Bubba's Not A Baby Anymore

Yesterday my baby turned three. I suppose this means that he's not really a baby anymore. Gone are the sweet little dimples on the backs of his hands over his knuckles. His legs are long. He alternates between being defiant/argumentative and loving/wanting to please. There are a lot of clothes in his closet that he's outgrown, and more that didn't used to fit that are just right now.

He can hold a conversation, has his own likes and interests, counts to twenty and can identify single digit numerals, knows his alphabet and can identify every letter, knows colors and shapes, and has developed a new love of singing kid songs that have the accompanying hand movements. He's completely potty trained and has been for months. If he spills something, he knows to go get a cloth from the linen closet to clean it up. He can pedal his tricycle the 1/4 mile or so to the playground.

If you ask him who told him he could get so big, he will gleefully respond with "ME!!!"

So what do you do to celebrate the third year of life for your only child? Duh, you make him go to the doctor, ha!

Look how long he is laying up there on that bed. Sheesh. I usually give him something with which to draw on the paper since they have to throw it out after each person. It keeps him busy.

The good news is that the boy FINALLY broke through the 30 lb mark. Just barely, but he did. I don't remember how tall he was because they didn't give us a paper with his stats like they have in the past. He's in the 35th percentile for weight, which is a really big deal. He was in the 25th when he was born, then dropped to the ninth and has hovered between 8-11 ever since. To make the big jump from ten a year ago to 35 this year is awesome! The pediatrician said that meant we could FINALLY stop giving him those Pediasure shakes that he's been having every day for the past two years. They're about $10 for a six pack - you do the math!

While we were there he got his ears cleaned (they're SUPER waxy) which was disgusting yet fascinating all at the same time. Don't worry, while I was tempted to take a photo of the volumes she scraped out of his head, I refrained. :) He also got a flu shot. He winced a bit when the needle went into his thigh, but he didn't cry at all. On the contrary, he stood up so I could pull up his pants, said, "Good job! YAY! We DID IT!!!" to the nurse and gave her a high five afterwards. He got a lollipop and a sticker for his efforts.

After that we took him out for lunch. He likes nothing more than to go play at the toddler McDonald's by our house. It's great - a play area with no skanky tunnels where you can see exactly what's going on. He had his favorite food, nuggets, and I even let him try the "caramel sauce" (aka HFCS laced with crack and dyed brown) for the first time with his apple slices. Surprisingly, he didn't really eat very much of it.

After he ate he ran around with all the other kids for a while to burn off some energy. Since it was not only his birthday, but the anniversary of when I had my abdomen hacked open so they could haul another human being out of it, I treated myself to a Sweet Tea.

After lunch, we cruised across the street to Hobby Lobby, where I had to grab a couple of things for his birthday party next week. We're not having it until the 29th because I slacked off on making the invitations. I'm a firm believer in giving people at least three weeks notice before a party. You'll never see me send out an Evite six days before a party and then get all mad because no one wants to come.

We stopped at the scrapbook/quilting store to grab some fabric for my party favors. He made a friend while I waited in line to have my fabric cut.

We went across the street afterwards because I needed to buy stamps. I had a few invitations that I hadn't gotten addresses for until recently, and a few that were returned due to expired forwarding notices that needed to be sent out still.

We got home to a package from Grandma which contained CARS! He was so excited to play with his new toys and did that the rest of the afternoon. I let him watch his favorite television show (Turbo Dogs) and then afterwards we went to take a nap. He put his cars on the coffee table before he headed to bed and admonished his father to "Not touch cars Dad."

Later in the evening I made cake mix muffins (box of cake mix, can of pumpkin, 1/2 cup water) in lieu of birthday cake. Sure they're full of fiber (pumpkin!) and low in fat, but all he knows is that they're chocolate so he loves them. He helped me by stirring, putting the paper liners in the pan, and putting the sprinkles on each one before they baked. No need for frosting that way. :)

He thought blowing out the candles was the most fun ever, so we sat there and lit then re-lit the candles so he could blow them out over and over again. The problem was that he pretty much would lean his face right into the flame to blow them out. I kept telling him to stay back, but you know he got too wrapped up in the excitement of the moment to listen. Sure enough, he burned his bottom lip.

You can just see the little burn under the center of his bottom lip. (he kept making weird faces while I tried to take a pic and this was the best of the bunch) That didn't stop him though - he still wanted to blow out candles, so we did that until the candle was just a stub. He got to eat two muffins, and he was VERY happy.

We chatted with his aunt, his grandma, and his grandpa on the phone, then he got a little more playtime before he was off to bed. Not a bad day!