Happy birthday to me! It's good to be three!

I turned three Friday! In honor of my birthday, Bubbe and Papa came to visit. I was really excited to see them, and they came bearing gifts. Papa came in wearing a special safari hat for me, which he likes so much he wore it on the plane here, and Bubbe gave me some fun fish glasses that Mom says make me look like Elton John. We all love them because they are hilarious.

Bubbe also brought me a new toothbrush. It's nothing like the other toothbrushes I have. It's electric and it looks like a train! I love it and it makes me a lot happier about cleaning my pearly whites.

We did lots of fun things while Bubbe and Papa were here. We ate at Taco Cabana, Waterloo, P. Terry's, and Threadgill's. Mom and Dad had to work Thursday so Hazel and I kept Bubbe and Papa company. We took them to one of our favorite places, Jungle Java.

Friday was my birthday. I woke up to find a new resident in my room, a giant duck. It's name is Big Yellow Duck, but I usually call it Big Duck for short. I am crazy about him and my old pal, simply known as Duck, likes him too. Big Duck sure is making nap and bedtime a lot easier.

I got loads of great presents throughout the day. Bubbe kicked off the day with a special singing bear we can only play with on our birthdays. Hazel and I really like jamming to it. I also got lots of stuff from Mom and Dad (highlights include a ViewMaster and some cool vintage reels, my own copy of Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3, some awesome duck slippers, and of course Big Duck), a bingo game and alphabet stickers for my room from Aunt Laurie and Uncle Jonathan, Rainbow Rollers and a clock puzzle from Aunt Susan, Uncle Stuart, Aunt Pat and Uncle Neal, cookie and pizza sets from Grandma and Grandpa, and lots of things from Bubbe and Papa (my favorites were an alphabet puzzle, number flash cards, make-a-face toy for the tub).

While Hazel took a nap Friday morning, Papa and I thought it'd be a good time to put together another present I got -- a big wheel bike from Oma. It's great. It's red, flashy, and really, really fast when I'm behind the wheel. It was so fun putting it together. Turns out I'm really good with a screwdriver.

Lunch Friday was a treat in itself. Dad joined us for lunch and we went to my favorite lunch haunt -- Costco! We had pizza and hot dogs, and Hazel and I really chowed down. Friday afternoon when I got up from my nap, we celebrated by eating more, this time cupcakes and ice cream. It was great!

Saturday we continued celebrating by having a party with all my buddies at one of my favorite haunts, Champion Park. We had lots of food -- turkey wraps, fruit, veggies, hummus and best of all, banana cake made from my great-great-grandma's recipe. Her name was Mimi, she had the same birthday as Mom, and my great-grandma (Mom-Mom) sent the recipe to Mom a few weeks ago. Everyone loved the cake, which reminded Mom of Pennsylvania.

The party was very fun. About 40 people were there and we played in the sandbox and on the swings, dug for dinosaur bones, and played in the whale splash pad. My friends brought me so many cool gifts, we haven't even opened them all yet. I'll let you know how that goes later.

Today we slowed down a little and met up with Bubbe and Papa at their hotel for a swim. Even though I hated the pool the last time we went a month or two ago, I had a blast today. I hung out in the hot tub with Dad for a few minutes. I really liked it because of all the cool bubbles. I even spent some time in the pool with everyone. Hazel liked the pool too but screamed anytime Mom went underwater. I guess she didn't like her disappearing into thin air like that. It was too bad because until we figured out why Hazel was crying, Mom kept doing cannonballs to make me laugh.

So, we've had a very busy weekend, and even aside from that we've had a lot going on. Wednesday, Hazel really started walking a lot more. She hasn't done it as much since that afternoon, but she walked a quarter of the way across Mom and Dad's bedroom. She kept taking steps until she fell over, and a few times started dancing while walking, which made her lose her balance. Every time she cracked up. We're hoping when things settle down around here, she'll pick it back up again soon. It'll be fun when Hazel walks everywhere!

Since Bubbe and Papa have been here, Hazel has also said two words, "cat" and "dog." And since our last blog entry, she has grown more teeth. She is now up to eight! She's growing them so fast, we can't even keep up with it on this blog. She's happy about it all because she can eat so much quicker.

We've been dancing a lot lately to a song we have enjoyed since I was born, "Mahna Mahna." You'll have to watch our video to see how much we dig it.

It's still really hot here, and we are still enjoying our sprinkler in our backyard. Last week it was so hot, even Peepa joined in the fun.

You may remember, for the first 15 months of my life, I wore cloth diapers. Then Mom was pregnant with Hazel and couldn't take it so we started using disposables. Well, after a potty training effort gone wrong, both Hazel and I are wearing cloth diapers. I am not thrilled about it, but the point was to make me dislike diapers enough to use the potty. As a side benefit, Mom and Dad are hoping Hazel will potty train earlier/easier because of it too. So far, it's not working for me but I am complaining about it a lot. The other day Mom showed me some Cat in the Hat big boy underwear I am pretty excited about, so maybe that'll take it to the next level. I'll keep you posted.

Here's a link to pictures from my fun birthday weekend, and here are a couple of videos:

• Fun clips from my birthday weekend
• Me and Bubbe spelling words