Our Boy is 3!

Big Boy turned 3 yesterday.  Nana came over and we had a great celebration.

I'm so thankful for our sweet boy.  As I reflect over the past 3 years, thinking of our first boy brings such a big smile to my face.  He is such a joy, as are all of our children.  Now is a great time to list what he's up to these days and what his interests are.  This is mainly for me, so that I can remember this stage of his life, but you're welcome to read it all too. Or, you can just skip straight to the video and pictures and you won't hurt my feelings. :-)

Our boy is such a sweet, loving, and affectionate child.  He gives lots of hugs and kisses.  His vocabulary has really taken off, and we can actually understand a lot of what he says now.  He just recently learned most of his colors and knows most of his shapes.  We're also working on counting and recognizing numbers now.  He loves to sing and can carry a tune really well. He is starting to color more and takes his time trying to color in the lines.

He likes the things boys typically like - trains, cars, airplanes, guns, animals, playing in the sand, and getting dirty.  He really likes superheros too (especially Spiderman - even though he doesn't know much about him because he doesn't watch the show).  He will dress up in his hand-me-down Spiderman costume and then he often pretends to protect me by standing in front of me and pretending he saves me from getting hurt by the mean guys (the invisible mean guys).

He loves to eat chocolate!  I have no idea where he gets that from. :-)

He loves to get on his Daddy's shoulders.  As soon as Daddy gets home from work, he'll say "Shoulders Daddy."

We're working on potty training and he'll go on the potty a few times during the day, but won't always stay dry in between.  

He says such cute things now.  The other day I was asking him how many ears he had, how many feet he had, how many eyes he had, etc., and he said "two, two, two, etc.".  Then I asked him how many hairs he had.  He said "all of dem".  I thought that was a pretty good answer.

He can't pronounce the "K" or hard "C" or "L" sound.  Instead, he says the "D" or "T" sound.  He can say "LJ" though, just not the "ull" sound.  Here are some of his pronunciations.

you - ew
cookie - dootie
car - daw
three - free
this - dis
that - dat
brother - brudder
sorry - sawy
thank you - tank ew
spaghetti - abetti
Spiderman - myman
yogurt smoothie - dodurt smoodie
birthday - birtday
I love you - I dove ew
I love you more - I dove ew mow

He often says "mine" instead of "my".  Like he kept talking about "Mine birtday."

He is very polite.  He says "thank you" without being prompted.  Also, he says "sorry" a lot when he spills something, knocks something over, or if he can tell I'm not happy with him because of something he's done.  He says "I love you" a lot and when I say it back to him he usually says "I love you, more."  If I'm going out or sometimes when Daddy leaves he'll say "I miss you."

He gets excited about the smallest things.  He often says "Wow!"  He even gets excited about new clothes.  I got him some new shirts for church yesterday and when he saw them he said, "For me?  Oh, wow!  Tank ew, Mommy!"

He always wants to help.  In fact, he gets upset if he can't help with something. He also likes to do things himself.  "Me do it" is a common phrase of his.

He rarely sleeps in his bed.  He often falls asleep on the couch or the living room floor and if I move him to his bed, he will come back down through the night and will try to climb into our bed.  Sometimes he's successful and I don't even know he's there until I roll over and feel a little person beside me.

Here's a video and some pictures from his birthday.

Talking to Grandma and Grandpa who called to wish him a Happy Birthday.