Birthday James!

James gets giddy about birthdays. So giddy that back in January, we created a paper chain countdown to help him picture when his birthday would actually be here. Apparently that means I've successfully done my job at spoiling him over the last 2 years. (Oops.) It also adds a lot of pressure. A couple of weeks before his birthday, we decided we wouldn't do a party this year. Then, with the Corona-Virus going on, I'm so glad I didn't have a party planned because basically everything is cancelled (including church) and nobody is really leaving their homes.

We talked about taking James to the movie theater for the first time on his birthday, but we didn't because of the virus. We did take James to "the donut shop" also know as the Lehi Bakery the weekend before because it was closed on Monday, James' actual birthday. James picked out his own donut and was thrilled with the green sprinkles. We meet Grandma Langlois at the Lehi Bakery sometimes, and he is very fond of that place. I can't blame him because the donuts are so light and fluffy.

On Sunday, March 15, we sang to James at Nana and Papa's house. He loved the attention and left quite a bit of spit all over the apple crisp dessert. Nana and Papa gave James a big car carrier and Simon and Esther gave him a coloring mat!

On Monday, March 16, James' presents awaited him downstairs. In fact, I think he knew something was up the night before. He may have heard us working on getting everything ready and got out of bed a couple of times (which is rare). We got training wheels and a helmet for James' bike! My friend Kaitlin gave him an astronaut book along with an astronaut launcher. Balloons made everything even more exciting!

(Still working on learning to ride this)

We had a big breakfast of pancakes and eggs! For dinner, we went through the drive through at Chick-Fil-A and got James his very own kids meal with chicken nuggets, french fries, and chocolate milk. Later, we watched the movie "Frozen 2" which none of us had seen. To top it all off, James got to pick his own cupcake (pupcake is how he pronounces it) from Cravings. I have never let him have his own before. He wanted to get a cupcake that wasn't messy. Good luck with that!

Although it was kind of a different birthday due to the unique pandemic, I'm glad we could spoil James. Here are some things I want to remember about James right now:

James is extremely smart! He talks constantly and speaks well. Most people think he is much older than 3. James has lots of energy and I have to remind him that if he wants to be wild, he can run around in the basement. James likes to know the schedule for the day and what's going on. He asks, "what's happening after that?" He enjoys going to story-time at the library weekly and is stoked to be big enough to attend "preschool story-time" for big kids. He can listen to me read him stories for A LONG time which makes my heart happy. He loves going to the gym (or gymboree) while I workout and I think it's mostly because of the unlimited T.V. 

He cannot wait until preschool begins in September and is extremely disappointed that a yellow bus won't be picking him up.  He LOVES Macaroni and Cheese (He definitely doesn't get that from me). He knows the words to some primary songs (I Love to See the Temple, I am a Child of God, Families Can be Together Forever, The Wise Man, Nephi's Courage, etc.) I said he knows the "words" for a reason. We're still working on his singing voice. ;) He absolutely LOVES nursery and is very social constantly asking about his friends. James is the best big brother and often asks if we can go wake Isabelle up when she's napping because he misses her. He lives for playing outside! We sure do love this tender-hearted boy.

A couple of days after James' birthday, he continued to ask me when his friends were coming over for a party. Next year it is, buddy!