wake up until we started making our final descent. It was a good thing I woke up, though, since I was in charge of finding the blue train. Boy, did I love the train!
The night we took a bus to Mama and Vati's old 'hood and had dinner at Joy's Noodles. It was my first Pad Thai, but it won't be my last. The two gentlemen in the back told us they decided to eat at Joy's because I was so cute. Now that's a ringing endorsement! The next morning we went to the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum to see the butterflies. The rest of the time was spent eating, sleeping, and seeing old friends. We went to dinner in Greektown, visited my friend Tracy at the Heartland Cafe, ate some sushi, and saw Mama and Vati's pastor Greg.
We also visited Mama and Vati's old condo, where I spent 5 gestational months, although I don't remember that part.
One of the other highlights was going to a Dank Schule, a Saturday morning preschool program where I got to hear and speak German with other kids. Oh, and I didn't hate the part when I went to have dim sum with Uncle Dave.
But maybe may favorite part was staying in a hotel and sleeping in the big bed with lots of pillows. And even though it was the biggest bed I'd ever seen, I still somehow managed to find Vati and snuggle up with him for a good night's rest.

I hope we go back.

Fall

When we went to Gran's house a few weeks before Halloween, she took us to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins! There were plenty of fun things to do like rearrange the pumpkins, dance with gourds, pose for pictures, and pose for pictures the wrong way!