Milestones - Theo turns 3!

Make a wish!

Development, by Mommy

My little guy just turned three! My facebook feed reminded me that six years ago I was getting ready to go to Peru with Romina, Bruno, Miranda and Christina for the Fogarty program, four years ago we had just moved to Seattle and went to the San Juan Islands with Annie Borton and Amy Hutchinson, three years ago I was 36 weeks pregnant and going in for a c-section with pre-eclampsia, two years ago I was at Balsam Lake celebrating Theo's 1st birthday and last year I was finishing residency and couldn't believe he was two. Now he's three and getting all grown up!! Wow! Time flies and I'm sure baby Marit will be three in no time too. It has been so fun to see him grow and learn new things and become so independent. I'm so proud of him and the little man he has become. I can't wait to see what the next few years will bring. 

A friend of mine wisely told me to invite the number of children you child is turning. Since Theo was turning three, we asked him who he wanted to invite. He replied, "Mommy, Daddy, and baby Marit." We told him he could invite some other people too and he said, "Mommy's friends, Daddy's friends, and my daycare friends." Given that I'm working 80 hours/week this month, we decided to only invite a few of his closest friends and it was a perfect party with just his best friends - Elliot, Henry, Siri and the new neighbor boy, Ben. The kids had fun at Carkeek Park playing with the stomp rocket, kicking the soccer ball around, playing with bubbles, and watching the occasional coal and oil trains go by.  Theo helped me make cupcakes and decorate them for the party and he picked out the theme - Thomas the Train (big surprise). 

Opening presents!

"Cheese"

Ready to blow out the candles!

"Where's my cupcake?" Says baby Marit

7 months old 

Marit had her "6-month" well-child check (a month late since I miscalculated her birthday) and she is now 18 lbs. 14 oz. (75-90th percentile) for weight and 28 inches (95-97th percentile) for height. She sits well without support and is starting to do the army crawl to reach for things that she wants. We're going to have to re-child proof our house and put up baby gates soon! Eeeks! She is very easy going and generally content and a happy baby. She laughs at her brother and when you tickle her under her chin. She passes toys from hand to hand and then to her mouth. Her favorite toys are generally whatever her brother is playing with but she also likes the red rubber teething beads, the Sesame Street cell phone, and the plastic keys. She is a good eater and still refuses the bottle but eats at least 8 ounces of pureed foods mixed with oatmeal and breast milk at a sitting. We bought her a white noise machine and it's plays "waves" all night and she now sleeps 11-12 hours a night. She also sleeps with her pink rabbit blanket from Uncle Dan and her baby blanket made by my friend Maggie. She recently started rolling over onto her belly but can't quite roll back. She's very strong and has beautiful blue eyes and chunky "soccer" thighs. She's started jumping in her Jump-a-roo but generally prefers just sitting on the floor surrounded by Theo's cars, trucks and other toys.

3 years old

Theo had his well-child check today and is now 36 lbs (97th percentile) and 40.5 inches (75-90th percentile). He passed his vision test and is a very active little boy with a BMI of 15 (however he is not as skinny as his dad was at this age - 33 lbs and 39.5 inches). He can run up the stairs and skip a step if he wants, he cruises on his scooter around the lake with great balance, talks your ear off asking lots of questions, repeats new vocabulary words, loves reading books and playing with his Thomas the Train, goes pee-pee standing up and poo-poo on the potty by himself, brushes his teeth (mostly) by himself, (usually) uses a fork and spoon with meals, brings his dishes over to the sink after eating, says "Please" and "Thank you" (most of the time), and is a good big brother helping entertain his sister and shares his toys with her.

He can still be difficult to understand if you don't know him well and he still uses "My" rather than "I" but he puts together compound and complex sentences and uses phrases, such as "Actually" and "Could be" and frequently says, "My think that's a GREAT plan, Mommy." He loves saying that food is "delicious and yummy and good" if he really likes it. The phrase I hear the most is "My want a snack, Mommy, my getting hungry" and he usually is starving after he gets home. However, then he won't eat his whole dinner and he says, "My have a tummy ache, my need some medicine" or "my have to go pee-pee" as his excuses to leave the table early. We're working on it and he's getting better.

I'll post the birthday photos later as I'm having some technical difficulties.