3.5 Years Old!

Ian's half-birthday is today! He's grown SO much over the past year.

1. At 2.5 years old he was drinking Elecare out of a small plastic shot glass. Now he drinks water, apple juice, or Elecare from any type of glass (with or without a straw).

2. At this time last year we were avoiding milk, soy, peanuts, eggs, cinnamon, and oats. We haven't given him milk to drink yet, but other than that he has a normal diet!

3. He's gotten much braver on playground equipment although he's still nowhere near as brave as most kids his age are.

4. He needs work on remembering to say '"please," but he usually remembers to say "thank you" and "you're welcome." Many times throughout the day he says really sweet things such as "Nadia, you're the best" or "Mommy that's such a pretty shirt." He melts my heart!

5. He can do small jigsaw puzzles all by himself (ex. 24 pieces), and he helps us when we work on 150 or 300 piece puzzles with Nadia.

6. He loves to play hide and seek. He hasn't learned to be quiet when he's hiding so he's easy to find!

7. He's starting to show signs of readiness to learn to dress himself. He puts on his own shoes and sometimes he pulls his underwear and shorts up after he goes to the bathroom.

8. He's very conscious of the temperature of his food and drinks. He won't eat ice cream because it's too cold. He likes his Elecare warm - not hot and not cold.

9. Almost every morning he has a bagel for breakfast. Sometimes he has cold cereal. He almost always has a wowbutter and jelly sandwich on toast for lunch. His most favorite foods for dinner are pancakes or pizza. He throws up at dinner about twice a week on average usually because he tries to swallow something without chewing it enough. It's such a relief that there are a few foods he can now feed himself!

10. He's absolutely loving participating in VBS and the musical at the Alliance church.

11. He takes one nap a day that is on average one hour long. he falls asleep very quickly at night (unlike his sister), but he usually wakes up before her. Thankfully he's been waking up around 7am more often lately. For awhile there he was up by 6:15 every morning. There are still times when he is prone to burst into tears after he wakes up from his nap, but it's becoming more and more infrequent. YAY!

12. He likes to pull his shorts down so that the waistband is well below his belly button. The problem is that then his "crack" shows. I have to remind him to pull up his pants 50 million times a day so that his bottom isn't showing. Oi vey.