Judah's 3!

My dear Judah is THREE years old! Yesterday was his birthday - I can still clearly remember the day he was born and the time that followed...my little man was born 4 weeks early and spent 9 days in NICU. It's hard to believe that was THREE years ago!

Since his birthday is right after Christmas (the 27th sneaks up fast) we tend to keep his actual birthday low-key and spread out his celebrations after Christmas. He has a birthday party this Sunday and another one next Saturday. Lucky kid - he gets four weekends with presents (two for Christmas and two for his birthday!)

On Monday (day after Christmas, day before his birthday) Joe and I went shopping for his present. A few weeks ago Ethan made a pop-up book for Judah and had it wrapped and hidden under the table - he was so excited to give it to him!

Here's Ethan proudly showing Judah his gift - I wished I would've thought to record their interactions; it was ADORABLE.

Ethan: Judah, I made you a pop-up book!

Judah: Thank you Ethan!

Ethan: You're welcome.

Seriously.
Joe and I wrapped our gift in a Captain America bag - Judah loves the bag almost as much as the gift. Simple things right?
We got him a Green Lantern Jet and Action Figure - he LOVES it.
We also found a 'Golden Books' book about Super-Heros! Score! I think I've read it to him about 100 times so far.
After a relatively normal day we went out as a family to IHOP for a special birthday dinner! Yum! Judah was so excited and acted all big-boy while ordering his food. I love that IHOP puts their kids meal options in picture form on their kids coloring page - GENIUS. Why don't other places do that? It was so simple to have the kids look at the pictures and choose from that. The boys even had ice cream sundaes as a special birthday dessert:)

We had a wonderful birthday-day as a family!

Check out his 2nd birthday here

Check out his 1st birthday here

*I was reading through my older posts and in one of them I have 8 days in NICU and the other 9 days...when do you start counting...the day he was born or the next day? He was born Saturday and discharged the following Sunday (you count Saturday it's 9 days, don't count Saturday it's 8)

Snowless Christmas?

It appears that we may have a snowless Christmas this year (granted I can't recall the last time I watched the weather forecast...but there's no snow on the ground and Christmas is this weekend!)

Remember our HUGE snowstorm last year? I do. And for some reason this year I'm not loving the idea of that MUCH snow...maybe it's because I now have THREE kiddos to haul through it if I venture out. It's fun to play in but not so fun to drive in.

We had some snow a while ago (which obviously melted) and the boys had a ball in it. So, I guess for their sake maybe (just maybe) I'll wish for snow this winter....too bad it's inevitable! Here's some super cute pics of them enjoying the little bit of whiteness we've received this year...

Aren't those mini-snowmen adorable? Yep. I guess I'll embrace the silver lining of winter snow and think of all the cute snowmen and snow angels my kids will make. Way to go me!

We're getting ready for a fun-family-filled Christmas weekend; there will be lots of delicious food and fabulous company! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend:)

Loving

Judah loves to love on his baby brother! It's adorable...Judah takes his job of 'big brother' very seriously! He loves to make Isaac smile, give him his paci, tell him "it's ok buddy boy" and inform me when Isaac needs to eat!

Way to go Judah!

Monkey's

I have two monkey's on my hands....very creative little monkey's! The other night Ethan and Judah flipped over our bowl chair and re-purposed it as an 'exercise bar' -- they would hang on it and proclaim, "look at me! I'm exercising!" Little monkey loves to mimic big monkey...Judah could actually hold his weight up! Strong guy:)
Tag Team! My little crazies:) I love 'em to pieces!
Sadly, their 'exercise' time ended as a result of them arguing about who's turn it was....classic right? Hopefully next time they can play nice and take turns! What a fun skill to learn....:)

I'm always impressed with the creative things my big boys come up with!

Just Like Mama

My big boys love to imitate me; it's absolutely adorable! You can totally tell what they watch all day (ME) - Copying is a form of flattering right? something like that...

I made (ie: cut and tied long pieces of fabric together) WRAPS for my big boys. They see me 'wear' Isaac in my Moby and like to 'wear' their babies (Judah's Panda and Ethan's Bear)

Ethan will wear his Bear for hours at a time! It's too stinkin' cute.

I haven't gotten a picture of this yet - but Judah likes to nurse his Panda -- I've (tried to) explain that only mama's can nurse babies...I think he gets it:)

On another Judah note: we've been potty training on-and-off for a loooong time with him and it just wasn't sticking...well folks - IT STUCK! Hooray! We're on day FOUR of underwear all day and he's even doing his 'business' in the toilet (BM!) Hip Hip Hooray! I do a little happy dance every time I realize what is happening:) It's been a long road with him. Major humbling experience for me as a mom....Ethan literally trained HIMSELF at 2.5 years old. seriously. So, I figured all my kids would be potty pros at a young age - insert sweet mr. Judah:) He still got it before 3 though so that's good...his birthday is in 3 weeks! He is SOO proud of himself - he tells everyone that he's in underwear and that he goes 'bubbles' in the toilet - only a toddler could get away with that kind of talk right?

Well, my little babe Isaac is calling my name (waaaaa-waaaa)

Blog to ya later.....