3 1/2

A few things about you at this age:

• Your favorite toys are superheroes and trains.  You also have started to play around with board games.  You can play Candy Land correctly and enjoy it.  You don't really like any of the other toddler games we have.  You will play around with the pieces for Battleship, Blokus, Labyrinth, and Ticket to Ride.
• You started SUNBEAMS a couple weeks ago!  I can't believe you're that old!  You get bored easily in Sharing Time but do well in class time.
• You like to make up little nonsense songs all the time while you're playing.  Just like Daddy.  It's very cute.
• Your food palate has grown a lot ever since I put my foot down and started making you try one bite of everything at dinner, and a certain amount of veggies before you can leave the table.  For breakfast you usually have either dry cereal, cheesy egg, sausage, or strawberries, and warm milk.  Lunch is usually some combo of mac&cheese (with tuna and corn mixed in), quesadilla, Gogurt, string cheese, oranges.  Dinner is whatever we make to eat as a family.
• You loooove Slurpees.  They are by far your favorite treat.  You were exposed to them late summer and ask for them anytime we see a gas station.  Your other most reliable treat is still the Thai tamarind flavored candies.  
• You are still tiny - 0% for everything.
• You know all your letters (upper case, anyway) and can count to 13.
• You like to snuggle, which definitely has not been the case for most of your life!
• We have very honest conversations with each other and you are learning things quickly.  I try hard to make you feel like you can talk to me about anything - although while still teaching you that some things are only discussed privately.
• You value comedy and are constantly trying things out and asking, "is that funny?" as you try to figure out what exactly makes something funny.
• Probably because of Aria, you notice and like little babies and will usually go say hi to them and baby-talk - but only for a couple seconds, and then you get bored.
• You know how to put on your own undies, pants, and socks.  Most of the time, at least.  
• You love playing games on the iPad and talking to family on Facetime.
• You know all of your uppercase letters and can also tell us what letters everybody's names start with.
• You know most of your shapes. 
• You are a good sleeper again although you do wake up once every few days to go potty during the night.  As always, you wake up promptly at 7am every morning on your own accord.
• You are, and always have been, very friendly to everyone.  Including complete strangers.  We make sure to always keep you in sight!

3rd birthday party

With everything going on with Aria, we knew we really needed to give you a proper birthday party.  Unfortunately I couldn't give you the weeks of planning and homemade decoration this time around, but it still turned out pretty good!  We invited all your old friends and all our new neighbors via text the day before your birthday but almost everyone was able to come!  So we made a late night trip to Walmart to buy all the party gear.  We decided to go with a Monsters University theme since you're really into that right now.

You insisted on having the pinata ride in the front of the cart with you.

Right before bed - showing us how old you are.

This is the view I wake up to every morning - you climbing up my little stepladder.  You 're showing us how old you are now!

Here's Daddy teaching you how to play tee-ball - that set was his present to you and he set it up while we were prepping for the party.

Ayisha spent over an hour filling up a tub full of water balloons that were later destroyed in 5 minutes.

For your party we were very casual - we just set up 3 different water areas and let the kids loose.  There was your normal slide going into the pool, a new little pool, and a slip n slide.

What a great action shot!

Food was pretty casual - just hot dogs and chips.

You ate 2 whole hot dogs.  Snatched them right out of my buns on my plate, actually.

Posing with the backdrop - you more or less figured out the props.

Blowing out your Monsters Inc candles.  Yes, this is a storebought cake, but it was still pretty good!  All you wanted to eat was the frosting anyway.

You were pretty confused about why we were hitting your beloved pinata.

To avoid traumatizing you, Daddy just opened the trapdoor on the pinata after every had a turn to hit.

You got some great presents especially considering that most people didn't know about the party until the day before!  Your favorite was definitely the James train that Alden got you (his mommy knows what's up since Alden's only a few weeks younger than you and loves trains too!)

July pictures

This play kitchen is part of the toy room at baby Aria's hospital.  It was so fun watching you play.  You kept talking into the play phone with one hand while making food with the other.  I was a little embarrassed though that your idea of cooking everything was to put it in the microwave!!  To be fair though, the only time you usually watch us making food is when we're quick heating up some milk or leftovers for you.  

Love love love those curls.

Scrubbing in with Daddy at Aria's hospital.

