THREE!

Day of his birthday cake... the big one is coming this weekend for the party. He's also sporting his stylish birthday crown that he got to wear all day at day care today. He made it himself.

Using his new easel and paints. Looks like the early makings of a masterpiece.

Opening his presents.

At McDonalds in the play area

Same

Birthday dinner of... you guessed it. FatDonalds chicken nuggets

His cake that he took to daycare. I know what you're thinking... surely there was a better picture of Ethan. Wrong. This was the best of the three...

Kari and Ethan frosting the cake

Stirring


Who says males can't bake?

Ethan tearing the last ring of his paper chain

Ethan is three. Wow. I can't believe how fast the time has gone and how much he has changed since his last birthday. A year ago he was not talking much and still pooping his pants. Now, he never stops talking but has stopped pooping his pants. Some days, I would be willing to change a few poopy diapers in exchange for a little bit of silence. Especially around 5:00 AM like today when Ethan decided that was 'time to wake up.' But, he really impresses me every single day. He amazes me with how smart he is, and how fast he picks things up. Every day he learns new words and puts together more and more complex sentences. Sometimes when we're having a conversation I have to stop and remind myself that he is only 3. The way were are able to go back and forth makes me think he is far older. His sense of humor for such a little person is phenomenal. He never has trouble making me laugh. His attention to detail blows me away. If he sees or hears something just one time he almost never forgets it. This in turn can get me into trouble, but I wouldn't change it for anything. I feel so blessed. So lucky. When I first found out that Kari was pregnant I just wanted him to come out with 10 fingers and 10 toes and all his parts in working order. Not only was I lucky enough to get that, I got this beautiful little boy who is perfect in every way. Even on the days where he is naughty and doing everything he can to push my buttons, with just a smile I forget about all of that and just know that I am so so lucky. It is so exciting watching him grow up and hard at the same time. He'll never be little like this again. I won't be able to swing him around forever. Eventually when we wrestle, he is going to be beating up me for real. And I know there will eventually be days when I get to daycare and I don't get to have him run up and give me a hug and there won't be that twinkle of excitement in his eye when he sees me. So for now, I'm just going to soak it all in. Every hug. Every kiss. Every laugh. So Ethan, if you do ever end up reading all of this some day... thank you. Thank you for the 3 best years of my life. Thank you for being perfect. Happy Birthday, buddy. I love you.

Anyway... Like I said... the day started early today. Ethan decided about 5:00 was a good time to wake up. He's wrong. It never is. Unless of course there is a football game to attend and tailgating to do. Then, time is but a number. Out until 2:00 AM the night before? Not a problem... 2 hours of sleep is enough for anyone. Game doesn't start until 7:00 PM and it's only 10:00 AM... as the saying goes, it's 5:00 PM somewhere let's get after it. But I digress...Ethan was so excited to bring his cake into daycare today. Last night, he and I put all the ingredients in the bowl, stirred it to perfection, put it in the pan and let it bake. At that point my culinary skills have been surpassed so the frosting/adding of sprinkles was left up to Kari and Ethan. Barely two steps into daycare today he grabbed the cake pan out of Kari's hand and ran down the ramp with it to show his teacher. Usually we get a bunch of hugs and kisses goodbye and today he had to be reminded to say goodbye before taking his cake into the kitchen and going upstairs to put on his birthday crown. During morning snack today he, and all his friends, had cake and sang him Happy Birthday. I'm hoping the staff had some cake as well because when we picked him up there was but a sliver of cake left and even that looked like it had been picked at. While we were leaving the daycare director mentioned that they think he is brilliant and Kari said that he has the grandma's convinced and she replied 'we are too'. That felt kind of good... until we walked into the parking lot and Ethan decided picking garbage up off the ground was a good idea.

Tonight, for Ethan's official birthday dinner we took him to his favorite place... McDonalds. Not QUITE as exotic as his last birthday that was spent in Sydney, Australia... Once there he got his Mighty Kids Happy Meal like he always does. Only this time Kari didn't finish some of her chicken nuggets so Ethan ate his six as well as one of Kari's. After dinner we went into the play area at the restaurant... I use the term restaurant loosely but I'm trying to class up a trip to McDonalds so work with me here. Anywho, the play area is huge. And the climbing apparatus reaches close to 15 feet in the air I would estimate. I thought for sure he would climb up, get scared and I'd have to go in after him. He surprised me when he scampered up, ran through, climbed across and slid down without so much as even asking for help of any kind! In the past he hasn't always been too sure of himself with things like that so it was really fun to watch. He climbed all over the place for probably close to 30 minutes before I told him it was time to go. He was not pleased at first... but then I told him we still had to go to Hy-Vee to pick out his cake and then go home to open presents. As soon as he heard the words 'his' and 'presents' all protests ceased and he said, 'yay, it be Christmas!'. Apparently the entire day of him being told it was his birthday hadn't sunk in yet. Did I mention he's brilliant...?

We swung by Hy-Vee and Ethan picked out a cake with balloons on it and we headed home to open presents and eat cake. Nothing like killing yourself at the gym for over an hour only to go home and eat McDonalds and cake at night. Next time I'm having the salad for sure... Present opening was pretty anti-climactic. We got him an easel, a smock to keep him clean and a bunch of art supplies for the easel. Ethan was more interested in toys. He asked more than once, 'where are the toys?'. Brat. Who raised him to be like that anyway...? Kidding. He did have a lot of fun with easel and did some marvelous painting and chalk drawings. I think in the end he'll really enjoy it. After presents we sang happy birthday, Ethan blew out his candles and we all had cake. Some(me) more than others... Ethan and Kari.

Ethan's big party is this Sunday and Chuck E. Cheese and it should be a lot of fun. Lots of family and a couple of Ethan's friends will be in attendance. I'm sure a great time will be had by all... as long as AT LEAST one toy is unwrapped.... :)

Again, Happy Birthday Mister Mister. I am sure this next year is going to be as great as the last three have been.