Max is 3!

My little buddy is officially 3 now! I have some official stats for you since he just went to the doctor. Quick story first. David took him as he was off on Presidents day and I guess they had Max put on those papery shorts and Max did not like them. He told they nurse that he looked ridiculous (in the cutest 3 year old pronunciation you can imagine). He was so funny when he was telling me about it.

Stats-

Height: 35.75" (8 %)

Weight: 29lbs (20 %)

BP: 80/52

BMI:15.95 (48 %) who knew that they did that?

 

New Developments- He has really become so independent especially with play time. He will be content taking his superhero action figures and playing for a while by himself. Max is still stuttering a bit. There are times when he doesn't do it at all and then times where it's very noticeable. The doctor said not to worry unless he is very frustrated and can't communicate. That isn't a problem as Max talks about anything and everything. I love listening to him describe things. If he is really into what he is saying he will put his hand up Italian style and explain things. 

 

 

Eating- He eats breakfast and lunch great (especially at school). Dinner he is getting better but will tell you he doesn't like things right off the bat. There is still a lot of bribing for fruit (I know) but he doesn't watch TV or an Ipad anymore so that's a plus. Fruit is still a favorite for him. He loves noodles, most meats, tacos and pizza as his favorites. 

Life with a baby sister- Max is doing so good with his baby sister. He seriously is the sweetest to her. In the mornings if he is up first, he always asks for her and when I get her there are so many kisses and hugs. He helps play with her and gets her something to chew on. If she takes one of his toys he nicely (most times) will find something to exchange with her. She started crawling so I joke about nothing of his being safe. She loves gnawing on his shoot guns, swords or anything. He cheers her on and is her biggest fan. The feeling is definitely mutual. 

 

Sleeping- He takes one, usually very long, nap from about 1:30-3:30/4pm. He goes in very easily now and rarely comes back out at nap. For nighttime I start his bedtime routine after feeding Colette at 7:30pm. We read 2 books, go potty, brush teeth then come back, lock the door and reads 1 more book in bed. This process sometimes takes a long time if he has to go big one (poop).  After the suggestion from Moms on Call Toddler book we turned his door knob backwards so it locks on the outside. Judge away, but it was a necessity. He is very stubborn and smart and he just wouldn't stay in his room for bed. It got bad before it had to change. He now goes down pretty easily and stays all night. He sometimes gets up and reads if his clock isn't green. A few more notes on the door locking. The book has great reasoning but one that I like and we say to Max is that it keeps him safe. It's very true, because he sometimes would bust in multiple times a night to our room and he could be walking the halls, going downstairs who knows. Also in case of an emergency we would know exactly where he was because he was safe in his room. I can see/watch him in the monitor and know if he has a problem or is sick he tells me.  We also use his room as a simmer room when timeouts don't cut it. He has time to cool off and his room is child proof.

 

Potty Training- Thought I would mention that he is doing great still with that.  He doesn't use diapers at all anymore.

 

He's enjoyed having a play buddy with Hadley staying at our place. Although they fought like major time so that is a nice change lol. 

 

Our silly tickle monster at story time. 

Cruising in his new bday car. He is actually a very good driver.

His teacher at school takes great photos and I love to see what he does there so I thought I'd include some of these. David thinks these are funny because when Max concentrates he sticks out his tongue like above and David does the same thing.

Lots of projects and painting goes on at school.

We went in for his birthday celebration and loved watching him interact with his classmates.

 

 They were getting ready to dance here.

 

Max was showing me how his teacher reads books to them. 

We send funny faces to daddy when he is out of town.

Just look at these two! Max is giving her kisses and she is trying to eat him so it's a win win. Can't believe my baby boy is 3!

Max's 3rd Birthday- Superhero Style

 Our first baby is now 3! Ever since going to the marvel live show he has been obsessed with everything superhero. We celebrated with a party with all his friends at a gymnastics gym. We don't take Max for classes there, but I've heard good things and knew I wanted to have it there. It gets out of hand having all these people at our house so it worked out well here. Except, we had a TON of people come. Hey, it's fun, the more the merrier.

I kept decorating simple by just using some scene setters and balloons.

Max was really into a cake this year. When he goes big one (sorry TMI) he sits on the toilet a while and always asks me to show him his cake. So I went on pinterest and found some and he helped design his own cake. We incorporated 5 superheros! Spiderman was on the cake server, batman, superman, Captain America and hulk is hiding.

I made those city buildings out of recycled goods (cereal boxes, milk containers), colored wrapping paper and electrical tape. I printed out some photos of Max being a superhero and framed them on the table. Cookies were also there in case I didn't have enough cake.

I'm glad I took pictures before everyone got there, because I can't tell you how many times little ones stuck their fingers in the cake! Max included.

She made some fun capes to go down the side and then I had her put the Hulk fist coming out. I love it.

Instead of formal favors I just did some fun paper masks and bracelets with words like pow, and bam on them. Since time is limited in the party room, we preset up all the kids plates and juice boxes.

We got lots of pizza and to balance it, we made a fruit salad!

We invited Max's whole preschool class (12 kids) since the place allowed up to 16 kids at one price and then it was only $5 more after that per kid. Well, oops the whole class came minus 2 or 3 kids I think. Max is either a popular boy or they really like gymnastics. His little buddies started arriving and it's so fun to watch them all interact. They really like each other.

Baby sister arrived in her adorable outfit to hang out with everyone.

While we were waiting for everyone to arrive they warmed up.

Max is usually very shy and hangs on me at birthday parties. I was nervous he wouldn't want to participate in his own party. Well the teacher asked him to come demonstrate all the obstacles and he ran right up all by himself.

I know I'm the mom and biased but Max had some skill for never using this stuff before.

He loved the jumping on the tumble track, trampolines and the foam pit the best. I'll just mostly show you pictures of Max, if you want to see all the other folks, its up on my facebook page.

Miss Hadley loved playing around too. She was just a bit too young to listen and follow directions.

She's a natural also :)

Then it was time to split into groups to do some stations.

Max loves Sophie and they had fun playing in the pit together.

I was impressed he wanted to sit and swing on the rope.

She even let go!

What a strong boy holding on by himself.

In he goes to the foam pit!

Happy Boy.

Hadley loved every part of this also.

This is one of my favorite pics. So funny.

All the kids loved being in there. At one point it was hard to tell how many were there.

There was a lot of bending over to find them and lift them out.

After the stations the kids got to bounce around on jumpy balls. They let the bigger kids stay on the trampolines. Max is about to take a spill here.

Back in business!

Poor Michelle got more of a workout than anyone chasing and helping Hadley the whole time.

We had a few special guests arrive at the party.

David's nephew Austin (Superman) and his buddy (Spiderman) did a great job. SPiderman had a web shooter with silly string on it. It was a big hit. Max was terrified of them as usual, but we had a lot of kids want to take pictures.

Hadley only wanted to with her mommy, but I couldn't get Max near them so it was impressive.

They kept in character very well for no bribing. I guess we will have to owe them something.

I wish I would have tried to get a group shot, but it was too much chaos. We ended up with 23 kids (well they counted me at 23 I think it was 26 including some siblings) plus parents.

Max was very interested in the candles and cake this time. He even ate a little piece!

Told you there was a lot of people there. Go big or go home. We enjoy hosting people even if it's at somewhere else. We had plenty of food and drinks for all the adults also. It was a whirlwind of a 1.5-2 hour party.

I forgot to get a family shot at the party so I had my sister take one before bed. David's going to be mad I didn't crop the pic as I said I would, but oh well. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAX! I'll do a 3 year update post a little later. He goes to the doctor on Monday.