Birthday Brady

Happy Happy (belated) Birthday to my spicy little 3 year old. He turned 3 last Wednesday. He is one of the sweetest, most tender hearted kids I know and I LOVE that about him. Hearing him talk to Dane will just melt your heart. He uses baby talk and says things like "hey little buddy, you're so tiny, don't cry, it's ok", etc. Then he usually looks at me and says "I think he likes me". 

He IS 3, so it's not all sweet and happy times, but when he's happy, EVERYONE is happy. It's hard not to smile around him. He loves to give hugs, kisses, eskimo kisses, and tickles. He's always telling us that he loves us and he still asks to cuddle with me on a daily basis, which I LOVE. 

He makes us laugh all the time because he just comes up with the funniest things to say. He thinks he's a super hero named SUPER Brady. And when he grows up, he wants to be a baseball player...whenever he's eating dinner, he says he has to eat to get big and strong like a baseball player...but he's a pretty terrible eater. He still won't try most things and even when he does eat what's served, he doesn't eat much of it. But he's growing like a weed, so he must be getting enough. At 3 years old, he's 31 lbs. 

 He has an imaginary pet dog named Dash (from a show he's watched). Dash goes with us everywhere and Brady talks about him all the time. 

He loves to do anything hands on. Right now he's obsessed with measuring things with a measuring tape. He also loves bowling and golfing and is always talking about one or the other. He got an easel for his birthday and has loved painting and writing with chalk too. Maybe we have an artist developing :)

For his birthday, we met up with Joe and Steph -- Joe is Ryan's co-worker and Steph is his fiance. Ryan and Joe started in Toyota's MT program together and quickly became friends. We were all thrilled when we found out we'd be moving out to Cincinnati together. We get together with them once in a while and they wouldn't miss Brady's birthday. We all went bowling and had a great time. Brady loved having a lane all to himself. The alley was OLD and didn't have bumpers or anything to help make the game easier for little ones, but Brady didn't mind at all. He just kept rolling the ball down the lane. He also loved watching us bowl on the lane next to his. He was such a great cheer leader and after every turn I heard "Great job mom!" Love that kid!!

We finished the night with dinner at Red Robin, some cupcakes, and some gifts. It was a really simple celebration, but it included several things that he loves and I know he had a great time because he keeps asking if it can be his birthday again. I'm so glad we were able to make it a special day for him.

Now that Brady is 3, the last thing we really needed to do to make his "big boy" transition complete was to potty train him, so that started this week. We're on day 3 and I think it's safe to say we're NOT one of those that succeeded with the 3 day potty training plan! We've definitely still got some work to do. And DANG, it is work. But we'll get there.

Anyway, we sure love this boy!