Third Times A Charm

We celebrated the heck out of our brand new three year old last week. At three, Jack is the picture of nonchalance most of the time but is so clued in to what is going on, it's a little scary. He pulls out all the little tidbits he picks up at a time of his choosing and I am often left explaining why, for instance, I took a shower with my clothes on (I didn't. I was cleaning the shower and had no idea he was paying attention). He is sweet and funny and outgoing with nary a shy bone in his body. He loudly announces his presence ("hi guys! I'm here!"), says please and thank you (and no thank you) without too much prompting, thinks he can dance Gangnam style (his preschool dance moves can look suspiciously similar), can be very protective of his little girlfriend ("No Max! Don't hit Gloria!" with his chubby little hand held out to protect this little girl who really needs no protecting), makes up story after story about his trains and trucks (and does not need or want your participation), studiously avoids arts and crafts (SOB!), continues to love men and hardware stores (he cried his way out of school yesterday because I wouldn't take him to Lowe's), is generally an easy fix when he is sad or upset (carbohydrates, Busytown books, trains, music all generally work), still uses his pacifiers and tries to negotiate (or "be sleepy") his way into keeping them after nap or in the morning but actually gives them up without many complaints, entertains himself quite easily (that whole train thing), is still very snuggly (especially if you pull out a train, plane, or automobile book), generally wonders what all the fuss is about when someone is being dramatic (so do I, Buddy), is often an instigator of the drama (and does not care one whit that he provokes her), has a much better sense of direction than I do (this is not difficult to beat but his really is good), is a great companion (he's funny!), and is thankfully very willing to go with the flow (there are a lot of pick-ups, drop-offs, squeezing in extra kids to deal with in our current reality). He's so very much a second child but is completely his own person. He is physically challenging since he likes to run and chase and keep up with big kids but he has such an agreeable nature (although, he's definitely three) that I don't generally mind. Three years ago, I couldn't have verbalized what his personality would be at this point in the journey yet somehow he's exactly the same sweet, mellow baby that I had back then (who is now a much better sleeper!). He has grown leaps and bounds, exceeded my expectations, and adds so much to our family dynamic but his jolly temperament is still the very definition of him. My heart bursts with pride and laughter and love for this goofy, happy go lucky, lovely little boy and I hope that his sunny outlook on life continues to serve him well. 

 On his actual birthday, he did not enjoy waking up to a stunning rendition of Happy Birthday sung by yours truly (who offered no on-pitch notes whatsoever. Who made that song so hard?) and Big Sister (who sang every note on key as far as I could tell) but warmed up to celebrating himself quite nice about four minutes later. This boy, in contrast to his sister (sometimes I think he just likes to stick it to her), likes to remind us how "brave" he is, which is his stand in for friendly and outgoing, so I had little doubt that this day was going to go just fine, which it did. He opened his day with a candle in blueberry pancakes -- which gave me the opportunity to see how much spit he was going to spread around when he blew out his candles on community food. The verdict: he was surprisingly hygienic. 

Fast forward through his school celebration to his post-school cupcake with some friends. By this point, he encouraged people to sing multiple rounds of the birthday song to him. 

We continued the sugar fest after dinner with some cake and presents and with him showing his digit dexterity. 

Annnnnnnnd, we were met with this face when we brought out his birthday ice cream cake. Because it wasn't a train cake. The train (track) cake was for his little family party that weekend and this was just supposed to be a little celebration cake for the four of us. Lesson learned: don't taunt the animals. 

When the reality of the cake and ice cream sitting in front of him sunk in, with a little help from Big Sister, he got the deed done.

Trains! Cranes! Firetrucks!

Have I mentioned his love affair with trains before? 

And the celebration did continue over the weekend!

And he finally got his train track cake.

He also got a very special visit from Auntie Holly.

Some of the fam... but we didn't get one of the cousins and Mary (Eric got to join by phone from chilly Alaska) . Boo. Was it warm enough for Molly to wear a summer tank dress, you ask? No, no it wasn't. It was a freezing, rainy, cold day. Does that deter her? Never.

It was a fun couple of days and I'm totally caked-out. Just in time for Halloween...