Collin turned 3 on October 16th. Leading up to his birthday he kept saying that he wanted a rainbow cake. So I went along with that idea and threw him a very simple rainbow party. It was his first party. We invited 3 friends (3 because he is 3). The thing that took the most time was probably the invitations, but I enjoyed making them with my Silhouette so I didn't mind. We had some rainbow colored snacks, did a rainbow craft, played and then had his much anticipated rainbow cake! He was so excited and that made it all worth it!
From his actual birthday. It was a Sunday. He got special birthday cereal. And insisted on keeping his church clothes on all day. He sure looked handsome. We also still had half his cake left so we were able to just turn it around and top it with candles and sing with him again. And in the pictures you can't even tell! We got him candyland and some dress up hats. The black rocker hat is his favorite. Boppi and Grandpa Al later sent a battery operated toy drill. He loves that he can now work right along with Daddy.
The week before his birthday he decided to give up on naps. It has been really hard on me! Thankfully we could still get a couple in a week for a while. But then a few months later he has given them up entirely- except for the occasional one every couple of weeks. It has been a long and rough adjustment time for all of us. Many days I can tell that he still really needs one, but he refuses to stay in his room. And if I lock it he just screams and then we risk waking up Derrick. We try to do "rest time", which usually consists of 15 minutes in his room reading a huge stack of books. And then on a good day I can get him to play in the play room with the door closed for almost an hour. Although the majority of the time it is in and out to every few minutes show/tell/ask me something. I have really struggled with having to give up that "me time". I am learning/trying to embrace our new routine and enjoy the special time I get to spend with just him, and looking for ways to involve him in doing chores around the house. And with no more naps have come some not so fun sleeping habits at night. He often wakes up around 11 (of course right when we are getting ready for bed or shortly after laying down) and wants to sleep in our room/needs a drink/wants to be tucked in again/wants another song/wants our door and his to stay open so he can see us/etc..you get the idea. He started sneaking into bed with us, which we are not a fan of. So we have finally just told him not to wake us up and he can sleep on the floor in our room. Its been a tiring several months. He'll grow out of it someday, right? ;)
One night I was out and Collin only wanted me to help him go potty/get ready for bed. He fell asleep waiting for me to get home. And yes his underwear is on backward. He went through a phase of insisting it went that way, I think so he could see the picture on some of his underwear.
But despite our sleeping struggles he is still the sweetest little boy! He loves to sing, and sometimes I feel that he never stops singing or talking to himself. He has quite the imagination. I remember one morning playing imagination with him for a good hour. It included dinosaurs, swimming in the water, sharks, a beach, boats, cloud watching, and I am sure plenty of other things. He loves to go to library preschool story time every week and his favorite part is the craft afterward. I love to hear him singing some of the library songs, or pretending he is there during the week while he plays. He talks a lot! And some days I feel like he hasn't stopped talking all day. He loves to cuddle with you on the couch and read books or watch a show together.
This boy is smart! (and yes I know I am biased) But he knows all his letters, can point them out and since about November/December he knows all his letter sounds. He loves the Letter Factory movies- I really can't take much credit for teaching him those, its been all those videos. He loves to sound out words with you. And one of his favorite questions is "what letter does ___ start with?" He can spell his name. One of his favorite activities is when we open a word document and let him type. He will type his name over and over. I am excited to start teaching him to read. We got him a pre-reading skills set of Bob books. But he has mastered the concepts in those pretty quickly so its about time to get the first set of reading ones. And soon we will start practicing tracing letters. He counts pretty well and we are working at counting things one at a time. He knows all his shapes and colors. And he has an amazing memory! And not just remembering events. He got a Finding Dory memory game for Christmas. There are 72 cards in the set and the pictures are surprisingly tricky (ie. one set will have Dory with one sting ray in the back ground and another with 3 sting rays. Or Destiny with her mouth open and Destiny with it closed) They are so similar its easy to confuse them. But not for Collin. He beats us all the time. My parents got a kick of playing with him when they were here too. I am convinced he has a photographic memory. Pretty sure school for him will be a lot like it was for Michael- very little studying but still do extremely well!
He started primary at church in January and loves it! He has a great sunbeam teacher and had amazing nursery leaders that prepared him so well. I have lots of friends in primary that give me such good reports on how he is doing. He raises his hand, participates, sits so reverently and sings the songs. He loves the gospel and learning scripture stories. His favorite is when Nephi builds the ship. We often watch the scripture videos Sunday morning now that we have 1pm church. And he will talk about and ask questions that have to do with his lessons from Primary. He has even started teaching us at family home evening things that he learned about in his sunbeam class. Makes my momma heart so happy to hear that he is listening, and learning and growing his testimony!
Knock on wood but I feel like the tantrums are getting a little better then when he was 2. Don't get me wrong, he still has plenty, but I think they are a little easier to handle and talk through them. He is at a good age to take places, he is potty trained (we did that back in July), and since he isn't napping its easier to be gone all day. Although he still does much better with downtime in the afternoon.
I love watching our sweet Collin grow and learn and explore. He is a blessing in our family and I am grateful to be his Mom.
