How old are you, Will?
Whoa. We have a three year old! And what an amazing little guy he is. Will's birthday was on the 11th, but I have been too busy playing with this three year old to blog about it! Before I write about the day, I have to write down a few things about Will at age 3. {remember, this blog is our family scrapbook, so I apologize that I tend to over-share!}
Will is pretty awesome. At 3, he loves to play, read and be read to, play games on the ipad {especially Angry Birds with Duke}, eat, help me cook, sing, talk, drive his cars, bounce, make up games and use his imagination, and pretty much be a boy in every way possible! No joke, Will pretty much talks nonstop whenever he is awake if we're at home. When we get out with a group, he tends to be quiet at the beginning, but once he warms up, he will talk, sing, etc. with no problem. :) He is super curious and is very interested in words, letters, and numbers. If we are reading a book and I say a word he doesn't know, he asks what it means and wants me to point it out. And the crazy thing is that he remembers! Like, everything! Sometimes I wonder if he has a photographic memory, because he will remember the most minute details from a long time ago, and he'll just bring them up out of the blue. Sometimes I don't even remember until he explains to me what he's talking about! It's amazing, and it keeps us on our toes because nothing gets by him.
Will is ALL BOY. He loves to play in dirt, yell, spin until he falls over, collect acorns, go for walks, run, put his feet whole body in the pool regardless of the temperature, and "help" Matt when he's working around the house. Sometimes he loves getting dirty, and sometimes he runs to me with the smallest bit of something on his finger and wants me to wash it off. And even though he's a total boy, he is still a snugglebug most of the time, which I love.
Will can be a little bit picky when he eats, although he does love some things that you might not expect for a 3 year old. A few of his favorite things are greek yogurt of all flavors, ham, scrambled eggs, cereal, raising cane's {he is totally my kid}, fruit, and anything sweet. Donuts, cookies, cake, and candy are totally on his radar now. I think it's gotten even worse in the last couple of months since we used gummy bears and m&ms as potty training rewards. He has a tendency to demand them now, and I have seen a fair amount of extreme meltdowns when the answer is no.
Will is completely potty trained now, hooray! He still wears pull ups at night, but mostly just because I bought a big box of them. He really did a great job with learning...once he decided it was something he wanted to do, it was no problem. {however, as with everything...when he didn't think he wanted to do it, it was quite a struggle!} And just yesterday, Matt and I were both in the babies' room getting them ready for bed, and Will came running in {100% naked} to tell us he had gone potty and washed his hands, all by himself. So proud of him!
Will is still napping in the afternoons, although naptime seems to get later and later. I have to make sure he doesn't nap too late in the afternoons, or he will be up until 11pm talking and singing in his room after bedtime! I think another indication that he is my son {as I am typing this at 12:30am} is that he seems to be a bit of a night owl. This might also be because we are just on a late schedule as a family right now. Maybe because the babies tend to sleep in...or maybe because of the way everyone's feeding, nap, and playtimes fit together...I'm not sure. But on most days, Will gets up around 8-8:30, the babies get up around 9, and we're not finished getting everyone dressed and fed until almost 10! Sheesh. But it works out well for us, because Matt doesn't get home from work until 7 on a good night, so being on a later schedule gives him an hour with the babies and some extra playtime with Will at the end of the day. {How did I get on this tangent about our schedule? Back to Will...}
We had such a fun day on Will's birthday. It was a full day of celebrating and focusing on Will...good times!
I put up a crepe paper doorway while Will was sleeping, and he loved busting through it all day!
We tried something new for his birthday breakfast. Will LOVES donuts, and he also loves cinnamon rolls {again...so my child!} so I got some cinnamon rolls that come with chocolate icing instead of vanilla, and we put sprinkles on top. So it was sort of the best of both worlds, with a candle on top. :)
Will's big birthday present was a kitchen set {which is also part of the girls' birthday present, and they have loved chewing on the plastic food already!}
Will got an awesome lego/train table from Mimi and Duke, but I'm including this particular picture to show his face. He was having a three-year-old meltdown moment and raging about that little bit of wrapping paper that wouldn't come off the side of the table. Dude. Calm down.
playing with Mimi {it's my birthday, I'll go pantless if I want to!}
After lots of fun playtime in the morning, Will and I met Matt for a picnic and playtime at the new park over Woodall Rodgers. Unfortunately it was freezing, but we still had fun! Will and I used to meet Matt for lunch all the time, but we haven't done it as much since the sweet baby girls arrived, so this was a special treat.
Matt had to finish up something in his office before he came down to meet us, so we did an impromptu "facial expressions" photo shoot in the car.
Ready...
surprised!
flirty
happy {cheesy}
pensive
where's your tongue?
thoughtful
confused
I think this one was angry?
birthday face!
We enjoyed a chilly lunch, complete with a birthday cookie.
And then we played! We had the place all to ourselves since everyone else was staying inside.
when did he get so big? {sniff sniff}
Then in the evening, we had Nana, Mimi, & Duke over for a birthday dinner. Of course, this meant another present for the birthday boy! Nana got Will an awesome castle with knights, action, cannons, and everything a little boy loves. He {and daddy} are loving it.
After presents, it was dinner time. Will was torn all week between two choices for his birthday dinner...Raising Canes or eggs. I know. His choices. I was very pleased that he decided on Canes in the end. So we had some delicious fried chicken and french fries, and then it was birthday cake time! Will chose a rainbow sprinkle cake with rainbow chip icing for his third birthday cake.
I got these cool candles for his cake...the flames are the color of the candles! It's a little hard to see in the picture, but you can see the green one pretty well.
Pretty pleased with himself. And excited to eat cake!
Had to get a couple of sprinkles off the top. :)
Will's third birthday was such fun, and we are excited to celebrate again this weekend with the babies. It's definitely birthday season around here! Happy birthday, Will. You have made the last three years the best of our lives, and we can't wait to see what you will do next.
