Somebody's got a new room...

I still have to take pictures, but yesterday I worked my tail off to get J's new room completed... I still need to add his nightlight, which I forgot about, and I'd like to get some wall art, but for now, his crib converted toddler bed is gone.  His mass of stuffed animals have been relocated to the basement.  His books have been culled to remove the true baby ones, and the ones left have been organized.

He now has two bookshelves.  I love these!  The color is so rich & they hold so much.  I thought I'd need both for all of J's books, but I was able to use the other to stack puzzles & blocks. 

He now has a twin size bed.  Although, he kept asking for his steering wheel.  :)

And Mommy is feeling accomplished.

As for J staying in there to sleep, well, that we still have to work on... He really wanted to hang with Dad, and after working hard all day Mommy gave up at 9 & left it Mr. M.

When I was awoken at 11:30, however, I resolved the issue with putting him down.  Mr. M felt he just wasn't tired, otherwise, he'd be asleep.  Funny, how my snuggling him tight & making him realize that play time was over was all it took for him to fall asleep until 4:15... I still have to figure out how to get him over that hump when my alarm goes off.  In the dead of night, even with our split ranch, and volume so low that I've slept through it more than once, J will hear it.

Birthday Party @ Daycare

J gets to celebrate his birthday with his friends, in addition to the family party.  It's always on the actual birthday, which I love as it helps extend birthday's for him.

And birthday's, at his age anyway, should always be maximized.

Below are some pics of J with his fellow classmates having a little celebratory snack during preschool...

P.S.  Yes, his shirt is on backwards.  Daddy dressed him. 

Texas Roadhouse - Birthday Dinner

Yikes, these are late.  First Vegas, then Miss Angie got sick.  Life has been crazy. 

For J's birthday dinner, Kari & I took him out for a little celebration cowboy style. 

Texas Roadhouse puts the kids on a little saddle & has them be the center of attention.  If you are FB friend, you probably have already seen the video.  It was great!

J had such a blast.

Whoops! Time has flown...

And I have been so busy...

J's birthday was Wednesday.  I worked on Friday (yes, I know, but for a good reason).  Party on Sunday. 

Monday I packed him off to Grandma M's for a "camping trip".  Payton was packed off to friends.  And I joined Mr. M at a hotel by Midway for an early morning flight.

For our own "camping trip", as per Jacob.

Ours, however, was courtesy of Mr. M's job and was located in Vegas.

Yes, sunny weather & warm temps allowed me to decompress from such preceding craziness & I feel wonderful.

But today we are back, and I'm working (so I don't have to use vacation days for those missed days -see I told you it was for a good reason). 

Grandma is dropping J off at Miss Angie's, then his stuff by home.  I will pick him & I cannot wait to hear all about his "camping trip".

Where he came up with "camping trip" we have no idea, but he was so excited we went with it...

Happy 3rd Birthday to my Little Man!

J -

Today you will celebrate your 3rd birthday with Daddy, then school, then finally with me during dinner.

What you will probably remember the most is the McQueen theme, since Daddy & I upgraded your crib/toddler bed to a twin size McQueen car bed. 

3 years ago today, Daddy & I shared an awe of meeting you for the first time.  Today, we are teary eyed to see who you have become.  I thought you changed a lot the previous 2 years, but this past year, wow.  You have grown & developed so much.

You started preschool around your 2nd birthday, and with it your vocabulary has just grown leaps & bounds.  I often get complimented on how well developed your vocabulary is & how well spoken you are.

- You can do your alphabet, and know most of the letters 

- You can count higher than you are willing to most days.  I know this from you telling me that "36" was on your nightshirt recently.  Focus is still a challenage for you, so when you get to 20 you are done

- This year you started counting items.  We learned you could do this during potty training

- First passport stamp (Atlantis)

- First haircut, and curls seem to be a thing of the past  :(

- Speaking of potty training, you pretty much self trained within a week of being allowed to pee standing up 

- This year you have really started showing how independent you are, and we have probably begun a series of many struggles on who really is in charge of the situation

- Saying The Pledge of Allegiance was an unexpected development you mastered this year.  It started in September, and by Christmas you had even mastered "Erica" into "America"

- In December you were 39 inches tall & 35.5 lbs.  This puts you in most 4/4T clothes, and you wear a size 9 or 10 shoe depending on the manufacturer

- In the Spring you started riding your tryke, but by fall you had moved onto your bike.  You were riding to & from the park like a pro

