Mostly Sunny With a Chance of Meltdowns: Happy 3rd Birthday to Dman!

We celebrated another milestone earlier this month--our son turned 3! Talk about time whizzing by...it seems like yesterday that it was Josh and me. Sleeping in, making last minute plans, generally lazing about...not anymore! Darrin does his part to make sure we are busy. He is such a happy boy, most of the time. His grumpy days tend to come in waves. We are seeing a lot more of an independent streak--he will melt down in the blink of an eye if he wants to do something himself and we overstep our parental bounds and do it for him.

So what is life like with a 3-year-old? Pretty much like it was when he was 2, except there's even less of a chance he'll nap (can't remember when he last napped, to be honest), he wants to do more for himself and tries to call the shots sometimes, and his eating habits are even more sporadic and frustrating to his mommy and daddy. But with all that there are some truly wonderful qualities that make our son who he is. He has such an imagination! He loves to make up silly names and giggle. He is always playing and pretending to be grown-up in some way. He sings and makes up words to songs he knows. He loves to help out and is a tremendous big brother. He is incredibly sweet and still likes to cuddle! And nothing is sweeter than hearing him say his bedtime prayer or tell us he loves us without any prompting. I love him so much my heart hurts!

G-mom (my mom) was able to be here for my birthday and Darrin's, and I think that was the best gift of all! We had a small family dinner (pizza!) and a cake (Darrin picked a football theme) one evening. Darrin tore through his gifts, usually not even sparing a glance at what he received before throwing it (literally) behind him to move on to the next package. I think he opened his gifts in record time. He enjoyed us singing "Happy Birthday" and worked really hard to blow out his candles--he finally finally put them out in 2 good puffs.

We were originally considering a larger party later in the month, but I don't know if that will be necessary now. As far as Darrin's concerned, his birthday was perfect. For now, enjoy a few pictures from the past 3 years--from the beginning to now!

My nearly-exploding belly about a week before Darrin was evicted...notice the lasting damage he caused... ;o)