3rd Annual Road Trip to Dublin

This past weekend, we headed up to Dublin, OH, for our third annual road trip to visit the Okrzesiks! I'd say it's officially a 'thing' now that we'll do every year. We had a not-so-great drive up, but all was well once we (finally) arrived.

In the afternoon, we headed to the basement to play some Wii, which Lewis liked to watch:

His thinking pose? 

(finger in the nose)

In years past, it's been too cold to go outside, but this time Saturday was gorgeous! We got to take a walk on their awesome bike trail that runs by their neighborhood. It was a nice little walk--there were some puddles from all of the snow melting, but we made it out fairly clean and dry (except for Colin--he got sprayed by his bike tire).

Lew's hot wheels

Here comes Colin!

The bike path tunnels under the road, and Colin likes to ride through and back. He did so well on his bike!

Running in circles

I didn't capture the full experience--after breakfast, Lewis, Julia, Caroline, and Colin (and Keith at one point!) were running circles around the house, pushing various toys along and chasing each other.

Maggie, the child whisperer :)

Lewis didn't sleep well, so Kevin and I were a little tired on Sunday. Otherwise, we had a great visit. Of course it was cold and snowy on the drive home (will it ever end???), but we made it back in good time. We look forward to next time!

One Can Hope for Warmer Weather

Last week sure seemed like we were heading in the right direction with the weather, but now, of course, it's cold again. There was one day last week that was just warm enough for a picnic, so Lewis and I took advantage. Once we decided to eat lunch outside, I went in to make some PB&Js while Lewis was playing. He came in the kitchen to get his stool, so I followed him outside to see what he was up to:

 Brainstorming...

Putting his plan into action

He went to get the umbrella from the garage (unprovoked by me), and was trying to step up on his stool with it so he could put it in our patio table. I let him get one foot off the ground for the picture, and then I went outside to help him. :) 

Another day last week, Lewis and I met Tonya and Carlton out at a playground, and I could have sworn that the weatherperson said it would be 70 degrees that day. I didn't think about the high winds (40-50 mph) coming with it, so Lewis was a bit chilly in his shorts and Crocs (but he didn't complain). :) Perhaps I was a bit optimistic, but we had a fun and windy time: 

 

 

 Bubbles!

What a fearless boy he is!

(He watched another mom do this and was copying her. It's tilted and spins ever-so-slightly as you walk on it. He usually sits or lays on his belly, and I push him around in a circle.)

Sliding in the wind

He was starting to get a bit chilled by this point, I think, so we decided to head on out. He had taken his shoes off a bit earlier because they were getting mulch in them.

Lewis Pete on the Flying Trapeze

Way, way back, before Lewis' birthday, we went to All About Kids with Tonya and Carlton. We were there for the usual fun on the inflatables/bouncy houses, and we stayed through their hour-long preschool gymnastics open gym. (That's when they let us in the main gym to try out the gymnastics equipment.) In the past, Lewis hasn't been interest in the trapeze, but this time he was! I didn't get video and the pictures are sort of blurry, but I think you'll get the gist. He had a blast!

 Warming up on the rings

 Balance beaming

Onto the trapeze:

 Waiting on his turn to fly

 

Whee!

He did pretty well with hanging on--there were a few turns when he slipped right off, but he held on for a few swings on other turns.

 Sinking in the foam pit!

He used to avoid the foam (I think because it seems pretty difficult to climb out of), but it was inevitable this time. 

 Lew and Carlton checking out what's below the trampoline

(Tonya said there were lost socks, etc.)

A fun morning! 

Lew's Favorite Things - Age 3

I almost forgot that I wanted to start doing a yearly questionnaire, now that he's talking. It took him a while to answer all of these questions--I got a lot of 'dah' answers, which means 'yes' or 'I don't know.' He finally did answer them all, so here you go:

What is your favorite...

...color?     yellow

...toy?     tractors

...stuffed animal?     elephant (He does not have a stuffed elephant, but this was his answer.)

...thing to sleep with?     animals (That's what he calls his stuffed bear, Mater, dog, pig, frog, and Donald Duck that are on his bed.)

...fruit?     apple

...cereal?     Cheerios

...thing to eat for breakfast?     toast (We were very surprised he didn't say pancakes.)

...thing to eat for lunch?     grilled cheese (Which he rarely actually eats...I would have guessed PB&J.)

