3rd B-day

Sullivan turned 3 years old recently. He's like a little man now, growing up so much.

Sullivan has grown leaps and bounds with his communicating. He is still working on pronunciation, but it is so cute that I almost find myself using the following words in place of the correct words...

Ah La= Ice cream
Rawry= Sorry
Oten= Open
Wee Ooo= Any ambulance, firetruck or police car
Chalk-it-milk= Chocolate Milk
Nute Naks= Fruit Snacks
Nanny= Kammi
Nun Nun= London

He recognizes when he does wrong and corrects himself all the time, it is quite cute. He's put himself in time out for hitting. And, goes through out the day saying "I no say poopy pants, I no say What the."

We encourage him to be polite by saying "Say it nicely." Now he says "nicely" in place of please and thank you..."I want Nute naks nicely."

He's extremely independent too. I swear I hear "me do it" or "by myself," at least a dozen times a day.

His sense of direction is amazing for a 3 year old, or maybe we just live in a small enough town. We play games in the car together, he tells me when a stop sign/light is coming and when I should stop and when I can go. Tells me when to turn, where Daddy's office is, where the church is etc.,. He goes to his cousins house 3x a week in the morning so that I can go work out and we play another game called "Is this Bear Bear's (nickname he calls his cousin Sarah)house?" And then we both say "No" and then he keeps asking at each house we pass until we come to Bear Bear's house and we both say "Yes." Sounds silly, but I'll cherish this game because it is ours!!!

His most favorite food has probably got to be popcorn, he asks for it nightly. I think he just likes throwing it on the ground and making me vacuum daily.

He will be a sunbeam in the new year!! CRAZY!!

He has a tinge of shyness to him, especially when meeting new people.

He does NOT like change. A new coat, new shoes, rearranging his room and not letting him watch TV at his regular time have all caused tantrums. He is a creature of habit and when things are slightly different than what he is used to, he definitely lets me know.

With the above statement said, potty training has been extremely difficult!! But, we are almost there now.

Poor kid has asthma. I've been in denial about it and I doubted that the doctor was right, but the same symptoms keep happening. This last attack was so bad his little heart was pounding so fast that it scared me and I was on the verge of rushing him to the ER. It was a long night for me monitoring him and checking his stats to make sure he was getting enough O2 and that his heart rate didn't rise to high while sneaking in some of his albuterol treatments. By the morning, he was back to normal. Are asthma attacks like this (lasts 8 hrs or so, runs a fever, heart beats fast, sucking in air/breathing hard)? I've never been around this before. The doc thinks it might be something in the air that is causing him to have these attacks, but I can't figure out what it might be. If anything, I think that when he's running a lot and physically active that I can hear him wheeze a bit. But, nothing that would cause these asthma attacks.

He is the most kind hearted kid and such a gentleman!! Whenever Jeff is on a business trip Sullivan takes on the "man of the house" very seriously. He mimics Jeff by trying to use the fly swatter to kill flies, waters the tree, sits on the lawn mower, sleeps on Jeff's side of the bed (my fault) etc.,. This isn't something that he's told to do, he just does it...so cute.

So, one day while Jeff was on a business trip, I took Sullivan to the bank with me to deposit a check. It was raining pretty hard outside. I was holding his hand as we were fast walking into the bank when I said "Lets hurry, mama is cold." Sullivan replied "Mama want my B" which is his blanket that he has at home. I looked down at my sweet boy who happened to let go of my hand as I said "Aww, you are such a sweet boy" and noticed he was unzipping his jacket and took it off and gave it to me. My heart melted. Of course I threw it over my shoulders so that he could see that I was grateful for his sweet gesture and I let him know how much it helped keep me warm... when really his kindness warmed my soul through and through already.

The next story...

We were all sitting down to a family dinner. I usually don't place drinks out because the kids have a drink setting on the counter most days that they just grab and bring with them. Jeff and I were deep in a discussion about...hmm, don't remember. Then we hear London ask for a drink, but I don't think it registered or we were too lazy to do anything about it. She can climb on the counter and grab a glass and get a drink herself pretty easily, though she's the only one of my kids who doesn't like to do things herself. I think we tell her she can do it or something. I see her go over and try to hop on the counter, grab a stool to climb up etc.,. For some reason, she can't grab a glass. Then we hear a chair being scooted across the hard wood floor, from the table by Sullivan. Jeff immediately tells Sullivan "What are you doing, go put it back." This is a common occurrence in our house, he's pretty independent and gets what he wants, therefore we ALWAYS have to put these chairs back and tell him that he needs to ask for things before he goes to get them. Then his sweet little voice responded with a "I help Nun Nun, get Nun Nun a glass." My sweet little boy saw a need and went right ahead and did it himself.

Now for the birthday festivities...

First thing in the morning he got to open his gifts...

He was so busy playing with his new toys that he didn't eat any of his birthday pancakes. An hour or so after breakfast, he went searching for some food on his own.

Testing out his new boat in the bathtub. Every time Sullivan saw this boat on a commercial he'd say "I want that," "Buy me that," or "For my birthday," so Jeff and I got it for him despite the package saying for 8 years or older. Luckily he has a couple of great sisters that are willing to help him put it together and take it apart.
(Picture was here)
He's very much into planes, trains and automobiles.



Buzz defeating Zurg

Sullivan and his cousin have birthdays during the same week in November, so we did a combined birthday get together. Malorie made this cute treasure chest cake and we provided the ice cream (can't mess that up!) They each got to blow out their half of the candles.