Wes is THREE!!!

Wes is THREE!

Birthday balloons!

He had an amazing birthday by starting with a tour of our local firehouse with friends/parents and then we had a BBQ at our house with everyone. The reason we decided on a firehouse tour is because a few months ago we were at our local ice cream place. Wes saw firefighters in the line and asked to talk to them (he talks to anyone- and I mean anyone)...in the conversation they asked if he wanted to come see the fire truck in a nearby parking lot. I have never seen a kid shove an ice cream cone down his mouth faster. After our private tour with the firefighters, every time we saw a fire truck Wes would yell out "my firefighter friends!" Hence the firehouse tour.

We also had a family dinner a week before where CP made steak and corn (one of Wes' favorite things to eat) and he got to open up his presents two days early because I was a bad mother and had to be in CA for work on his real birthday. He's three so he won't remember that I wasn't there on his real birthday but I still felt bad.

Birthday firehouse tour

Height- 40" (unofficial)

Weight- 39 pounds (unofficial- with clothes on)

Diapers- NO MORE DIAPERS OR PULLUPS! I guess the last time I wrote an update like this on Wes he was two (I'm a horrible blogger these days). A few months ago we took the plunge and even though Wes wasn't interested in potty training, we powered through. He got pee very quickly and mastered poop only two or three weeks later. Since he has been waking up dry for both nap and nighttime, we pulled the pullups as well. We didn't even have to do any nighttime training! YAY!

Milestones- Oh man I feel like he has so many in the past year. He has been able to pedal tricycles and his motorcycle for a while and his hand/eye coordination seems to be pretty good. He is also a fast runner. While camping this year he went on his first rollercoaster at a local carnival in WI and also went on his first water slide (in an inner tube with CP).

First rollercoaster

He is definitely not as adventurous as Izzy and needs us to do something with him at least a few times before he is willing to do it on his own. A few months ago we moved him to a big boy bed with the guard rail however I'm not sure he needs it because he has slept in a bed with no rails before at my parent's place in MI and hasn't fallen out.

Proud of his big boy bed

Wes went to his first movie in a theater- Toy Story 4!

Language- I didn't think that it was possible but Wes talks more than Izzy. He is still learning the art of not interrupting and will often yell "No! I'm talking" if Izzy tries to talk over him. He loves to sing different songs like Frozen (his favorite line? "Frozen fractals all around"), random Raffi songs (like Bananaphone), Sing a Song of Sixpence, etc.

Wes' face when he heard he was getting early birthday presents

Favorite Toy- In the past year his favorite toy has not changed- it is still trains. He will still come home and play with his Thomas trains almost every night. We were not planning on getting him any toys for his birthday this year but he has literally been talking about the Thomas super station for 6 months now- ever since a friend of ours started to give us her son's old Thomas the Trains magazines (which of course has super station ads in them)- so because we couldn't think of anything else, super station it is.

Strawberry picking

Favorite Book- Wes really likes to read the Thomas the Train magazines at night. He is also obsessed with only one story called "Cookies" in the Frog & Toad book.

Sleep- Wes gets to sleep by 8-8:30 every night and has slept in to 8:30am on the weekends (we get him up around 6:40am during the week). When putting him to bed we brush teeth, put pajamas on, read books, sing him two songs, put blankets on him, and turn on his turtle light before hopefully leaving the room. In the past month or so he has started to stall- "I have to go potty. I need some water. I need to give Daddy a hug." etc. He has also become afraid of monsters and bad dreams so we remind him that the cats keep the monsters away and his dream catcher above his bed takes away his bad dreams. I hope this phase ends soon.

Playing on the new climbing dome

Clothes- In 4t clothes and size 11 shoes.

Eating- Wes is a good eater and he has even started to like fish if he can squeeze some lemon on it. We recently went out to a sushi place and he housed some soft shell crab (that I didn't really like) and instead of getting a kids meal he opted for the ramen. It was awesome! Of course he is a regular kid and LOVES mac n cheese as well. If he could eat fruit all the time, he would.

Soft shell crab

Teeth- He now has all of them and it will be about two more years before they start falling out.

Illness- Over the past year? Ha. Nothing major. This year we didn't have an ER visit (woo hoo!) and his lungs seem to be able to handle winter colds better. However, camping this year he got bitten by mosquitos- A LOT- some of them blistered and one of his legs was hard and swollen for a few days so I think he has skeeter syndrome. :-( (We used plenty of bug spray) Not much we can do but to try to keep the bugs away as much as possible.