Justin's Party and 3 Year Check up

Justin had a great "Diego" party. We were blessed with beautiful weather that day so we had it at the park in our neighborhood. Justin was so excited to have a birthday party and to have all of his cousins over to play. For food we enjoyed beetle wings (potato chips), snake eggs (grapes), crocodile teeth (wedges of apple), and ants (craisins), and drank jungle juice. The cake

The aftermath

The crowd

The future football star

The proud soccer player

The Moocher

(Isabelle was trying to get cupcake from Robyn and her cousins Sydney and Lexie)

The Pirate

Justin's cousins Sydney and Sophie gave him a pirate costume and he loves dressing up in it and running around the house saying "Arrghhh" and "Mateys".


At Justin's three year check up he was not very happy. The first thing he had to do was stand on the scale and get measured for height. What a chore it was to get him to do that! He was pretty good with the doctor examination until it came time to look in his mouth, good thing that was the last thing! He has always been tall and skinny according to the growth charts so I was shocked to find out that now he is short (20%) and skinny (25%)! I'm hoping for a big growth spurt soon. At least I know why he can't ever reach the wheels of a tricycle and a bicycle, it's not because the pedals are too far like I thought, it's because his legs are too short!

Justin has become very independent lately. It started when he finally learned how to open the door by himself. That resulted in a very scary incident when he went outside by himself while I was in the shower and he was "taking" a nap. Luckily, Robyn was walking home from her friends house at that exact time and happened upon Justin walking down the street away from our house. I now lock the door at all times! Could you imagine if Robyn hadn't been there! He also wants to buckle himself in the car seat by himself, and pretty much anything else that he can do he wants to do by himself. It is fun to watch him learn to do things but it has definitely tried my patience at times!

He is halfway potty trained. He will use the toilet if he isn't wearing a diaper but still prefers to wear them so I don't really know what to do. Everyone says don't force it, he will do it when he's ready but I really don't want to have three kids in diapers so that leaves me two months to fix this problem, any advice?

Justin is also very smart and loves going to preschool. He knows all of his letter sounds and can also identify all the letters. The other day after school Justin's teacher, Miss Kerry, showed me that he can sound out letters together to make a word, so he pretty much is reading! Of course Justin doesn't know he is reading he just thinks he is making the sounds. I was watching the pregame for the Super Bowl the other day and the interview with Barack Obama came on. Out of nowhere Justin says, "That's Barack Obama." Shocked that he knew this I said "What?!" and he repeated it again. I didn't teach him that and neither did Dave so we're still trying to figure out how he learned this.

He is so fun to have around and I love listening to his sweet little voice. I wish that I could capture it forever. Sometimes I wish that I just had a camera that would follow him around all day capturing every moment! I try to treasure these times because I know they will be gone too soon!