Sammy and G: Birthday fun...so far

We've had quite an adventuresome day already for our special guy! Guthrie seemed to know that there was a little extra excitement in the air, as he woke up almost an hour earlier than usual. I greeted him with a song (sung even more out of tune, I'm sure, after just waking up myself), gave G a big hug and put on his newly made birthday hat.

Yes, the hat is massive. Wasn't really thinking about kiddo proportions much as I was putting it together! I stole the idea from Jessa- if you want one of these for your special little bug, and want it made correctly, you can find one here.

We played with some spools of thread in the dump truck and watched a couple of his favorite short videos online (Feist's 1234 Sesame Street song) until Sammy woke up.

Growing up, my mom would let us choose what we wanted her to make for our birthday breakfast (which was usually waffles or french toast). I want to continue the tradition- Guthrie's special birthday request: rice crispies!

Next, we headed downtown to Imaginon (Charlotte's children's library) for storytime and play. Fun started in the elevator with pushing the buttons. G seems to know what needs to be pushed to arrive at the correct floor these days (when the choice is 'P' or '1').

Even though the reader was very engaging and interactive at storytime, we didn't last through the whole time. There are just too many distractions and fun things to do there. First of all, just outside the wall of windows where we were sitting is a giant crane- G kept exclaiming, "Crane! Crane!" and calling out as dumptrucks, delivery trucks and concrete trucks passed by.

There are magnetic letters on the end of a section of bookshelves that always capture G's attention. He tends to seek out letters he knows- w, x, y, o, a, i, g- collects and rearranges them.

Next in line was checking out the furniture in the little play house.

Guthrie kept stacking the wooden furniture like blocks. It was too funny- a table and chair fit nicely on top of the stove.

Rearranging the stuffed blocks in the performance area.

Driving and hanging out in the wooden car...

Next, we caught the light rail, which is just outside the library, to go to lunch. It's been super hot here, so we were happy to get on the air-conditioned train to travel to our destination!

Our lunch stop was several stations away, so we were able to travel for a good bit of time. At each stop, Guthrie would look up at me with hope in his eyes and say, "more train? More more train?" I realized that it would be essential to count down the stops so he wasn't disappointed when the ride was over.

Whoa, train!

Oh yes, our lunch destination was none other than Chick-fil-A! G sported his hat for a bit again while eating his chicken and fruit.

Meanwhile, Sammy happily played in the stroller.

All done with the hat.

Sammy was hungry so he thought he'd just eat the stroller. This guy is probably also going to be a blankie kid- he seems to find some kind of cloth to chew on anywhere.