This was your session with Child Life therapy at Aria's hospital.  Even though you're very young we decided to go ahead and schedule a session with Whitney the Child Life specialist, and we're so glad we did!  You did great while she played doctor with you and helped explain all of Aria's wires and tubes in ways you'd understand.  She sent you home with a bag of doctor stuff too.  Since then you've declared yourself to be "Dr Bennett Hoyal" and tried listening to Rachel's heart with one of the wires.

We got new couches and you are constantly making forts and piles with the cushions to lounge on.

Aunt Amanda sent you a card matching game and this is what you did with all the tiles.

"Mom you wanna take a picture of me?"

You got sick with the stomach flu.  Poor Ayisha got the brunt of it because she was babysitting you when it first showed up so she wasn't prepared for it.  We spent a very sleepless night together in the living room with you waking up every half hour to throw up.

You slept for 5 hours straight the next morning after being sick all night.

Since Red's much less mobile than Pocket, I frequently catch you snuggling with her these days while watching movies.

Another demand from you to take a picture.

Playdate at your new friend Eli's house in our new ward.

"Mom this one wants to give me a high five!"

Visit to the Farm

I decided this spring that I really wanted to take you up to the farm in Idaho.  I figured it might be a long time before conditions were that good again - you are old enough I can take you on these trips without bringing all kinds of baby gear, the weather was nice, and I wanted to take you before I got too close to my due date.  So we went up for a weekend with Grandpa and Aunt Ayisha.

To prep you for the trip I had told you Grandpa would take you on a tractor ride.  You were very interested in that idea but nothing could have prepared you for actually being able to sit on that big tractor!

A few minutes later your happiness reached an all time high when Grandpa turned on the tractor and took you for a little ride.  The whole rest of the weekend all we heard was "I wanna go on a tractor ride!"

Playing on Grandma Kings piano after you heard Grandpa playing it.

Grandma King has a big toyroom downstairs.  You played with a ton of different toys, but quickly decided your favorite was the box of metal cars and this car ramp.

This is the famous little chair at Grandma's house - all of the grandkids and greatgrandkids have pictures on it.  We have pictures of me around age 5 siting on it.

You and I bunked together on the trip and you did pretty well falling asleep quickly when it was bedtime.  I guess all that farm air wears you out.

This happened on the drive up - predictably, you refused to go potty at the rest station and instead 20 minutes later declared "I gotta go pee pee!" when we were in the middle of nowhere.  It was the one time I was glad that you are so willing to pee on the grass like a puppy because I don't know what else we would have done!

Easter party

For Easter this year we decided to throw a little Easter egg party for your friends.  You were really missing having playmates since we hadn't seen many people over the winter while I was pregnant and so sick.  The friends that attended were Lydia, Alden, and Jaxon.

First we watched the Easter egg episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse that you had recently been obsessed with.

Then - the hunt!  Our yard worked great for a toddler hunt!

Somehow you gathered up over half of the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup eggs.  Those are your daddy's favorite too so maybe you just knew what to go for!

Then all you kiddos came inside to crack into your loot.  The eggs were stuffed with stickers, little gel bunnies, erasers, stamps, and little candies.

You were so exhausted once the party was over!

June pictures

You were obsessed with vacuuming for a while.  I won't fight that!  Aunt Rachel gave you this little vacuum to be easier to handle. 

This is our birthday lunch for Grammy.  I brought us Iceberg but you mostly just ate strawberries and lemonade.

A nap in our bed.

We had the house painted, and as part of the prep work I had to go around and take off all the outlet covers.  Imagine my surprise when I walked in the living room to find you trying to put them all back on!

The scarier part was that you were even putting the screws back in!

Nap with the pups.

This is the same little pool we bought your first summer.  Still does the job!

Watching Frozen for the first time while Kav and I painted the nursery for the new baby.

Just like with your room reno, you wanted to help with the nursery too.  So I let you paint the closet with a little paintbrush.

Love my boys!  This is from Father's Day.

One of the things we got Daddy for Father's Day was a Spiderman Lego car.  You were very interested in "helping" to put it together.

You never know what adventures await you when you turn the corner. . .

What a silly boy you are.

I introduced this setup and you are infatuated with it!  You'll slide over and over until you get too cold.

 This summer we finally whipped out the Batman backpack Kav and Joey gave you a couple years ago.  It's still pretty big but you put your trains or cars in it and carry it everywhere.  It's been a great substitute now that we don't carry a diaper bag anymore, and it's even better that you'll carry it yourself!

I just had to take this picture of my little stud on our way to church.  You are so cute.

I introduced you to the concept of licking the beaters after making cookies.  You were so excited and cried when I tried to take one for myself.