...dessert?     cookie

...candy?     m&m's (Peanut, specifically, though he likes the minis, too.)

...drink?     milk

...restaurant?     McDonald's (For the pancakes...)

...animal?     dinosaur, alligator

...book?     dinosaur book (He has a dinosaur book that teaches about shapes and opposites, and he has a My First Dinosaur Board Book by DK that has names and pictures of the different species of dinosaur. I wouldn't have guessed they were his favorites, though--I'd say he had dinosaurs on the brain from the previous question. At the moment, his faves are Goodnight Johnny Tractor or Goodnight Florida Keys or 1, 2, 3 to the Zoo or his Cubs ABC Book.)

...song?     Mickey Mouse (the theme song to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse)

...game?     puzzles

...TV show?     Mickey Mouse (again, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse)

...movie?     Cars 2 (We had to really think on this one because we haven't seen many movies. I named a few, but he had no opinion. Then I remembered Cars and Cars 2, and he chose Cars 2 as his favorite.)

...thing to do outside?     play balls

...place to shop?     Target

...shirt/outfit?     Thomas

What do you want to eat for your birthday dinner?     cake! (No contemplation on that one.) :)

Who is your best friend?     Mama

What do you want to be when you grow up?     a cowboy (That's a new one! I guess it's related to farming, ranching, etc.)


So that's Lewis at 3!

Three Years Old!

Lewis is THREE!

Here he is at two.

And at one.

We went to the doctor today for his 3-year check-up, and everything looks good! He was very good as they took his blood pressure and heart rate and checked his ears and mouth.

Here are his 3-year statistics and percentiles from BabyCenter:

Height: 41 inches (above 95th percentile)
Weight: 40.9 pounds (above 95th percentile)
Head Size: 21.5 inches (above 95th percentile)

I was a little surprised that he's still considered so big because he seems to have plateaued with his weight, at least. Looking back, he was 37 inches tall at 2 years old and weighed 35.3 pounds, so I guess he HAS grown. It just doesn't seem as obvious to me.

What he's into/what he's doing:

• He still very much loves all things that move--construction trucks, planes, trains, tractors, fire trucks, etc. He loves watching Mighty Machines to learn alllll about his favorite things.
• He loves doing puzzles (24-30 pieces).
• He loves books. He goes through phases where he'll want to read the same few books for 4-5 days, and then he moves on to a few different ones.
• Some of his favorite phrases these days are, 'What's that, Mommy/Dad?' or 'What's it doin'?' He wants to know what everything is in the pictures of his books and wants to know what their purpose/function is.
• He likes to sing. He's been learning 'Silly Songs' (a book) at Grandma and Grandpa T's house, and he'll walk around the house, breaking out into those songs a lot. I think he's been learning some at school in music class, too.
• Just the other day, he broke out into 'Oh, my darling, Clementine'...I started singing it with him, and after a few minutes he busted out singing the days of the week instead of the usual lyrics! We had no idea that he knew them, but he apparently does and he sings them so sweetly. :)
• He loves to help. We got him a stool for the kitchen, and he likes to stand on it and help us cook--he will measure pancake mix, help get the peanut butter out of the cabinet, pre-eat his food, etc.
• He also moves the stool around to be able to reach things that were previously out of reach. He'll move it to the hall closet (our pantry), turn the light on (a pull string), and reach up and grab the big plastic Cheerios container.

• Kind of along the same lines, he is Mr. Independent. He was saying, 'My do it!' a lot...now he has figured out the pronoun and it's, 'I do it!' We've been trying to stay patient as he learns to do more and more for himself.
• He's a very sweet boy--he'll say, 'I love you, Mommy' and 'I love you, Dad,' unprovoked.
• He's also started being snuggly again. Sometimes he'll crawl up on my lap on the couch and just say 'snuggle' and sometimes he'll take my hand and lead me to his room to sit in his recliner to snuggle.
• Sleeping and napping are still going well. He was napping again pretty consistently for a few months, but lately he has started being more sporadic again. He still takes some 'quiet time' in his room every day, regardless of if he sleeps. I'd say we were at 85% success on naps, and now it's more like 40% the past few weeks.
• Eating is mildly improving, I would say. He is eating more vegetables, but he is still not a big fan of meat. He sustains himself most days on bread, fruit, yogurt, and milk. And cheese and PBJ. I see slight improvements, though, on his willingness to try new things.
• He wears size 4T or 5T shirt and 4T pants. Shoe size is 10.
• He has started yoga as an extra-curricular at school this spring semester. While soccer was a big fail last fall, yoga is going so well and we couldn't be more pleased with what he's learning. He'll show you his yoga poses if you ask him to. Downward Dog and Mountain pose are his favorites/most known ones at this point. It's pretty cute. :) The instructor said at his first class he kept saying, 'I'm doing yoga! I'm doing yoga!' as he practiced his moves.

