Kate, who is much hipper and also much better at understanding three-year-old-ese, informed me that my interpretation was wrong. Pretty sure there was some eye-rolling going on.

Can you tell what he’s saying?

Potty humor.

He was playing in the sandbox at school last week, and announced upon my arrival that he was making “poop pie.” Today as we were driving home, I asked him what he had for lunch. His response? “Poopyhead!” I thought I didn’t hear him correctly at first and asked him to repeat himself – sure enough, “Poopyhead!” I said that wasn’t a nice word and I didn’t like it, and he said “It starts with an S so that means it’s not a bad word.”

Yeah, we still have some work to do on letters. And apparently also on logic.

As you may or may not have noticed, Jenny has no problem with disgusting topics (ok I have to stop linking to posts within the category “bodily functions” before I lose my lunch). I, however, prefer not to discuss such matters. I use curse words way more than Jenny does though so I’m in no way claiming vocabularial (I made that word up, but I like it) superiority – I just think it is revolting, and saying words that Jenny will freely title a blog post with makes me physically uncomfortable.

So anyway, what am I going to do with Sam and his new fascination? I want to make it stop!!!!

Last week, when I picked Sam up from school, I asked his teacher how his day went, as I do every day. She responded that he had a good day, and she does every day. But then she threw a zinger at me.

“I did have one question for you,” she said. “Does Sam know his letters and numbers?”

Sam’s three and a half. He’s been recognizing and pointing out the letters in his name when he sees them around, and I thought that was a pretty good development. Other than that, I hadn’t given it any thought.

Until that moment.

As I stumbled around for an answer, the teacher continued, “When I ask him, he doesn’t seem to know them, other than the letters in his name, and I wasn’t sure if he was just being silly or what. He’s so smart, I figured that he’d know them already. Does he know them when you work on them at home?”

When we, uh, work on them? At home?

CRAP.

Teaching him letters and numbers had not crossed my mind. (I can’t believe I am admitting that.)

The kid has known the entire St. Louis Cardinals line up since he was barely two, and he can recite Star Wars and/or Lord of the Rings characters or plot lines in his sleep.

He is smart. I really didn’t think I needed to teach him stuff.

Needless to say, after that conversation with his teacher, I immediately freaked out and determined I had ruined his academic future. As I drove home, I made a mental list of all the things I needed to google – methods, apps, flashcards, you name it – to get him back on track.

I broke the news that Sam was academically challenged to his dad gently when we got home. Andy said, “She wants him to know his letters and numbers? I’ll teach them to him by tomorrow.”

Then he broke out a pen and paper and started to drill Sam. I hadn’t even googled anything yet! He wasn’t even using the iPad! I was appalled.

Until I realized that Sam was indeed learning his letters and numbers right there on the spot.

So there, preschool teacher.

Anywho, this is a long and belabored way to get to the point – Andy’s old fashioned method actually did work, but I’m still on the look out for toys/videos/apps/games that will reinforce his letter/number knowledge.

So, readers, what worked for you and your kids? How can I get Sam back on the right academic track before he becomes a preschool slacker?

But, since he had decided he was ready, I wanted to move on it. His crib is one of those that theoretically makes a toddler bed and then a double bed, and for some reason I had in my mind that make the conversion was going to require serious deconstruction and reconstruction of the whole thing. As it turns out, the “toddler bed” is the crib minus one side. The directions said to remove two screws. Even I could handle that. So, Sunday evening, we got him all set up.

He was so excited.

(Shout out to my good friend Beth and her son for the sweet bedding!)

I, however, was a bit sad. He is my baby. And he’s not sleeping in a crib anymore. Which would lead to the inevitable conclusion that he is not in fact a baby, but I refuse to acknowledge that.

He’s my baby.

Sunday night, after we had read books and said prayers and sang lullabyes and rocked for an extra long time, I carried him over and laid him in his big boy bed.

In his sweet, almost-asleep voice, he whispered to me, “I still need you, Mama.”

Oh, my heart.

Kate’s spending the weekend with Aunt Anna at church camp. Anna wants to indoctrinate these kids into camp at an early age! I am really excited for them both and I know they’re going to have a great time. I can only hope Kate comes back from camp with a pine tree tattooed on her back like Anna did one summer.

Andy and my dad are spending the weekend in Chicago, on their annual baseball weekend trip. I can only hope they don’t come back with anything tattooed anywhere.

So, that means I get to spend the weekend with this guy.

And I am pretty excited about it.

I’ve been trying to think up fun things we could do, just the two of us. All Sam has requested is that we go to “Chick-a-lay.” I’m thinking we may stop at Cosi – I loved it as a kid but haven’t been for many years. I’ve never really taken Sam anywhere like that, just the two of us, and I think it would be fun. Besides – we’re going to need to do something to break up the 5-hour car ride we’ve got in store with us that day! I think we might go to the zoo on Sunday, as well.

