I'm Three!

Happy 3rd birthday to my silly and smart boy!  We had a fun birthday weekend and all of Will's favorite people were in attendance at his birthday party.  He got so many fun toys in addition to the fabulous sandbox built by daddy.

Grandpa Ed and Grandma Hilary made it!  And they brought a sturdy baseball tee, bat and wiffle balls!

 The cake looked so big!  But we managed to eat almost all of it!  So yummy! 

The colors were inspired by the party invitation.

 Will, Ava, Hannah and The Sandbox

Look at that determined look on his face!

 Cake?  For me?  We skipped the candles since we hadn't "practiced" them, but he did enjoy everyone singing to him.

 Present opening wasn't too crazy - probably because the adults were watching him do packages while the kids were playing with toys in the adjoining room.  Here he is sitting in his new lawn chair from our neighbors.  The unwrapping stopped when he got to the construction book they gave him.  He needed to read it instead of opening the rest of his packages!

 Grandpa Roger supervising the bubble blowing.  

They also enjoyed lots of time playing with trains this weekend.

 This morning Will and Grandpa Roger enjoyed playing with Cars-themed Play-Doh before breakfast.



Sandbox

Will LOVES playing in the sandbox, so for his birthday, we made him his very own for the back yard.  Will and I "helped" but it was really Jason's fantastic vision and handiwork that did it.  Initial construction was done on the deck before we moved it to the patio.  It was neither bedtime nor raining, but be sure to notice Will's outfit. 

This massive pile of sand was delivered to fill up the sandbox.  It was also fun to play King of the Mountain on the pile in the driveway. 

The almost finished product (missing the top ledge) after the digger from Grandpa Roger and Grandma Joni was added!

Will has already had hours of fun.  Now I just have to figure out how to keep sand from invading inside my house!

Mother's Day Quiz

I droppped off and picked-up Will at daycare several days last week, so I got to see these on the bulletin boards.  I love direct quotes from 2 and 3 year olds!   I agree with all of his answers.  We do like to play race cars and go to the zoo together, and red is my favorite color (which we discuss frequently).  

I decided to quiz Will a little bit more today on some of Mommy's favorites.  Here's the transcript:

Me:  What's Mommy's favorite show to watch?
Will:  You love to watch Survivor!
{I agree that he would think this is my favorite.  It's the only non-kids show I regularly watch, since Jason and I try to watch it each week before the next episode is on. Everything else is months behind on the DVR.  I guess I should be happy he didn't say Doc McStuffins!} 

Me:  Do you know what Mommy's favorite thing to eat is?
Will:  Waffles!  I like to eat waffles, too!
{Eggo waffles is what we're "cooking" for his lunch at this very moment.  Tacos (which is what I ate for lunch) is the answer I was looking for.}

Me:  What's Mommy's favorite thing to drink?
Will:  Smoothies!
{I was expecting he'd say coffee, but we had smoothies for brunch.  I make them for him regularly, so maybe he thinks I like them as much as he does.}

A Knight's Tale

Yesterday was a fun birthday party for Will's best friend from daycare.  The theme was knights and castles, and the birthday boy was dressed in this adorable costume.  In addition to pizza and cake, the kids got popsicles to end the day!

Will, of course, found the digger and enjoyed his popsicle (and most of the party) digging in the mulch under the playset!

Our Mid-Week Day Off!

On Wednesday, Will and I played hooky from school and work.  We went to the mall for his 3 year old pictures, then rode the carousel twice by ourselves, had lunch at Panera, and ice cream at Baskin-Robbins!  We also rode (well, sat on, really, since I didn't supply coins) all of the power cars and trucks, and played in the the playscape.  What a fun morning!

After a trip back to the house for Mommy's nap (that's right, mine!), Will and I loaded up for a trip to the zoo.  As expected, he got his nap in the car.  We wanted to see the stingrays, gorillas, and giraffes.  Can you see the giant bug across the lake?  It moved and was a combination of creepy and cool.  Their new Extreme Bugs display started this weekend.   

Will did not want to pet the stingrays once we got in there, but he was happy to watch them and to watch me pet them.  Luckily he is "under 3" for another week, so he was free to get into the stingrays.  The gorilla was asleep, but we saw five giraffes!  We also avoided a potential disaster by locating Will's missing little, yellow blankie on our way back to the car.  He never knew it was gone, but I did!  Whew!

35 Month Assessment

Will's daycare does a development assessment in advance of parent-teacher conferences.  He received very high marks!  His only area of development is potty-training.  He received a Motor Skills comment that said, "Sometimes Will is a little too confident and goes so fast when running that he falls.  We encourage him to slow down."   But what would I get to read at night if I didn't always have an accident report?!

Self-help daily routines

• Eats very well.  He enjoys snack and lunch time.  Great table manners. :-)   Always says please and thank you on his own.
• Falls asleep with someone rubbing his back.  Sleeps very well.  He likes to be hugged when he wakes up and takes a little while to adjust to being awake.
• Likes to do things for himself and is proud of accomplishments.

Social - Emotional

• Very positive attitude
• Understands how others are feeling and shows a lot of compassion toward his friends.
• Interacts with everyone and gets others involved in activities
• Great sense of humor

Cognitive

• He loves learning new things.  He also loves demonstrating what he has already learned.
• Has excellent problem solving skills
• Participates in all group activities with enthusiasm

Language

• Speaks clearly in full sentences
• Expressive and full vocabulary
• Uses his words to express needs/wants and his feelings :-)

Motor Skills

• Loves to do art and takes his time
• Excellent eye-hand coordination
• Pedals a bike faster than I've ever seen!
• Very energetic and loves to stay active!

Mother's Day

Jason and Will treated me to a wonderful Mother's Day treat:  a full night's sleep!  Ah, sleep: the gift that keeps on giving!

Well rested and hungry, we biked to Starbucks for a drink and a bite to eat before starting our big adventure on a BEAUTIFUL Sunday afternoon:  the sandbox construction!

I didn't get any pictures of me with Will yesterday, but it makes me smile to see my two boys together so this one is good, too!  Here's Daddy's little helper picking out hardware.  Will frequently says, "Come build with me!"

We had a productive afternoon and got the frame of the sandbox completed.  Will and I also did some yard work, and even Rachel got to enjoy the day in the yard off leash.  We all slept well again last night!

Rainy Weekend Fun

First of all, is everyone else frustrated with the new Blogger layout?  I've only posted a few times since it changed, so I'm having trouble getting used to it.

We had a rainy weekend here, but I haven't seen my guys much the past few weeks due to work, so I was thrilled to have lots of time to play.   The theme of the weekend was construction.  First up:  a race car track that was awesome! 

Then, we went to the local children's museum - which has the bonus of being very close to our house AND next to the train station!  I went with Will when he was about 6 months old, and he went with Grandma Hilary this winter, but Jason had never been.  And, wow is this the best place ever for a kid Will's age!   Here he is making a house out of dominoes.  Then we went to the area you can see behind him and make a castle out of buiding blocks.

After all of our hard work building and playing and learning, we hit up Starbucks for afternoon snacks.  We needed a pick me up before heading to Home Depot for the supplies for a real construction project:  a sandbox!

On Sunday, we couldn't work on building Will's sandbox because it was pouring down rain.  Will asked if we could "go to the museum to build another castle with the building blocks."  Yes we can!  When we were there on Saturday, I sprung for the family annual membership, so we can go back to play as often as we want!

Isn't it amazing how old he looks?  He mostly acts like a little boy instead of a baby these days, too.   Well, except that he wants his mommy to carry him all the time and to sleep with him at night.  Oh well, I get it; I'm lovable. :-)