Happy 3rd birthday to Jack and Annabelle! I cannot believe it has been three years since you were born! To celebrate your birthday, we had a Curious George birthday party at Jumpoline yesterday, the day before your birthday. Some of your favorite people were there including Charlotte, Molly, Wesley, Holden, Lily, Clara, Nora, Mason, Matthew, Reagan, Anson, Madilyn, Reagan, Ever, Maebe, Phoenix, Pearl. You also had lots of family - Granna, Gma, Gpa, Kaitlyn, Granjan, Grandpa, Uncle Josh, and Tiffany. It was lots of fun! Jack jumped the entire two hours with a very small break to eat a cupcake. Annabelle jumped, but also played on some of the other toys and enjoyed hanging out and chatting with friends. We had red cupcakes with banana runts and yellow cupcakes with red sugar sprinkles. Jack and Annabelle had special cupcakes from Wildwood Bakery. We also had bananas, since we were monkey themed. Jack and Annabelle each had Curious shirts and Annabelle even wore a tutu made by Granjan. It was pretty adorable!
Annabelle - this has been a fun year for you! You are very curious and always wanting more and more and more information. You have a vivid imagination and are always going on "trips" and "rocket ship rides". It is amazing to hear the stories you create and I am so lucky to be a part of them. You went to school at St. Paul Lutheran this year and Ms. Wuerchan was your teacher. You enjoyed her and the school said you always did well. We also did music with Heartsong and just recently began soccer and gymnastics. We took several trips to the zoo and Sea World, both of which you always loved. We went to North Carolina in April to visit Baby Bryce - it was a fun trip! Currently, you love reading books and cooking in your kitchen. You also enjoy drawing and painting. You know your letters and numbers. You have a great vocabulary. You do a pretty good job of following directions. You were potty trained right after your birthday last year and only wear a diaper at nap and night time. Overall, you are a creative and spirited child and I can't wait to see what this year brings!
Jack - this has been a learning and working year for you, but just in the past couple of weeks, it seems like serious progress is happening. You are typically in therapy 25 hours a week. It makes me sad that you do not have much free time, but I am hoping it will pay off and in a few years, we can be done with all of this. You are laid back and have a sense of humor, which is great! You like to play with lots of different things, including cars, trains, and sensory boxes of rice and "dirt". You are also in to painting and glitter glue and enjoy wagon rides. You have been in music with Heartsong and seemed to enjoy it. At least, you sing the songs all the time when we are home! In general, you love music. You have just started soccer and gymnastics and they are going well. We have gone to the zoo and Sea World, neither of which impressed you. You seem to like numbers and counting. In the past couple of weeks, you have really started "talking". I think it is real talking now, as you spontaneously put two words together almost all of the time. YAHOO!!! We started PROMPT speech therapy in February of this year and I think it has been a huge help. I told your therapist, Marcus, that I wanted you talking by your birthday. And, I think it has happened! You are talking! You are not on level yet, but I think it will happen! Tonight, Daddy gave you an apple and you said "thank you". I don't think anyone has even taught you that one - it almost made me cry. I am SO excited! Also, we have done potty training with you and started in the beginning of June. You wear undies all day and wear a diaper for nap and night time. Most of the time, even your nap diapers are dry. The only problem is pooping, which you don't want to do in the potty yet. As long as it happens in the diaper, it is fine. It is not so fun when it is in your undies. Regardless, you have made a ton of progress! You have playdates twice a week as part of your therapy. Right now, we are having Mason over twice a week. It seems to be going well... Overall, you are a chilled out kid. I can't wait to see what this year brings!
