William's 3rd Birthday

Happy 3rd Birthday to my big boy William!  He turned 3 last month and we celebrated with a little party.  Funny story - Eliana recently had her first sleepover with her best friend Adele.  Five seems a little young to me for a sleep over, but these girls are so close that they seem almost more like sisters than just friends.  After the sleepover, William said that he wanted to have a sleepover too.  I asked who he wanted to come to his party.  Cousin Claire? No, he said.  Your friend Paolo? No, he said.  Your friend Hannah? No, he said.  "I know, I will invite a cricket and a friendly spider!" said Will.  This describes him to a T.  He loves animals of all types.  H pretty much asks daily if we can go to the zoo.  And his favorite game is to pretend to be different animals.  Some of his more recent choices are armadillo, gorilla, frog, panda, mandrill, and baboon.  Monkeys or apes tend to be his animal of choice, and he loves to crawl around on all fours on his fists.  He is such a funny kid.

Three year old stats: He weighed 33lbs (64th percentile) and was 37.75 in tall (58th percentile).  His favorite colors are green or blue.  He loves The Land Before Time, playing with dinosaurs and small animal toys, especially his tiny panda from the zoo, and reading books (especially ones about animals). His favorite food group is dairy including milk, yogurt, and cheese.  That is basically his entire diet.  At his three year checkup, the pediatrician asked if he liked vegetables.  I laughed.  Nope, those hardly pass through his lips.  She had a picture of the rainbow made up of different vegetables, and made Will check it out.  She had him pick different things that he could eat from each color.  Since that time, we have talked about eating the "colors of the rainbow" a lot.  I will tell him to take a bite of his broccoli, and he will ask, "Is this a part of the rainbow?"  Yes, Will, it is, so eat it!  Then he will take a tiny nibble and be so proud of himself.  He is just learning how to ride a bike with training wheels.  He loves the swing, never seems to tire of being pushed in it, and is learning how to pump his legs.  He especially loves underdogs on the swing.  He also is a big jokester.  Also at his 3 year old check up, he had his vision checked.  One eye at a time, he had to identify little pictures of houses and squares or apples and hearts.  He readily identified them with the first eye.  Then I could tell he was getting bored with the game.  With the second eye, he gave a sly look at the pictures, had his classic pause, and then said something absurd like "banana!" I knew he knew what the shapes were and I was quite certain that he could see them just fine with the second eye.  But he's not a people pleaser like Eliana, who loves to excel at tests or answering people's questions. He just wants to be goofy.  That kid is a trouble maker and we will definitely have our hands full when he starts school.  After joking around for several minutes, he was able to correctly name all the shapes quickly, confirming that he was just being silly.  Classic example of our Silly Willy.

On his birthday, first Grandma Bond visited and they spent some special time together.  I know the two of them have a very special relationship, and William loves the individualized attention that she gives to him, especially when they play dinosaurs together. She gave him a Paw Patrol plane.

Then we had a small party with the Flanigan family.  My brother, sister-in-law, and niece Claire came as well as my parents. The weather was perfect (part of having a July birthday) so we spent much of our time outside playing.  My parents bought the kids a little swing set.  Although it arrived on William's birthday, they made sure that the kids knew it was for everyone, not just Will.  My dad and brother spent much of the party building the swing set.

Laney enjoyed her first beer

Will requested a dinosaur cake.

Happy Birthday!

Will and Claire got their own little table.

Playing outside the next day.

Enjoying our new little swing set!  Laney is so excited about her baby swing.

Will is pretty happy too (photo credit: Eliana)

I can't believe how grown up our little boy is getting.  He amazes me every day with his imagination.  He loves his sisters even though he also likes to tackle them both and sit on them.  He gives sweet kisses and hugs, and tells the best jokes.  We are truly blessed to have Sweet William as part of our family.  Happy Birthday Will!