Will is THREE

Will is supposed to be my little man forever. All this three year old, tall and lanky business is really not acceptable. But, oh boy!, was it ever so much fun to have a birthday for him! He was SOOO excited and everything was a hit and he is just so much fun to surprise and give to!

He wanted pancakes. Check and check.

Sterling and I were too excited to wait for presents until dinner, so we opened them at breakfast! 

Yay! A present from Grandma R!

MICKEY!!! He was so excited!!! Right up there with Spiderman and Ninja Turtles is Mickey. This toy has already been fought over. Which means it is much loved, by all. Thank you! 

He'd asked for a boat for Christmas, so he was pretty excited! 

Grandma Cindy sent us a playmobil advent nativity for Christmas this year and we fell in love with the brand. Very strong and sturdy, but a little more big-kid toys than things like the Little People toys that we have. Ruth and Will have been playing with this boat and it's little accessories, along with their playmobil pieces from the Christmas nativity, nonstop. I'm so glad it is such a hit!

And a basketball hoop from Grandma Cindy!

Green balloons!

Sterling REALLY wanted the basketball hoop this year. I always think these type of toys are the ones that get played with occasionally, but generally just sit around and collect dust. The kids have already played with this for TWO HOURS every single day since he got it. They think it's the greatest. They just run around and shoot hoops. Maybe he got some of his Grandpa Jack's genes after all! (especially in the end of the post when he's wearing his cowboy boots and playing bball!) 

See? Cutest little cowboy ever.

THREE!

When Ruth picked a pink sparkly cake for her birthday, Will got obsessed with the idea of having a blue cake for his birthday. He brought it up AT LEAST three times a day. For six months. Just recently he added a blue SPIDERMAN cake to the request. Seriously. I thought he'd forget about it, or realize how far away his birthday was, or just give up. Nope. Every day he'd remind me that he wanted a blue spiderman cake for his birthday. Until the actual DAY of his birthday, when I was explaining that we would celebrate on Saturday when daddy could be home, and I told him we could go get everything for his cake. Then he decided that nope, he wanted a ninja turtle cake. I'm not sure how long I'm going to keep up this decorating tradition. As much as I LOVED it as a kid, I'm just not that great at it. But OH BOY did he ever love this cake! He was all sorts of joyful about it and thought it was just the greatest. It was perfect. Oh, how I love you Will.

To top off all the festivities, we had a ninja turtle piñata before bedtime. They'd carried it around all day. And they've carried it around ever since. But right before bed we had a grand time watching them wail on it.

Molly hit it a few times and then tried to run off with the bat. Haha. At least she's adorable.

He got some really great hits in!

All the candy fell out of the shell, so we get to keep him around as a toy for a little while!

 At three Will is:

• The happiest kid. Seriously he is so easy-going and always quick to put a smile on his face. Except for helping to clean up, haha.
• He still loves to snuggle when he wakes up and it is my absolute favorite. He comes down with his sweaty little head and wraps his arms around my neck and we just do a little one-on-one time until he's ready to face the world.
• He's also the best and regularly throughout the day coming up and giving me big hugs and saying 'I dub you mom." I dub you too, little man.
• That being said, he can't say his L's, V's, W's, R's, S's, and maybe a couple others. Which makes it so that very few people can understand him. Ruth always can. I usually can. Sterling usually can. Then there seems to be a steep learning curve. I love it when he is concentrating so hard on saying something really long. He pauses between each word and seems to spit it out with such effort, it's so endearing. I just don't want him to ever grow up!
• He's outgrown his balance bike, but refuses to learn to pedal his bigger bike. It just requires too much coordination, I think.
• He's still into being monochromatic. He gets very excited when he has enough clean clothes to wear "red, red, red!" (red undies, red shirt, red shorts) or "blue, blue, blue!" etc. He can be monochromatic with red, blue, green, and orange. Haha. It cracks me up. I was telling my friend the other day that her kids always look so well dressed. But then she said they don't care what they wear, so she picks it out every day. HAHA! No wonder my kids always look like hooligans! They have VERY strong opinions about what they wear, so I just tell them to get dressed and I don't even bother helping haha.
• He is my most cautious child. He takes a bit to warm up to things and to try something new. It's nice to have someone who's not barreling head first into everything. Gives me a break!
• He's my biggest helper in the kitchen. He has his own radar when I pull out a bowl to start cooking and he instantly pulls up a 5-gallon bucket to start helping. He has the longest endurance for helping in the kitchen as well. I think it's all fueled by his love of food, because he sure does love to eat! 
• His favorite foods are chips and cheese and pancakes. But he's generally pretty easy going about all foods. He really LOVES cake!
• His favorite color is blue. He's really good at reciting what everyone's favorite color in our family is. 
• He jumps around in glee when I say he can do something and then runs over to hug my legs and say "I dub you mom." It's the greatest.
• His coloring is the greatest. He scribbles REALLY HARD until everything is filled in in ONE color. There are no gaps in the color, although he goes over all the lines, and it's one big bold splash of color over everything. It's so funny!
• He loves balls, bikes, cars, trains, and boats. As well as Spiderman, Ninja Turtles, and Mickey Mouse. He LOVES Olaf. He also loves cold cereal and can eat four bowls at a time, haha.

Sorry it's so comprehensive, but eventually I'll want to pick out things to put in his baby book, when I catch up. :) 

Will is the best and we LOVE having him in our family. It was such a great birthday. His excitement made everything so much more fun. I just can't get over that he's this big!!