Piles of presents. Noodles, green beans and chocolate cake. I would venture to say it was a nearly perfect Nicole birthday. This year she got toys that are mostly along the lines of helping Mommy. Or little Mommy. A grocery cart with little plastic foods; a little pink stroller; a little kitchen tools set with a rolling pin, wooden spoon, etc.; a pretty dress; and the book "Big Dog, Little Dog." How can you go wrong with a book about dogs? It really was a good thing that she got a stroller AND a grocery cart because Nathan thinks he needs to push one of them and for now, thankfully, is content to play with whichever one Nicole is not playing with.

Nicole is now out of the terrible twos in into the terrible threes. Her birthday comes at the end of the birthday season in our house—which starts in February with my birthday. She went to get her picture taken at the JCPenney studio, but we didn't get their one and only good photographer, so the results weren't as good as we would have liked. But then again, it is Nicole, so being cute is not really very difficult.

Nicole recently started potty training. Her motivation is that she wants to wear her pretty pink and purple princess panties, but she doesn't get to do that until the probability of her keeping them dry increases. Working from home, I get to partake in some of the potty training goodness, especially the reports. Yesterday, I got off the phone with my manager seconds before Nicole barged in and yelled, "Daddy, I just went poo-poo in the potty!" While it warms my heart to hear such a good report, I am also very relieved that she has such impeccable timing.