So Liam is officially 3 years old now! We decided to have their party early because some family members would be of town during their actual birthdays. Anyway, we had our party at Arete Gymnastics. We had the whole place to ourselves for 1 hour of playtime, and then 30 min. to have our cake and gifts. The kids had a great time playing! All his cousins were there as well as one one of my friends little boy. We had a Curious George theme, and we ordered a monkey cake, similar looking to George, but they did not have the kit to make it. So we had to pick a different design at the last minute, and we ended up with Finding Nemo...so we called this theme 'Curious George Goes Scuba Diving'. We put 2 monkey's on the cake, one for Rowan and one for Liam! Right before we lit the cake I was looking for Mike to make sure he had his camera to take pictures, and while I wasn't looking poor Liam lost his balance on the bench and fell backwards onto the concrete floor! He hit his head pretty good, and I felt so bad. He cried for a bit, but he was OK thankfully. We sang happy birthday to the kids, and enjoyed some cake. We let Liam open his gifts, but we were pretty pressed for time, so we took Rowan's gifts home to open later. All in all I think the party was a great success!
It's kinda funny to think back a year ago when Rowan was just born, and Liam did not want anything to do with her. And now, he is such a great big brother. He loves her so much, and loves to play with her. He hugs and kisses her and is always concerned about how and what she is doing. There is a little rivalry mixed in there, but overall he just adores his little sister, and we couldn't ask for a better big brother.
He loves being read to, and also 'reading' his books. He hasn't been the easiest kid to potty train, it's still a work in progress because he can not be easily bribed. But, he will make an excuse to sit on his potty to read a few of his favorite books...already taking after dad!! He also is loving to help his grandma and dad cook. He doesn't cut or use the stove yet, but loves measuring and mixing stuff! And we have also noticed that he is more likely to try something if he has helped make it. So we will have to make that more of an activity for him.
He's really been into his cars lately. I got him a car suitcase, and he loves to take them in and out to organize them. He is really excited for Christmas, and had a great time decorating the tree. In fact, he insisted on re-decorating it for several days after too! It's kinda funny, a few months before Christmas, we asked him who Santa was, and he said it was Mom and Dad...not sure if he even knew what he was saying, but we thought that was pretty funny, but really didn't want him telling kids at school that. Even before we had kids, I had been so conflicted about telling our kids about Santa or not. I really have a problem making up stories (aka lying), so we kinda just decided to let it happen naturally...hearing it from other people, on TV, at school. We did not tell him about Santa flying in his sleigh, or coming down the chimney. We just casually talked about him like we would any other character on TV. I think it worked out well this year. He got a little magic of Santa without it being a whole elaborate story.
Other than potty training, our other trial lately has been bedtime. We have always left one light on in his bathroom, so it's not completely dark, but now he also insists to have his room light on too. He has been crying and clinging to us when it's time for us to go. We are guessing his imagination is getting more intense by the way he talks about monsters and such, so it is probably just a phase. Anyway, we take the good with the bad, and are always grateful to have such a wonderful boy in our family!