Either that, or we’ll stay home and play super heroes. Regardless, opportunities like this don’t come along very often, and whether he’ll remember a weekend with his mom to himself years from now, I know I will.

And then I saw this.

And then I googled “What happens when you eat uncooked corn on the cob?” (Apparently nothing. Sam lived to tell about it.)

Boys are gross.

Yes, Sam. The one who turned three at the beginning of April.

I’m all about leaving a kid in a crib as long as possible (clearly), but even I am wondering if this is going on a little too long. We switched Kate to a big bed at about 2.5, but we had a good reason to – we moved, so doing a new room/new bed made sense (and setting up her crib in the new house did not!). But we’ve had no reason to move Sam, so we haven’t.

He’s not climbing out of the crib, he doesn’t mind being in there, and he is a wonderful sleeper. Frankly, I hate to mess with it!

The fact remains, however, that he is nearly three and a half and still sleeping in a crib.

So tell me – what would you do? Let sleeping babies toddlers preschoolers lie, or break out the big boy bed?

I thought I’d make things simple and have a combined family birthday party for both of the kids.

That plan totally backfired.

Instead of having two birthdays, this has turned into a month-long celebration. First we had Sam’s birthday celebration at school. And then one on his actual birthday. Then we had their combined birthday party this Sunday. Friday is Kate’s actual birthday, when we’ll celebrate with her class at school and then go out to dinner and bowling. And then the week after that, we’ll have her “friend” birthday party at the skating rink (that is, if I ever get around to calling to schedule it. And then send invitations. So yeah, that’s questionable.). Not to mention, we’re like hemorrhaging money.

Shoot me.

Even though it stressed me out, their party turned out to be nice, and they had a ball. Here are some pictures, taken by my talented sister Anna.

Check out the cake. I made it myself!

Yeah right – we all know what happens when I bake a cake. Actually, I ordered it from our friend Cortney at Sweet Top Cakery!

Isn’t it cute?

And Luanne at Lulee’s Lollies outdid herself this time – the Star Wars characters she made were amazing!

I only have one birthday party tip, but it is a good one – scoop ice cream into muffin tins before the party to avoid craziness when it’s time to cut the cake!

Kate, aka Princess Leia.

Sam’s lightsaber collection was enough to keep all the kids (and some of the adults) occupied.

Kate and Joshua “fighting.”

Jenny’s husband Bobby is an excellent multitasker.

This is my niece Lily reenacting the scene where Vader gets his hand cut off.

Kate takes this all very seriously.

Cutiepie Jonah.

Kate and her Chewbacca lollie.

The birthday boy.

Looking back on it, I guess it wasn’t that bad. But May can’t get here soon enough!

I was a little worried that Sam’s birthday was going to get lost in the shuffle, and I wanted to make sure we made the day special for him, even with everything else that was going on.

I emailed my friend Gina, who lives outside St. Louis, asking where I should order a Cardinals birthday cake, and she immediately wrote back saying she’d make him one.

Later that day, I was IM’ing with my friend Beth, telling her about our trip and my concern about Sam’s birthday. “Are the Cardinals in town?” she asked me. “You should take him to the game.” Next thing I know, she says she’s arranged for four tickets to be waiting for us at will call.

Saturday morning, Gina drove into the city and delivered this:

Needless to say, Sam loved it.

Later, we surprised Sam by taking him to the baseball game.

Sam had a great third birthday, in no small part because I have such good friends.

We are both pretty lucky.

Even though he’s only three, he’s got a few great loves in his life. His house (the kid is a total homebody), his sister, and baseball.

Especially baseball.

The day Sam was born, my dad christened him “Sluggin’ Sam.” The next day Dad went to the Reds game and snagged the first fly ball he’d ever caught, after, you know, about 50 years of trying. He brought it to Sam at the hospital.

By Sam’s first birthday, his favorite word was “ball.” He couldn’t walk, but he already loved to play ball. I had the brilliant idea to have a ball motif for his birthday party – we could decorate with all sorts of balls and we could serve melon balls and meat balls and all sorts of things… but his father quickly determined that the theme for his party could not be BALLS.

By his second birthday, he called himself “Baseball Sammy.” He never went anywhere without his baseball cap and “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” was his favorite song.

Last weekend, we spent his third birthday at one of his very favorite places in the world – Busch Stadium – watching his beloved Cardinals.

He was SO excited. Random strangers took pictures and video taped him yelling “Go Cardinals, GO!!!!” My facebook page was not the only one featuring Sam that day.

Sam’s interests aren’t particularly diverse or varied – he finds something he likes and sticks with it. But his passion and enthusiasm are inspiring to me, and I learn from him every day.

He is such a great kid.

Happy birthday, Baseball Sammy. I love you more than everything put together.