-  This past summer you drove Grandpa P's boat for the first time, and really learned to swim well with your life jacket on in our pool

-  You love water & warm weather.  Snow, not so much.  It's pretty to look at, and celebrate, but you'd prefer to be inside drinking hot chocolate & watching Mickey

-  You need activity to expend all your energy... You'd spend all your time in the basement playing, if we'd hang with you

-  Imaginary play has recently become to be a big part of your play time.  You cook in your kitchen, but more recently you've started making up stories to go along with your play... Mickey's house, Elmo's truck, *the guy* etc... It is so much fun for me to listen to you when you don't think I'm paying attention

- You really started expressing an interest in sports this past year.  Basketball, soccer, floor hockey, etc... Anything that you can play & get us to join you in doing

- First Blackhawks game (in the Theatre seats no less)

- First Bear's game (in the United (aka Cadallic) seats no less)

This past year you've really grown from a baby to a little man.  A little man who loves his thumb, and we are not sure what we are going to do about that...

Days of snuggling you to get warm are coming to end as you say "don't snuggle me" wanting your space.  Recently, during the blizzard days, you snuggled up to Daddy & fell into a 14 hour deep sleep.  We both sighed over how sweet you were, knowing these days are short lived at this point.

We are so proud of the little man you are becoming & looking forward to watching you contine to amaze us with your development.

Daddy & I love you so very much!

Love, Mommy

Dottie's 3rd...

J & I were invited to help one of his friends celebrate her 3rd birthday. 

And Mommy was so excited.  I love shopping for little girls, since my boy is such a boy...

Ava did a great job standing by letting Dottie open her gift herself.  After J's experience with Grandma's gifts, I was impressed by her restraint.  We had so much & Mommy is excited to have found her nieces birthday gifts already as well...

1st Soccer Game

Mr. M & I signed J up for soccer in a 2 - 3 year old league.  I found it through our local YMCA, which we are not members, but the way J was bugging me to swim & play basketball after last week's game, I think that may change... 

The program was set up for the kids to have a half hour of practice time followed by a half hour game.

J ran for almost an hour straight.

And he did great.  In fact, here is the text I sent out to family right after the game, as soon as J crashed out for his late nap.

J scored 2 goals (granted he used his hands both times to set it up & then he kicked it in) then stopped one as goalie!  Of course he played the whole game happy to not be sitting on the sidelines.  Mommy's glad the team isn't bigger :) 

Also, I will be posting a video of J doing jumping jacks on FB, so look for it.

Then I called my mom to remind her to join, and to tell her about the text since she doesn't text message either.

There are 3 rules for this game:

1. No crying
2. No fingers in the mouth
3. No hands on the ball, unless you are the goalie

And yes, J broke all 3.  I've already told you he touched the ball... Then during the last play series, as they did rotations every 5 minutes, J was just exhausted.  He broke rules 1 & 2.  Thumb in the mouth & crying over not getting the ball.  Luckily, Mommy was able to get him calmed & back in the game in less than a minute.

Unfortunately, due to the nature of the game, most pictures are from pre-game when I wasn't needed to help coach J from the sideline.

Yep, I'm gonna be one of those mom's...

Grandma M's 60th Party

We've entered the party zone.  J was excited to get to practice blowing out candles for his upcoming birthday, by blowing out Grandma's.

We had a delightful time helping grandma celebrate.

J had a better time helping her unwrap gifts...

Birthday Invites - 3 years old!

I'm so excited for having a real birthday party for J this year.  We often frequent the Jump Zone, so that's where we decided to have it.  We have invited 19 of his little buddies, between daycare, nieghbors, and my friends with children of the same age group (2 to 4).

We've ordered a McQueen cake & Mickey & Minnie surfing cupcakes.  McQueen as a nod to his new big boy room.  And Mickey & Minnie surfing as a nod to our upcoming beach vacation to Floridia, combined with his love of Mickey.

And by now, everyone should have received their invites.  I'm so excited for this year's invite.  I did a collage of pictures from the past year.  When I showed it to J, it was so neat watching him go through & tell me what "Jacob M*" or "Jacob Matthew M*" was doing in each of the photos. 

He has a little buddy at school named Jacob M as well, so as J was doing this I'd respond with "are you sure that's not (the other) Jacob M" and he'd respond - "NOOO.  That's Jacob Matthew M*"

I'm already looking forward to capturing a perfect pic for his thank you cards after the party...