Happy 3rd Birthday, Jack!

Jack's third birthday was on the 17th.  In some ways I can't believe he's already three and in other ways I feel like he's been three for a long time.  Three sounds so much older than two, no?

I decided to start a fun tradition beginning with the third birthday - an annual questionnaire.  I've seen several variations of this idea on pinterest, but I decided to model mine after the one on this blog.  I asked Jack 20 questions and will ask him those same questions each year near his birthday to see how his answers change.  I framed both the questions and the photo collage below at his birthday party and then will retire them to a scrapbook for safe keeping.  I also videotaped him answering the questions, which was pretty cute, but also very long (over 7 minutes!).  It will be fun to someday combine all the years' interviews onto one (insert whatever the technology will be then, as it surely won't be a DVD) to hear how his little voice and pronunciation changes, along with the responses to his questions.

Some of his responses were surprising, for example: I have no idea where Kiki came from as his nickname; I thought he would answer Jacky since that's what Addi and his friend Juliana at school call him.  I didn't know he had such an interest in hockey, which is a sport he has never played and has rarely watched on TV.  Deer for his favorite animal?  Not sure where that came from, so I wasn't surprised when he changed his mind to elephant after we moved on to the next question.  The rest were pretty predictable from our big guy though!

And here's the video for those with a lot of time on their hands...

Jack's birthday was on a Friday so we decided to take the day off and take Charlie to school for the morning so we could have some Jack, Daddy and Mommy time.  We went to the zoo and had a nice time.  We got to see the new sea lion exhibit, ride the train (of course), come face-to-face with some baboons and see the elephants, which as we just learned is tied for first for Jack's favorite animal.  One highlight was the carousel ride; I mentioned to the ticket-taker that it was Jack's birthday and he asked Jack what his name was.  We didn't think anything of it until the ride was about to start and they announced "everyone on the count of three say 'Happy Birthday Jack' and then the ride will begin."  That was really special.

Jack still makes us laugh every day.  He says and does the funniest things, so I thought I'd share some recent examples:

• Similar to all parents of preschoolers, we often give him choices (i.e. Do you want to brush your teeth first or go potty first?  It's your choice), so the other day we were on the way home and he said "Mommy.  Is Daddy working or is he at home? It's your choice."
• He really likes to start a lot of his sentences with "Remember."  For example: "Remember. (dramatic pause) You need to put the coal car after the engine."
• One night a few weeks ago it was warm in our house so we took our little sweaty guy Charlie's shirt off.   Jack noticed and immediately wanted his off too.  He started asking questions so I explained the boys can wear no shirt but girls always wear shirts.  He realized Daddy doesn't always wear a shirt and it was all over.  He didn't wear a shirt to bed for a week!  It was pretty cute seeing his little skinny bare torso but I'm glad that phase is over - I was worried he'd get too cold at night!

Jack started in a new classroom at school when he turned three, so he is now a Cardinal.  His transition is going awesome!!  I wasn't sure what to expect because the new teachers (Ms Kellie and Ms Teresita, who are both great by the way) don't arrive until 8:30am each morning, so we drop off with a different teacher, which they are in the process of hiring.  In the meantime, it's been a different teacher each morning.  That hasn't phased Jack though.  A few things have helped make this so easy: 1. several of the kids were in his Butterflies class, 2. the new classroom is connected to his old one, so he was already familiar with the teachers and 3. there is a sensory table that is currently filled with sand, much to Jack's delight.  We have had four drop offs now and each one has been a piece of cake.  He also gets to play on the big playground now that he's a big three year old, so that is very exciting.

We also have another big change at our house: the loveys no longer leave the bed!  For some reason he started to become very attached to his loveys at about 18 months, starting with just "blue" but then progressing over the past year and a half to where he was taking "blue," "white," "brown" and now his dog (my sister's old Pound Puppy that he found at Grandma and Grandpa's house) basically everywhere he went.  We've been telling him for the past month that when he turns three the loveys will need to stay in his bed.  We honestly weren't sure how that would go over, but so far he has put up very little fight with the new rule.  Such a big guy!

We're very proud of our Jack Man!  He's such a happy, fun little guy most of the time and we just love hanging out with him!