Holy moly, he's THREE.

I am FINALLY catching up on blog posts!! It's been so long you might think this subject line should read "He's TEN!" But, thankfully, no, just three.

Yes, a three year old. Hard to believe. But he's turning more and more into a "little person" everyday. Including being a backseat driver - "Mommy, both hands on the wheel." "Mommy, if you go too fast you'll get a ticket." Yep, quite the chatterbox.

So we've continued to avoid the huge birthday parties so far. Don't know how much longer we'll be able to do that, but for now it's working. Instead we just do presents & cake here at home and then head to Disneyland. I guess that's not too shabby, right?

Here is Nick with one of his presents - a set of Tinkertoys.


I'm not entirely sure who had more fun with them, Nick or Daddy.


His big present from us was a Big Boy Bicycle. It is - of course - a Cars-themed bike, so obviously a big hit with the toddler set.


Turns out it is a smidge too tall for him, but we let him ride it around on the flat sidewalks and he does OK.


Another present was a play BBQ set from Aunt Teri & Uncle Ed. He had a great time with this.


He cooked all the food and then served it to us, with the warning "Be careful, it's hot".


Of course we had a cake - it was yummy if I do say so myself (although it came from a box mix with frosting in a can, but whatever). And, yes, you're right! Those decorations are Lightening McQueen and Mater from Cars. (Seeing a pattern here? Kevin thinks we should buy stock in Disney...)


Blowing out the candle...


Then off to Disney! As it is when we leave the park, the characters are hanging out. So here is a picture with Mickey (Nick was too tired to get out of the stroller).


And with Minnie...


All and all a very good birthday. Nick had a great time and so did we! Onto four!! Yikes.

And, for those of you that pay attention to these sorts of things - his 3 year stats (well, three years and a month, the Dr. appt. was about a month after his birthday).

Weight: 40 lbs., 4 oz.
Height: 40 inches even

Yep, still a big boy!!

The Joys of Potty Training

We have been working at getting Nick potty-trained for a while. Well, working might not be the best work, I think we both hoped that Day Care would be the magic bullet. But so far, not so. While he will go, um, #1 in the potty when we bring him in there, he doesn't volunteer the fact that he needs to go. He's much happier to continue to play with his toys, eat his lunch - whatever - than stop & run to the bathroom (and, really, can you blame him? It really can be a hassle...) #2 is always in his diaper or pull-up, even when he is in the potty. He just doesn't want to sit that long (he's a busy boy, you know.)

So last week, we instituted the Potty Chart. Nick loves all things related to the Disney movie Cars, and lucky Mommy was able to find a pre-designed potty chart on-line that has Lightening McQueen and Mater from Cars on it (really just a grid with pictures on each corner!!) I also found Cars stickers at Target. We told him that if he went #1 in the potty, he'd get a sticker to put on the chart. If he went #2, he'd get TWO stickers (said with great emphasis on how great getting TWO stickers would be). Once the whole chart/grid is full, he gets a new toy.

Well, needless to say, wish we'd done this weeks if not months ago. BIG HIT. Since then he's gone #2 in the potty a bunch of times (although only when prompted by us) and - on Sunday - the holy grail. He actually told us he had to go potty. Of course, we were on the freeway heading to a birthday party. But, after I let him know that we'll be there soon & that we can go on the potty when we get there, he actually held it and was dry when we arrived! Yay!!

I think the funniest thing I've heard him say lately was what happened this morning. As with most kids, he's very curious about what's going on in the potty and likes to look at his, um, work. So after a successful potty "experience" this morning, he looked down to see what all had happened. He looked up at me and said "WOW! That's BIG!!!" He was quite proud of himself. He was yelling "Daddy!! I POOOOOOOPED!!!" (Daddy was in the shower.) Wonder what the neighbors think...

Don't worry - I'll spare you any pictures!!