Finally, A Parenting Success

We've been pounding the Mets into his head for two years, and finally... he got it.

Birthday, Part III - Sunday, February 24

Okay, one more small birthday gathering yesterday, this time with Nana, Pop Pop, Aunt Lauren, and Uncle Lou. And a Sesame Street theme.

Mom & Dad had to go out and pick up the cake, so Grandma took that opportunity to ply Robert with Cocoa Puffs.

The cake arrived! And it's... well, you'll see it later in the post. But Robert certainly dug it!

Aunt Lauren & Uncle Lou brought an Aqua Doodle, which is awesome:


And makes nice headgear:

They also brought Play-Doh!


Peanut tried to participate, but Aunt Lauren just wasn't feeling it. I like this picture.




POP-POP IS HERE! AND HE BROUGHT A BIG BOX! (One that looks... well... strangely familiar...)


(I feel like I've definitely seen this before...)


More basketball! Great minds think alike! Now we can put them both up and play full court.

Cake time!







Note to self: Order a cake with un-dyed icing next year.


(Yes, he pooped blue today.)

Robert wanted to climb the stairs, but Mommy thought that wasn't the best idea.


How about some more hoops instead? A regular "Thunder Dan" Majerle, I tell you.

And more Doodling with Uncle Lou.

Robert tried to take his shirt off, but only got about halfway, which was hilarious. This kid's quite a comedian.


He finally got it off, but demanded that more photos be taken.

We even got him to try on his new sweater Mommy made!

All in all, one very wonderful, very long birthday weekend. I wonder whose birthday is next?

Grandma & Grandpa!

Emily's parents came down for Robert's birthday, and brought a baby!


Peanut was very curious about the new addition, but we made him promise not to eat the baby.


Robert's professed love of jelly did not go unnoticed by Great-Grandma Place!

Nor his love of all things Sesame Street by Gram:


Robert also got some Crayola easy-glide crayons.

These were really unnecessarily messy, actually.

So Mommy took over.

Robert's special birthday dinner involved a trip to the diner for grilled cheese and -- yes, more candles!

Birthday Donuts!

Birthday, Part II - Saturday, February 23

Mom & Dad bought Robert his first basketball net! He's like a little Larry Bird.



Or maybe more like a little Shaq, considering he can't do anything other than dunk.

During halftime, Robert opened some more presents.

He's clearly -- well, clearly to us, anyway -- saying "ABBY!" in this picture.


This was actually very funny. Emily's been working on this sweater for Robert for weeks. Robert has, of course, not been allowed to touch it, even though it's been sitting on the table next to the recliner the whole time. So when he opened it Saturday morning...

...he said "Mommy!" and put it back on the table, where it belongs.

Robert unwraps very carefully, insisting that each individual scrap of wrapping paper get thrown out along the way:

Daddy and Robert blew bubbles:


And made pizza:

But then the buzzer sounded, and it was "game on."

You'll note that Bobo's not much of a defender.


(Robert took this last picture himself.)