Great Things!

Indeed!

Mozart turned three this weekend and we had his Fire Truck party as requested.  We'd planned on having the party at home, per usual, but found out Home Depot hosts birthday party's a couple weeks ago, so I called 'em up to see if they were available when we wanted and the only thing we needed to do was pick the theme.

Seriously.  That's all we had to do.  I said fire trucks and she said, "Cool, would a Rescue Plane craft be ok?"  Uh, yeah! Cool!  I went back to Mozart and he then changed his theme to be "Rescue vehicles with fire trucks."    This was a good because, while I'm sure I could have fashioned a fire truck cake, I really didn't want to poison the children with a Red Dye #40 cake.  Mozart agreed to a "fire rescue scene" for his cake.  So I got to work.  I used the same recipe as his owl cake, which, admittedly takes a bit longer than your typical non-freezer affairs, but it was just so good that every time I made a cake TW would say, "Oh, yes, she's an excellent cook, but nothing will top the OWL CAKE."  So yeah.  Had to.  Not because it was asked of me, but because I gotta show what I got from time to time :D

So Thursday night I got to work.  Went shopping.  Spent entirely to much money.  Changed the landscape of the cake from round to square pans because they didn't sell the sizes I needed in round locally.  Went to a second store for food dye (I threw it all away last year because I was disgusted with the chemical dyes, but then I couldn't come up with viable options for real colors, so I caved). Baked three cakes and a batch of cupcakes.  Set them to the freezer. Made the frosting.  Made the daycare edition cupcakes for his party the next day:
 

And put the crumb coat on the main cake:


....before falling into bed.  I went to my job as any zombie does the next day and set to work when I got home.  First another batch of cream cheese frosting.  A double batch this time.  Made various colors. And set to the landscape:


I hadn't a plan for the burning building when I was in the baking process, so I ended up fashioning it out of graham crackers.  I did a second crumb coat for good measure, then applied the grass, and of course, the underground was made of Nutella.  Finally, I decorated the fire station, and put a crushed graham cracker and cocoa gravel down on the road before applying the rescue vehicles.  But all said and done, I'd say, a pretty fine Fire Rescue Scene cake:


The kids loved it (as did the adults)...


Oh.  And not so insignificantly, Home Depot does a BANG UP job on birthday parties!  This is what we were greeted with:

That's right, not only did they decorate and provide a craft, but they really went all out ~ that piece of art hanging over the chair there in front of the fire truck place mat, and under the suspended fire truck, was a hand-painted workman's apron for the little man.  Each kid got the choice of doing 1,2, or even 3 crafts (Pirate Ship, Race Car, or Trojan Horse Piggy Bank), and while they didn't actually have any Fire Rescue Plane kits left, they were able to give Mozart one that was already built.  So we did our crafts, and had a blast.  Mozart tested out the roadway for the ambulance:


And we served up the cake:


AND THEN the FIRE DEPARTMENT showed up!!!  Mozart gave all the firefighters hugs, and then got to explore the TWO trucks they brought, and THEN he, and the other kids, got to practice ACTUALLY USING the fire hose!!  It was a truly amazing day.


So all of that was Saturday.  We'd been telling Mozart for several weeks now that he needs to be potty trained when he turns three because he's not a baby anymore and that we're not going to buy any more diapers.  Despite all of that we were meeting a great deal of resistance to the whole potty training thing.

But you know what?

Sunday he got up and peed on his potty.  Put his undies on.  And stayed dry ALL DAY LONG!
Monday, he went to daycare in big boy pants, and stayed dry ALL DAY LONG! (he did wear a diaper for car transport)
Tuesday, he went to daycare in big boy pants, and stayed dry ALL DAY LONG! (without aforementioned diaper in the car)
And today he also stayed dry THE WHOLE TIME he was in big boy pants!  He did have a diaper towards the end of the day as he hadn't yet pooped (today was the 4th day), but then tonight, after MUCH ADO, he POOPED ON THE POTTY!

Yahooooo!  We are going to the pizza house tomorrow in celebration.

Have I mentioned that Mozart is obsessed with Harry Potter?

I'm sure I must have.  He is adorable, whether he is saying "swish and flick", "wingardium leviosa", or "you disapear!" when using my pen or his fork to cast spells with his newly found wand.  Or when he jumps down from his chair and says, "I just gonna play Quidditch now," and runs off to get his broom.  Or the fascination he has developed with chess because of the great scene of Wizard Chess.

He has only ever read or watched the first book, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone", but he has watched the movie probably over 30 times and I'm sure he and TW have ready through the book nearly twice now.  I had reservations about the appropriateness of it for a two-year-old, but TW has such an obsession that I let it happen - it's a good bonding thing for them - at first only with one of us sitting next to him at all times, but now he watches the whole movie through on his own and only when he is feeling especially sensitive are those scary scenes (TROLL!!! Troll in the dungeon!) actually scary to him.  Now he just goes over the scene at the dinner table ("But the troll's not in the dungeon anymore. Went to the girls bathroom. Gotta tell 'mione.")

When I picked him up from daycare it was reported to me that he holds court by telling everyone about everything that Harry does, and all the other characters, and that he goes on and on and on, and and not a one of them (kids nor adults) knows what he's talking about except that it's Harry Potter.  That same evening on the way home, he says out of the blue (probably in response to something on the radio actually) and quite matter-o-factly, "I got a kitty, but just one.  BatCat died. Voldemort killed her."

*sigh*

I corrected him that while Batcat did die, Voldemort did not do her in.

I can't yet bear to tell him that he won't be going to Hogwarts when he's 11 because there is no Hogwarts.