Caelan's Third Birthday

Caelan Louis turned 3 on Friday! He went to lunch with his Nana and Grandad that day, then on Saturday, we had a birthday party for his at a local farm. Lots of his friends and family were able to attend. We had an amazing day!

Opening presents on his birthday morning...






Sentimental Mommy's required birthday photo shoot...










Lunch with Nana and Grandad...




FARM PARTY!
Feeding a pony with his friend Gracie...




Brushing a llama...


Petting a duck with his brother...


Hanging with Mommy, getting ready to ride a horse...


Horse time!






Tea party with his friend Kailee (they had a little playhouse and playground)...






Time for singing, candles, and cupcakes...










Baby cousins and little brothers are cute...




Last but not least, a hayride!




Believe it or not, we also had a barbecue with family and friends the next day to celebrate some more (both Caelan's birthday and the other exciting things going on in everyone's lives), but a lot of the pictures from that are on other people's cameras, so that will have to be a different entry on a different day!

Happy third birthday to my first baby boy!

On the day you were born the Earth turned, the Moon pulled, the Sun flared, and then, with a push, you slipped out of the dark quiet where suddenly you could hear a circle of people singing with voices familiar and clear. "Welcome to the spinning world," the people sang, as they washed your new, tiny hands. "Welcome to the green Earth," the people sang, as they wrapped your wet, slippery body. And as they held you close they whispered into your open, curving ear, "We're so glad you've come!"



Quote from On the Day You Were Born by Debra Frasier.

Sammy Sam Sam

Avery is a character. At 14 months, he is not particularly verbal but will say "No!" all the time, say "Map!" when Dora tells him to, and impersonate a jaguar regularly and on cue. He also knows every hand movement to every song we've ever sang, at home or in music class, that has hand movements to go along with it. He doesn't walk yet or even really pull up to standing, but his new goal in life is to stand up on his own from a sitting position, without pulling up whatsoever. It's hilarious and adorable to watch him try. He's really just an awesome little boy... always hugging and laughing, so loving and lovable.

Quick picture... he got a haircut today!

potty learning

Caelan is finally showing signs of potty readiness, so we've delved into the world of potty learning. He'd peed in the potty a few random times over the past few months, but suddenly he started saying "I feel like I could pee!" almost every time we took his diaper off to change it. Most times, he'd sit on the potty and actually pee. So we are now letting him go either completely bottomless or in just undies when we're home and have time to remind him to sit on the potty (and clean up the inevitable accidents). Last night, he both peed and even POOPED on his potty. Today so far, he peed once on the potty in the morning, then pooped in his James the Red Engine underpants later in the day because he was so engrossed in playing, then peed in the potty one more time before his nap. I was extra impressed with that last pee, because I had actually already changed him into his nap time diaper because I needed to get Avery to sleep and didn't want to worry about helping him with the potty/cleaning up an accident while nursing Aves to sleep. I put the diaper on Caelan and set him up with a show and a snack in our office. About 45 minutes later, after drinking a ton, I asked him if he wanted to sit on the potty before his nap. He said yes, so I took off his diaper and it was actually dry. He then peed on the potty like a champion! I know this will be a process and we'll have setbacks, but I'm very proud of his progress so far. I'm also glad we didn't push him earlier, because I can already tell this will be easier because he's self-motivated. A few proud pictures from last night... his first time in big boy underwear, excited because he'd just peed and pooped on the potty!