How are we parents of a 3 year old?

Where did 3 years go? Matthew and I celebrated his birthday with a little photo session. He wanted to play (read: throw things at me), and I wanted to capture my now-almost-in-college man on film. It went well (read: no black eyes from new hot wheels being thrown at me, and no temper tantrums because I would not stop taking pictures). Here are the results:

Matthew is almost 40 inches tall and probably weighs somewhere around 38 lbs. I cannot believe the space between his 2 1/2 yr. height marker and the one taken here!

He's finally lost his baby belly and actually has the arches forming in his feet. Another sign that his baby years are over: he's got actual kneecaps. Bruised kneecaps (he can't help his clumsy heredity), but actual kneecaps nonetheless.

We can have actual conversations with Matthew now. His vocabulary is so amazing, and his opinions, while sometimes frustrating, are so well vocalized now. A stage I'm not really that excited about is the "But why, Mommy?" coinciding nicely with the "But that's not fair, Mommy" with arms crossed and fully furrowed brow to show absolute defiance. What I am excited about is his spontineity. Without the slightest prompt, he will tell me he loves me. He will run with absolute abandon to the front door when Rob comes home, yelling "Daddy's home! Daddy's home!" and then tell Rob about his day at daycare or at home.

Without putting too much bias on this statement, we think Matthew is a pretty smart 3 year old. He can count to 50 almost totally by himself. He knows his address, including the house number and city (we're working on the phone #). He knows the sounds that all the letters make, and has even referred to the c in cat as a "hard c." He loves books and wants us to read to him all the time. Oh, and he also knows the secret to cold fusion (well, he will someday).

He's an amazing little boy who lights up our lives every day, even on the not so good days when he's telling us in the loudest, whiniest, inches-away-from-total-meltdown voice that he does NOT want a bath/to go to bed/to put on his shoes/to go to the bathroom/to brush his teeth/to be nice to Sebastian. Even on those days, the bright moments are so much stronger than the dark ones. We love you Matthew! Thank you for being such an incredible gift to us all!

Matthew's Birthday Party

The next few posts are dedicated to Matthew's third birthday party. We had so much fun, and such a beautiful day to celebrate.

The weekend before the big party, we went to Rib fest and Matthew got a tast of what it is like to be 3. He got to ride on a carnival ride ALL BY HIMSELF!! He loved every second (as seen by the ear to ear grin on his face). Hopefully his love of the carnival does not lead him to that career path. We all say we'll support our kids no matter what, but whose Mom loves it when her kid tells her they're going to be a carny?

The day of the festivities, Matthew decided to wind down with a pre-nap game of tennis. I heard he's well on his way to the U.S. Open.

Matthew helping me prepare. His preparation included eating about 10 timbits.

Daddy and Sebastian all spiffed up for the big day.

Donning our party hats as the guests arrive.

"You're going to take this off soon, right?"

At last, the festivities begin. Matthew, James and Sebastian are playing with the water table present at Matthew's very first birthday party. As you can see, Matthew still loves it!

Keep reading...Matthew's third birthday coincided with the recent purchase of a new camera, so you're not done with pictures and witty reparte just yet!

The gifts

The bouncy thing. It took two days to blow up, and 2 minutes to get its first "slow leak."

Hot Wheels from Darren and Nicola

Hot Wheels

Yep. More Hot Wheels. (The tongue indicates deep concentration).

And clothes. You can tell how impressed he is by the clothes.

I think we now have about a million little cars in the house and about 500 sq. ft. of toys to go with them. As well, Matthew will be well dressed until at least spring...even though he was not too excited, Rob and I always love to see him get things he can wear!

The people who helped us celebrate

Well, Matthew's birthday party was well attended...all who came tell me they had fun despite being told they must wear hats.

Great Uncle Bob did an excellent job helping Matthew open his mountain of gifts.

Luke, Allison and James were great sports about spending the day with our crazy family. They even tell me theirs is crazier (this, I find difficult to believe!)!

Grandma and Grandpa were thrilled about the prospect of party hats.

Even Nana and Grandpa took time from picture-taking to don their festive fedoras.

Thank you everyone, for once again making Matthew's birthday a true celebration!

The Cake

I'm so proud of my work! I made this cake for Matthew due to his obvious love of all things motorized. The guests even told me it tasted good (I have to admit, taste was not my first priority!).

Here comes the cake:

"Can I eat it?" He blew out the candle before we got to the first "to you" in the birthday song!

At the very least, Matthew thought it tasted good (but then, he does like ketchup on pancakes...).

Sebastian's 8 month update (just before his 9 month....)

My computer died (I guess it missed my old crappy camera), so that's my excuse for the delay. Nevermind that the crash happened last week and Sebastian has been 8 months old for 3. Just nevermind!!!

Anyway, the doctor's appointment told me that Sebastian is in the 95th percentile for weight at 22 lbs 10oz, and the 90th percentile for height at 75cm. It looks like we're getting back on the charts at least!

He's crawling like crazy, still saying DaDa, and pulling himself up on anything he can crawl to. Indy remembers this stage from Matthew and has made herself scarce (or elevated!). The cats, dying for attention or not, have decided to hide and I'm not sure we'll find them until Sebastian is 3. He has 7 teeth, but 8,9 and 10 are working their way out in a laundry basket full of drooled on clothing.

His smile is charming enough to get just about anything he wants, unless that something happens to belong to Matthew. Then it's an emphatic "No Sebastian, that is NOT for you. Right, Mommy?"

His personality is starting to match his belly size (read: BIG), and his temper is not close behind. I guess Rob's to blame for that trait (of course; mommies never lose their tempers).

So, stay tuned for next week's (sorry) post about 9 months. As you can probably guess, it'll likely just be a picture because really, how much can one kid change in 8 days?