That's all I can think of for now. We are very much looking forward to the warmer weather and playing outside. Today is shaping up to be very nice, so I think we'll have lunch outside. Come on, spring! :)

3rd Birthday Party

Since Lewis is into all things farming, I decided to go with a tractor/farm theme for his big day. With the brutal winter we've been having, it was fun to think towards feelings of summer, gardening, the farmer's market, etc., so I added a little of that into the decorations and theme as well. 

My friend Kate came over to help me before the party and was such a great help. She kept me on task and knocked out so many items on the cooking to-do list. THANK YOU, sweet Kate!! And to Kevin, who ran errands for me, watched Lewis, and helped out with food and set-up, simultaneously. And to Kevin's parents for hanging out with Lewis on Friday so that I could start getting things ready. Really, really, seriously couldn't have done it without you guys. :) 

Onto the details of our very fun and exhausting party day:

The Very Patient Birthday Boy

:)

The Invitation

Each card had a different animal face and noise stamped on the front of it. Inside, some had green or red tractors or a big red barn. I had a hard time finding farm animal/tractor/barn stickers, but I finally found some at Michaels. I found the little grass cut-outs there, too, which I thought were cute.

The Food

I researched some farm-y food names online and, yes, some of them are corny. :)

Pigs in a Blanket (though I laughed just now realizing they were all-beef)

Homemade Chicken Nuggets

Tractor Wheels and Cheese

 Chicken Feed (Chex Mix)

Deviled Eggs

Vegetable Garden

Berry Patch

Apple Orchard

There were a lot of dips, too. We love dips! I made a mustard sauce for the pigs in a blanket, honey mustard for the chicken nuggets, ranch for the veggies, and peanut butter dip for the apples that people seemed to enjoy. I linked the recipe if anyone wants it (Mom). :)

The Drinks

Iced Green Tea

Fresh-Squeezed Lemonade

Coffee

The Cake/Desserts

Haystacks

Cow Tales (candy)

Mud, Dirt, and Worms

Cake/Ice Cream

I bought a tractor cake pan and did my best to follow their step-by-step instructions. They're very helpful, but they can only do so much to help an amateur like me. :) Lewis loved it, so that's what matters most! 

The cake was French Vanilla with buttercream icing. I thought it was really tasty, as did Lewis (you'll see pictures of him eating it, further down...).

Favors

I decided to put one together for Lewis, too, because I knew he'd flip over the Mickey Mouse gardening shovel. :)

Party Time

 I found the balloons online--there was one big tractor balloon, a couple with a tractor with farm animals, and some cow print, yellow, and green latex ones.

 Chow time!

 

 A train!

A dump truck!

 A meeting of the minds, trying to get the train track together. 

 Singing Happy Birthday!

 Blowing out Sniffing his candle...Kevin and I had to help him out. :)

 Icing.was.everywhere!

 :)

 Great-Grandma Dee-Dee, Gramma, and Papaw

In the hustle of getting ready for the party, I put our mail basket out of sight and totally forgot to get the gifts the Bergstroms sent for Lewis, so he opened those this morning:

 More farm animals (and a cat and Peter dog) to add to his collection! Thanks, Bergstroms! FYI, he thought the cat was a baby cow at first. We told him it was a cat, and he called it a 'cow cat' because it was black and white. :) He did that with a dog on TV before, too...called it a 'cow dog.' Very cute.

Juni, your card was so well-done--Lewis loved the princess stamps! :)

Lew wanted to put his Legos together, so Kevin and I worked together on a tractor, trailer, barn, house, horse (I think?) and cow:

 

Lewis thought the tractor and trailer are pretty cool! 

Kevin, building the barn

We also looked up instructions online to build a race car a gator. Lewis ran to his room to get his new tractor book from Gma and Gpa T. and said, 'There's a gator in this book!' :)

Thanks to all for coming to party with us and for the wonderful toys and books and clothing. He's a very lucky boy.