Nope it’s not Christmas – it is pre-birthday planning. Admittedly, my tiny charge does not turn three until the end of May – but that is not going to stop me from getting things in order now.

1. Venue – booked as of January

2. Theme – woodland animals

3. Invitations and Save the Date – created waiting to send

4. Seats, masks, decor – in progress (42 masks done, 23 seats almost done…)

5. Custom cookie baker – contacted for initial design ideas

6. Animals – rented – 45 minute small creatures presentation for the party arranged with local farmer

Only 80 more days to go…gotta stay on my game!

As you all know I travel quite a bit – as an added bonus to my tiny charge getting cuter and talking more is his ability to ‘get’ that me being gone stinks. His current choice for expressing his distaste with the arrangement is to scream and cry at the top of his lungs ‘I don’t want mommy’ or my personal favorite ‘I don’t love mommy’….I know this will pass but in the meantime…Really?!

Z has brought college football into my life over the last two years. At first, it was subtle, a random mention of a team here, 15-minute pause on a game on TV over the weekends…..this was all a ruse – an attempt to conceal his true obsession with college sports. – earlier today I received the following photo on supoprting text in an email:

Only five more days

Scene: we are laying in bed at the ranch (Texas between Z and I) Texas wakes up and reaches over to touch Zach’s face and feels the back of his head

Texas: Oh No – where did Dada’s face go?

Me: You are rubbing the back of his head baby – his face is on the other side

Texas: No Mommy! Dada lost his face

Zach: (rolling over) My face is right here buddy

Texas: Mommy – Dada got his face back – YEA!

 Okay, I am officially old – I have taken to showing my tiny charge Styx videos on my i-Phone (at least I have one of those to keep me in touch with the kids). Mr Roboto is the video of choice and you have to admit it is a very catchy little tune. Night after night this week I have watched my tiny charge – a bundle of post-Montessori energy bound around the house acting like a robot singing ‘secret-secret I got a secret’ . The best part is that he somehow misses the enunciation of Roboto and adds several auxiliary syllables – Mr. Row-bow-ga-toe. It is priceless.

At a mere two and a half weighing in at 35 lbs I am still able to make basic choices for my tiny charge – you will in fact get in your car seat, these are the pjs you need to wear and sadly if you abuse toys I have the power to put them on a high shelf out of your reach. So when it comes to shaping the relationship preferences at this point – as the play date scheduler I can also help with those friendship choices.

Over the last couple of years we have weeded out potential friends due to whiney parents, oddly dressed children or those who seem to suffer an unecissarily high rate of illness. I am going to revel in this fleeting power for as long as I can because frankly once I lose it all those annoying parents whose kids don’t have on socks with tennis shoes and snotty noses could conceivable start filtering into my life.

My tiny charge is obsessed with rice right now. I think he would consume 3-4 cups if allowed in a single meal. Z has been making sticky rice so when formed by a measuring cup it retains its disk-like shape. I think this is part of the appeal. The dog has been super stoked with the whole phenomenon since he reaps the benefits of the stray grains that end up EVERYWHERE. I actually noticed him trying to lick them out of Texas’ curly locks the other night.

So this morning after an hour of adorable cuddling and sweet snuggles from my tiny charge he happily sat up in bed and proudly showed me something he had extracted from his nose and then popped the tiny morsel in his mouth and ate it.

Ugh……the ‘boy side’ of boys.