Another great day.

I've got to tell you- every day this baby doesn't come, we get to do more fun stuff. It rules being the oldest kid. your parents always feel guilty.

This morning started out very early. Papa got up at 5:30 to get some work done and noticed that the light was on in my room. Needless to say, I woke up and didn't feel like going back to sleep. Papa put me back in bed and mama later had to come in and remind me that even though my bed is by the window, I am not allowed to pull out the blinds and watch the street in the middle of the night. Eventually I went back to sleep and ended up sleeping in until 8 when mama woke me up.

We went to Target for breakfast at the Starbucks inside. I got to pick out my own pastry and got a blueberry muffin. We looked through the store for a while trying to find a small broom. Lately mom hasn't been getting much sweeping done (there is so much sand and ice in this blasted state) because I always want to help and generally I grab the broom and insist "Henry do it!" Does anyone have any idea on where you can find small brooms?

After Target, we headed over to the free choo choo show- that is, Barnes and Noble, where they have a Thomas train set that anyone can play with. I played while mama picked out a baby book for the new baby.

After my nap (which involved me having to be put back to bed after getting caught playing with the train track), we headed outside. It was 32 degrees outside (t-shirt weather for us Notherners). After a long walk with the neighbors, mama swept out the 4 tons of sand from our garage (no exaggeration. There is so much sand out there, especially on the steep hill by our house). Then she abandoned the broom and just started shoveling out the piles. That led to her shoveling piles of snow away from the sidewalk and chipping at the huge chunks of ice by the flower bed. There was really no use to doing any of this besides mom said it was good to work outside and she was hoping to put herself into labor. So far it hasn't worked.

Luckily I do have my own shovel, so I didn't have to take mama's.

Next, I pumped up the tires on my strollers.

Today was my cousin Evie's 4th birthday party. Since we weren't able to go, we threw a little party of our own. Mama made salmon roulettes stuffed with spinach florentine (okay, Trader Joe's made them, but mama cooked them). Mama did make mashed potatoes from scratch though!

Happy birthday Evie! We missed you! Please write us a song with your new keyboard and send us a video.

In my attempts to escpae my bed at naptime and bedtime, I've come up with a few tricks. The first involved diving unde rthe covers and fake snoring in an attempt to fool mama. The next was to sweetly smile and say "I love you mama." Finally was my insistence today that I may not have dirtied my pants while playing with my race track if only I had been able to sit on the potty. These super cute ploys probably would have worked on papa, but mama has a cold heart and doesn't fall for anything. But since I mentioned the potty chair, she decided I might as well have a go at it.

Every night before bed, I get the chance to sit on the potty chair. We haven't had any success like my little cousin Linkers, but I am still awfully proud of myself for sitting up there. Tell me there's not a difference between boys and girls. Stinks is only 17 months old and is practically potty trained and I won't even squeeze a drop out.

Luckily, I'm cute enough that most people hopefully won't notice when I'm 8 and still in diapers.

After my bath, I insisted on wearing my robe and running around like a crazy man.

we got a package in the mail this week from our very good friend Mister Taylor (affectionately known as Uncle T-bone.) In the package, Mister Taylor explained that he was tired of sending sensible gifts (like my awesome Turner coat) and instead he wanted to send something fun. So now the new baby and I both have Hooters t-shirts form the Mall of America!

I don't think mama is going to let me wear this to church. She did let me wear it to bed tonight, but I did insist on putting my robe back on when I went to sleep.

We made a deal tonight. I got to pick out 2 cars to take to bed with me. Mama said if she or papa had to come into my room to remind me of the bedtime rules, that I would lose one of my cars. I guess after 2 times in the room, I'd be out of cars and they'd just throw me out of the window. Tonight they didn't have to take any cars away because I went straight to sleep. So either their plan worked, or I finally got enough outside time to be sufficiently tired at bedtime.

After I went to bed, mama and papa finished celebrating Evie's birthday with cake (complete with orange sprinkles). I didn't get any because I didn't eat supper.

And papa sends out a birthday message to Evie- complete with 2-year-old comedy.