10.23.2013

{ Ryan’s 3rd Birthday }

Ryan LOVES the Lorax movie. Everyday he wakes up, and the first thing he wants to do is watch the movie on my phone. He walks around the house quoting phrases from it like, “She’s a woman,… in high school”, and makes us all crack up. He even started standing up on the coffee table and saying really fast, “I’m the Lorax, I speak for the trees”, and then he falls over on to the couch and starts laughing. This kid is such a crack up. He sure knows how to make us laugh.

About a month before his birthday I thought it would be fun to have a Lorax themed birthday party for him-just our family of course, but really that’s as many people as any kid party. I started pinning ideas from Pinterest, and planning for some really big Lorax fun. I knew if I told Ryan that he would be asking me everyday if today was the day for his Lorax party. We kept that our little secret until just a few days before when I asked him if he wanted to help with making the cake pops for his cake for his Lorax party. Scott and him were so excited. We love cake pops around here, but don’t make them too often because they are so much work. The little boys were pretty excited to be my helpers in the kitchen to make our cute little Truffula tree cake pops.

During Ryan’s nap, Scott helped me to make our Truffula Trees for decorations, and put together our orange Lorax Gatorades. Scott loves to be my sidekick when it comes to any birthday surprise related thing. He always promises me he won’t tell what the presents are, but we play it safe and save it until naptime right before the party to wrap them. It’s fun to have everything set up so as the kids start trickling home from school they see the party all set up and ready to go-it makes them get so excited for whoever’s birthday it is.

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We’ve been working really hard to get Ryan to hold up three fingers instead of just two, and he was really proud of himself that he had mastered it before his actual birthday. He would get so excited when someone would ask how old he was just so he could hold up his three fingers.

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His birthday book this year of course was The Lorax. He was just a little bit happy about that. I love that big grin of his!

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I love seeing how excited he gets over opening his presents. At three he didn’t really have any big birthday wishes, except for one (his Lorax bag which he opens next), so his surprise was about as real as it could get when he saw what was inside. Being the youngest of seven marks off a lot of toys from the list, since most of them already live in our toy closet in the playroom. Some how Mr. and Mrs. Potato head were not part of our toy collection. He was so happy with them, though at first I’m not sure he knew exactly what they were.

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His only request for his birthday was this Lorax trick-or-treat bag from Pottery Barn Kids. When we received the magazine in the mail he found the page that had a Lorax costume and this cute little Lorax treat bag. He would carry that magazine around with him everywhere, and remind me that he wanted it. He would panic if he couldn’t find the right page that it was on, and come running to me, yelling, “Where is it?Where is it? Where is “I speak for the trees”?

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What is becoming our traditional three year old present-some new big boy underwear. He really was excited about it, even though it looks like he was a bit more consumed with his potato head toys. Afterwards, he took them all out of the package and wanted to put all of them on at once. Scott even tried to convince him that he should “share” those cool Incredibles underwear with him.

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And the most exciting gift was his new backpack. NO more sister-hand-me-down pink backpacks. His new elephant backpack was quickly filled up with all his new toys and all 7 pairs of underwear. Scott and him are big backpack kids-they are constantly carrying around their backpacks filled to the brim with toys and books that they carry with them everywhere. They are always finding some treasure to bring to preschool to play with or in the car to pick up Brianna from school or to do errands or to church (that one we usual have to compromise to bring it in the car, but leave it there while we are inside at church because I usual don’t monitor very well what gets put in there. I’m pretty sure at any given time there are some pretty noisy toys…or a whole bunch of extra underwear that doesn’t really need to be spread across the pew). To have his very own backpack was a pretty big deal for him.

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Later that night, Ryan put on his new batman pajamas he got and started filling up his new backpack with his toys, and all his new underwear. ‘'I need it for preschool!” I keep hoping that that new underwear will motivate him to want to actual be potty trained. Though hopeful, I’m not holding out. I think his main problem is a very tired, pregnant mom. Hopefully by the time this baby comes we will both be more motivated.

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3 Things we Love About Ryan at Age 3

  • The way he moves his eyebrows up and down and says, “How you doing?”
  • How he loves to have multiple binkies when he goes to sleep. One to suck on and two to hold in his hand and play with
  • His independence and the way he is quick to do stuff himself. There are times I am trying to “love” this about him because with independence comes a lot of super strong will power, but other times I love it. I will just mention in passing to Aaron that we need to do something and he will go and already do it. He is really good at going to get on his own pajamas, getting out everything and trying most morning to pour his own cereal and milk, and setting the table for us. One night I asked for him to help one of the bigger kids to set the table, and they were a little slow to help out, but Ryan went right to work setting it. When we sat down he had used all of the little kid plates and cups, and I was about to correct him that we needed big people plates when I noticed that he had color coordinated everyone's big plate, cup, and little polka dot plate. We happily ate our food that night on plastic because he had done such a good job matching everything.

Happy Birthday Ryan! We love you!!!

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