THREE

 Today Jeremiah turns 3.  Please do not get me started on how in the heck this baby

turned into this silly kid.

My mind cannot comprehend how quickly the last 3 years have gone, and I just want time to SLOW DOWN! 

We spent the entire weekend celebrating Jeremiah and the special 3 year old boy that he is!  Saturday morning we let him pick out a truck at The Learning Post.  Now that we know that they are a dealer for Bruder Toys, I am sure we'll be back often (or at least at Christmas and birthday time!).  J loves his new truck and trailer with backhoe loader!

While J was napping on Saturday, his special guests arrived-- Grandpa and Meema Wiers came from Wisconsin!  The birthday boy picked our dinner spot, and his choice was of course, Pizza Ranch!  No complaints from any of us! :)

J goes to the Pizza Ranch for one thing-- mashed potatoes!

After dinner we went home and J opened his presents from Grandpa and Meema and Uncle Matt and Aunt Cheryl!

"Reading" the card.

A Cars DUPLO set!

Serious business.

And then it was time for cake!

When J asked (several times) for a Mickey Mouse cake, I decided to put that into the hands of my friends over at Hy-Vee.  I think it turned out great!  It was MY pan that the cake was baked in, too.... that should count for something! :)

And HERE is a video of the "Happy Birthday" singing.  He likes being the center of attention!
J enjoyed some playing with his new toys, and then it was off to dreamland for the almost 3 year old.

Making a picture with his new Imaginets!

And stories with Meema before bed (no he's not sad, just listening intently).

Sunday we got up and went to church-- this was a big day because Jeremiah got sung to at Sunday School!  I was told that he just beamed the entire time (wish I could have been there to see it)!  And then got his birthday sucker from the Sunday School coordinator.  He was in awe of a sucker that has a Tootsie Roll inside it! :)

We hit Panera for lunch and then J got to have some more fun playing with Grandpa and Meema!

Making a tower as tall as J (with his new building blocks)!

Helping Grandpa and Meema with a bulldozer puzzle.

And finally, TODAY.  The big #3 birthday!  I had decorated the living room with balloons and a banner, etc and J was pretty excited to see that when he woke up!  Daddy had to work today (Mommy took a "sick" day and missed a day of professional development.  SO worth it!), and has school tonight, so we went ahead and let J open his presents from us right away.  J was okay with that.

Pretty excited about books.  Makes me happy!

Uh, read the card a little faster, Gramps!  I got presents to open!

A garbage truck!

Spent a LOT of time loading trash into his garbage truck today!

 

Happy boy surrounded by trucks!

Grandpa made a special green chocolate chip (oddly shaped) pancake for J's birthday!

Jeremiah challenged Grandpa to a game of vehicle Memory (another gift from us).  Jeremiah won quite handily!  He doesn't quite get the concept of only turning over 2 cards at a time (why not keep turning them over until you find the match?!?!?).

 
Then we had to head off to Target-- Mommy scheduled J's 3 year pictures!  WOW, did J do an awesome job!  We got some great pics, and he listened and followed directions so well-- made this mommy so proud.  Grandma thinks J may have a career in modeling. :)

After Target, we met Daddy for lunch at another favorite place of J's-- McDonald's with the Playland!

Apparently by this point he was a little sick of saying "cheese."

And after lunch, it was time for a nap and time for Grandpa and Meema to head back to Wisconsin.  J was sad to say good-bye ("Why did Grandpa and Meema have to go bye-bye???"). 

But the partying is not over-- J gets to celebrate his b-day with his daycare friends tomorrow (and yes, he will be wearing his "Happy Birthday to Me!" shirt yet again.  Don't worry-- I've been washing it between wears!).  Here is Mommy's attempt at a Pinterest Mickey Mouse birthday treat:

Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Jeremiah Adam!  Daddy and Mommy are so proud of our big boy and we love you so much! :)

Life Lately

Not much exciting going on here, lately, except for Jeremiah.... he is always keeping us on our toes!  I bet you have all been so anxious, wondering if Jeremiah has stayed true to being "paci-free" or if he (or we) has fallen off the wagon.  Well, we are happy to say that J really never looked back, once the paci was gone.  He would ask about it every once in a while, but we'd just remind him that it was "lost."  The first time Adam picked J up from daycare after we "lost" the paci, he asked for it, of course.  Adam reminded him that it was "lost," and J said, "No, Mommy has it in her pocket!  I know she does!" (He was on to me, I guess! Ha!).  But, we have not heard mention of the paci in weeks!  So yay, that was surprisingly pain-less for all! :)

Early last week J took a spill at daycare and hit his face on the hallway floor at our daycare provider's daughter's school.  After being reminded several times NOT to run, what did he do?  Ran, of course.  And then fell flat on his face!  I honestly am glad I did not see it right away, because I think it looked pretty bad, and they had a hard time getting the bleeding to stop.  Adam picked him up and took him to Urgent Care (which was surprisingly NOT busy!), but there was really nothing they could do.  The bleeding slowed, and J was just left with a big fat lip, bruise on the inside of his lip, puffy nose, and loose teeth.  He got the teeth looked at this week by the dentist-- one is still a little loose, so we have to "keep an eye on it" (what does that even mean, really?  Make sure it doesn't fall out?).

Ow.

 

Thankfully he is now back to normal, and you'd think he'd be much more careful about running everywhere.  But he's not.

This week has been a pretty lazy week for us.  J came down with some kind of cold or something on Sunday and has been coughing with a runny nose, etc all week.  No fever at all, but definitely not feeling 100%.  A few times this week he has coughed so hard at night and then vomited (yay for the over-active super-sensitive gag reflex).  Between a late-start, snow day, and sickness going on at daycare we ended up having a lot of days at home!  Turned out for the best, probably, as J is still coughing....  Adam did take him to the doctor on Thursday, and found that one ear was pink and probably was either just starting or finishing an ear infection.  So we have an antibiotic for him and have been waiting to see if he'll improve without it.... I'm thinking we'll start it today since he hasn't made a drastic improvement yet.  He also was complaining that his back hurt, which prompted the Dr to ask for a urine sample just to rule out an infection.  That came back clear, so she thinks he probably just strained it a little bit from all the coughing.

A cozy day at home-- just what the Dr. ordered!

Being home so much this week meant that Mommy could stay more on top of the laundry (instead of letting it go until the weekend!), and J is so good at being Mommy's laundry helper!

Stop standing around and get back to work!

 HERE IS A VIDEO of how he helps me with the laundry.  Don't worry, he hasn't fallen in or off yet.  And, if any one is really that concerned about his safety, feel free to purchase him a front-loading washing machine. :)

Keeping busy "making cookies."  At his tool bench.

 J has also spent some time on the iPad, of course.  He has a construction vehicle app-- it plays a country song called "Mud on the Tires" and shows a slideshow of construction vehicles.  Every time the song comes on, he runs to get his guitar so he can play along! (This particular day he decided to have a concert inside a couch cushion fort).

I think that's about all the excitement from here for now-- stay tuned as our little dude turns 3 in approximately 16 days!  This momma is not ready for her baby to be 3!!!!