6 Months

It is so hard to believe that my little boy is 3 1/2.
He is so excited and has been asking me every day since if he is still 3 and a half.  Like "Tiboo" (his cousin Caleb).

I try to come up with lots of fun ways to celebrate throughout the year and a half birthday is as much a reason to celebrate as any.

We gave him a small present and made chocolate chip cookies.

Time goes by so fast and there just doesn't seem to be enough time to enjoy every single minute. I think three might be one of my favorite ages. But he still seems to be changing so much and growing every minute. Where does the time go and how do I store it all to memory?

Touch-A-Truck

Well, here we are again with another Daily Moments post, but not really. I wasn't great at taking pictures this week, but I have a few days that have lots of pictures. So I guess that it will do as a daily moments post.

A local park in our area holds a yearly touch-a-truck event. They fill the parking lot with all kinds of trucks, tractors, and fun boy stuff. They let the boys get in the seats, honk the horns, and play with the big trucks! Of course it is a 3 year old boys dream land.

 This is one of those big buckets that reach the power lines...Caleb didn't want his picture taken & Jake was trying to hide.

Spring Pictures

This week is screen-free week. If you aren't participating and you happen to come  I am leaving you with some of the cutest pictures while I am away. I won't be blogging this week in an effort to stay away from the computer.  But please leave a comment while you are here. I love to hear from you!

Heather & I often have our boys' pictures taken together. They are 4 months apart and we love that they are so close in age.

Recently my friend Jill of Jill Samples photography took Spring pictures with the boys. I must say that they are the CUTEST pictures ever. I love them. Jill did a great job, but I am sure it helps that our boys are so cute already.

It was very difficult to pick which one's I was going to share, but here are some of my most favorites...but really I love them all!!!

Family:I will be getting some pictures to you this week. If there is a specific one here you want let me know.

Daily Moments...but not really

As I was getting ready to write my daily moments post for last week I realized I only had pictures from 2 days. Not so good for a daily moments post. But for Tuesday I had lots of pictures...I thought I would share what most of our Tuesdays look like. Well, except for the fact that last Tuesday was the last day.

Counting the bees(fingers) as they come out of the hive to tickle
Every Tuesday Jake & I enjoy a music class together. A friend of mine's sister so graciously leads children in a free music class. She started doing it in her home and then moved to offering it at her church. Jake started these classes right after he turned one and we have done them twice a year since then.








                                                               

   Marching shaking his musical instruments
                                                                                                          The class is lots of singing, musical instrument playing, dancing, marching, & finger playing too. And of course Mrs. Jennifer always reads a story to the children. Did I tell you how blessed we have been by Mrs. Jennifer and her music class? Well,we have!!

It is always such a joy to hear Jake singing the songs from music throughout the week. And when we started listening to a new kids worship cd in the car and "Do Lord" came on he was so excited & couldn't believe this song from music was on in our car.


Throwing his scarf in the air at "pop" goes the weasel

Crawling during the freeze parade

Georiga Aquarium

A couple weeks ago during a Daily Moments post I shared a picture of Jake at the aquarium, but never got around to sharing a whole post.

We all had so much fun at the aquarium...can't believe it took us this long to finally go. We went on a Monday afternoon and it really wasn't crowded at all. We were able to walk right up to the glass in every exhibit and see everything a few times.

I think our favorite would be walking through the tunnel with the water on all sides of you. With sharks, sting ray and lots of really big fish swimming all around.

 A lot of the fish tanks are floor to ceiling and gigantic.

 Looking at the Beluga whales

The penguin exhibit has a crawl through tunnel that gives you an up close and personal look. It was neat to see them so close.

Do you see that big tiger shark swimming right in front of Jake...this tank had tons of different fish in it

Love the Dentist?

Would you believe my 3 year old loved the dentist? Really he did! We had been learning about our teeth and reading books about the dentist the week leading up to his appointment. When we woke up to go he was so excited. I was worried his excitement would wear off the minute they started talking to him or touching him. But no, he was still all smiles.





He had no problem with them looking in his mouth or cleaning his teeth. He was even asked a few times to open his mouth wider because he would start to smile during the exam. Once she pulled out the electric tooth brush he was laughing as she brushed his teeth...saying it tickled...really?

