For Dawsons Birthday activity he was really torn between wanting to go to his favorite place of all time Chuck E. Cheese or to do as his brothers suggested and try out Jumpin Jacks – but with a little/lot of convincing from his brothers he decided on Jumpin Jacks. Dawson wanted pizza for dinner so we picked up one on the way and eat it on our way over. Funny enough the very FIRST thing Dawson wanted to do was to go on all the rides. I’m guessing for next year – Chuck E. Cheese may be more up his alley!
The older boys of course went straight for the really tall slide! That is always a favorite for them!
Adam and I took turns holding Sissy -while the other played with the boys and helped Dawson up the taller blow up toys.
My dearest sweet little Dawson,
I can’t believe you are three years old already! What a big boy you are! Although don’t be surprised if I continue to call you “baby boy” because I think I will always see you that way being my last boy (at least for now). What a joy you are to have in our lives. You are such a happy little guy and are always smiling. Whenever we take you to church or a ward activity the Young Women always dote on you and tell me how you are their favorite to watch during Sacrament meeting. That they love the way you talk and the cute way you smile. You certainly melt our hearts with those big puppy brown eyes and mischievous grin. You tend to smile the most when you get in trouble. I think you know it helps you get in *less* trouble because its hard to be mad at you when you are so stinkin’ cute and innocent looking! 🙂
Right now you are very much into anything cars and trains. You and Harrison will sit for hours putting train tracks together and playing with your different trains. You love building forts – getting all your pillows, blankets, and stuffed animals and piling them all over the ping pong table. You also love to get all the cushions off the couches and jump on them or use those to build things as well. Your brothers really love playing games on the xbox and wii right now – and although you like to play for a few minutes, your attention span doesn’t last long and you will usually go right back into the play room to get some more cars or trains to play with.
Everywhere you go right now you leave a tornado of a mess in your wake. I would dare say that 90% of the messes around here are yours. You move from one activity to another so quickly but don’t seem to want to clean up any of your activities before starting another. You often get frustrated when Daddy or I ask you to help clean up and will say “its too hard” if you think its a big job or “oh thats easy!” if its a smaller one.
For some reason you are very much into asserting your independence when it comes to food. You like to make everything yourself which is also why there are so many messes in my kitchen. Just this last week I found you with two pieces of bread and the biggest mess of butter smeared all over them in an attempt to make a butter sandwich. And a few weeks ago when we ran out of cinnamon sugar – you and Harry decided to make your own by mixing sugar with what we believe to be paprika. Needless to say the cinnamon toast we made that morning did not taste very cinnamoney! 🙂
Right now you are a bit of a Mamma’s boy and like to be where I am for the most part. You play really well with Harrison and the two of you will go off for little spouts of time to play on the swing set in the basement or build a train set – but eventually you end up wherever I am and usually want me to read you a book. We both enjoy sitting and snuggling up together with a book.
You have a pretty good relationship with your brothers for the most part and enjoy being with them, but at least a few times a day have a “falling out” where you scream uncontrollably and freak out at something they are doing to you or because they took something away or aren’t doing things the way you want them to. You sometimes end up in timeouts for all your whooping and hollering for no good reason! 🙂 Your relationship with Sissy is more “hands off” but you absolutely adore her and are always concerned when she is crying and will usually go and find her a binky or a toy to pay with. You love it when she smiles at you.
You are partly potty trained – and will almost always go pee in the potty when you are asked, but you forget to go quite often if not asked and are still having pee accidents in your undies. For the most part we put you in your skivvs all day (unless at church) and then you only wear diapers during naps and at night – but you still have yet to want to have anything with going poop in the potty and Dad and I are SO ready for that part as you have some of the worst smelling diapers ever and we often need to bath you afterwards because your diapers get so messy. You fight us tooth and nail about it still though and don’t seem to show any interest whatsoever.
Right now you are also able to dress yourself for the most part and can put on your own skivs, pants, and socks but still struggle with shirts and shoes. You are also starting to put on your own seat belt which is lovely. At your last appointment with the doctor (3 year checkup) you were growing really well and are one tall and skinny little guy. You were in the 91st percentile for height and the 41st for weight. You are talking amazingly well and can say pretty much any word we can – but you say things with a lisp at times and in the cutest little voice. We love to hear you read in the scriptures every night and love the way you say words like Lightning McQueen, (whitning a-ween).
You love saying prayers at meal times or in the evening during family prayers and will often look around the room and thank Heavenly father for everything from “Nana’s glasses” to the “lights on the ceiling.” You also always bless that “Harrison will close his eyes during the prayer,” and when Daddy and I try to help you along, you usually respond with “I already said that,” or “I can’t say that.” Your prayers are so fun to listen to and we are always wondering what you will come up with next.
You are still sleeping like a champ and you go down for naps very easily. We usually race up to your room and if I get there first I get to pick the book we read. You always win though and love it when I read you your book before bed and tuck you in with your 3 different blankets and give you a kiss goodnight. You usually will sleep 2-3 hours at a time or will play quietly in your room until we come and get you. You dislike going to bed at night a little more – and often we have to get after you to stay in bed – but its mostly because your brothers are in the room with you and you love to play with them before going to bed. We hear you giggling a lot after we put you to bed and running around upstairs quite often. Right now you also like to get up EARLY in the morning (around 6:30 or 7:00 and for quite a while you were coming down and waking the rest of us up by screaming at your brothers or getting frustrated with them). We had since then implemented a rule that you need to stay upstairs until 7:45 so the rest of us can get our beauty rest! 🙂 Branson helps you watch the clock and so far you are doing much better.
You LOVE watching movies and your favorite is Dora the Explorer. You got a puzzle of Dora recently and LOVE putting that together and can do that one and another farm animal one all by yourself. You are really great at doing puzzles and enjoy it when Daddy or I watch you do them.
Simply put Dawson, we just love you and are so glad you are in our family. Thanks for being such a great little boy and for all the smiles and laughs you bring into our lives. You are a joy to be around!
All my love,
Mommy Pants