I think I had a harder time with the appointment then he did. As I was standing near his dental chair I had to really concentrate on holding the tears back. He is such a big boy. He had been to this dentist before as a "happy visit." Basically a get to know the place, but this was his first cleaning. Lots of tears were shed at these visits.  This visit not one tear was shed. (maybe a few silent ones by me)

A little downer they did find a small cavity...small enough they said they probably won't even numb him to fill it. It will be up to us if we give him laughing gas or not. Have you allowed your child to have laughing gas? But this too he is excited about and has told everyone "I have a cavity, & I get to go back to have it filled."

All in all it was a great visit. A mostly(exception being the cavity) great report(his 2.5 years with the paci had no negative effects it seems). And he still is excited to go back to the dentist. And really likes brushing and flossing at home too!

Lessons Learned

We recently redid Jake's room and gave him a big boy room! There are always lessons to be learned during these things. Here are a few we learned during this short little redo project.
Sometime I should listen to Jason on paint choices. He wanted to go with a darker color & I wanted to go with the color that looked most like the bedding. Turns out the gray I chose looks a little to light.

Everyone tells you your kids will grow so fast. Giving Jake a big boy room really hit that home. I honestly try and enjoy each minute with him because I know every time I blink he grows a little bit and seems a little older. Giving him a big boy room 4 years after finding out we were pregnant(almost to the day) made for some tears on redo day. Kids grow way too fast, but you will never understand this until you are in it. 100'S of people can tell you this while you are pregnant, but it just doesn't have the same meaning.

Don't ever use border!! Well, I suppose if you never plan to take it down it might be ok. Taking down the 1 strip of border Jake had going around his room was the hardest(physical) part of redoing Jake's room. And then trying to paint where the border was provided to be another struggle. Several coats of paint later and it looks fine now. But NEVER use border!!!

It was very bittersweet giving Jake his bog boy room. Converting his toddler bed(which had been converted from his crib) into a full size bed was exciting for him, but pretty sad for us. His full size bed is so big and theoretically will be his bed until he goes away to college(crazy...to picture a big teenage boy in his full size bed when he looks so small in it right now).

Jake loves his room and his big boy bed and even a week later still refers to it as his big boy bed instead of just his bed. And as this week has gone on I have grown to really enjoy reading books to him from his bed instead of his rocking chair, cuddling on his bed before he falls asleep, and accepting my 3 year old big boy that he is.

Big Boy Room

We redid Jake's room this week. We converted his crib to a toddler bed about a year ago(maybe more). But he still had all his nursery stuff in the room. We decided the time was right to convert his toddler bed to a full size bed and give him a new big boy room.

To say it was a very bittersweet day would be an understatement. Surprisingly it was very emotional to take all the baby stuff out of his room. It was very sweet that he was in the room helping us some of the time.But my goodness I just can't believe how fast time goes by.

The baby room-

The Big Boy Room

A little laugh

Did you know that at 3 years old you are supposed to be able to jump on one foot? Jake doesn't know how. But it is so hilarious watching him try. For your viewing pleasure Jake demonstrating his one foot jump.

Birthday Recap

It has been almost a week since Jake's birthday and I realized I hadn't posted about his party. So here is a recap of his birthday. I also realized I hadn't posted Halloween pictures either....so that post will be up next week.

Jake's party this year was bugged themed...which turned out super cute. I was able to make several things and found some great deals on bug stuff in the spring that I had been saving until his birthday for party favors.

The party was pretty relaxed the kids ran around in the back yard and played and everyone else got to hang out and talk.

It was great to spend time with family and some very dear friends. Looking at everyone who was there and all I could think was how blessed we truly were. So many people love our precious Jake and were able to come and celebrate birthday #3 with us.

The Details:

             sugar cookies imprinted with bugs and "bugs & kisses" tags

                               Party favor bags with grass and bugs

                       Green spoons in dirt cups wtih bugs on tags

              The birthday table the dirt cups on in shape of a caterpillar

                               Friends enjoying yummy dirt cups

Although, I had thrown lots of rubber bugs in the grass it wouldn't be as much fun as looking for real bugs with magnifying glasses.

And this is how our birthday boy ended his party...most of the guest were still here and he crawled on daddy's lap and was fast asleep. Looks like bug birthdays can really wear a boy out!