He's 3!

Wow, does time fly. Three years ago today, I was in the hospital recovering from a c-section after 22 long hours of unproductive labor. I told Luke that day that I never wanted to have another kid... see how that worked out. Haha! Anyway, I digress...He's grown so much in size as well as personality. Anyone who has had the privilege of getting to know this guy can attest... you're never bored with Isaac around!

Isaac is a sweet, loving, independent, compassionate, strong-willed, intuitive, smart, generous and creative little boy. He makes our lives so colorful and fun, we can't imagine going a day without laughing. His name truly suits him (Isaac = "his laughter"). 

Luke and I have certainly had our successes and failures in parenting, but we've realized that as hard as we may try to get Isaac to do something, we can't and will never be able to control him. He is his own person with his own mind that will make his own decisions and mistakes. Our job is to mold that mind and help him learn as he grows. Do we obey everything that God instructs us to do? As much as we may try, we don't even come close, so how can we expect Isaac to obey us in everything that we ask of him? Patience, creativity and flexibility are the three keys that we've learned over the last three wonderful years.

We had a small party for Isaac on his birthday. After the crazy Christmas weekend, I didn't want to overwhelm him more with a giant birthday party or obligate other people to give up one more day of their weekend. So I made him a very cool birthday cake, got balloons like he asked and ordered pizza (again, Isaac's request). I was fine with it because then I didn't have to cook dinner too.




My third birthday was the first birthday that I remember, so the big "3" holds a special place in my heart. I wanted to make the day memorable for him even though we were all tired. I think my goal was achieved but we won't know until later down the road. 



We've started a tradition that I hope we remember to do every year. I've made a list of questions that we will ask the kids every birthday so we can see how their answers grow and change as they get older. I thought 3 was a good age to start it since he's very set in his favorite things at this point.

1.         What is your favorite color?            Green

2.        What is your favorite toy?            Musical Guitar

3.        What do you want for dinner on your birthday?          Papa John's Pizza - Pepperoni

4.       What kind of cake do you want for your birthday?       

Lightning McQueen - Strawberry cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

5.        What do you want for your birthday?            Buzz Lightyear - Didn't tell us until after we'd bought his gifts

6.       If you could go anywhere right now, where would you want to go?          The Mall - play area

7.        What is your favorite game to play?       Candy Land

8.       What is your favorite movie?       Kung Fu Panda

9.       What is your favorite TV show?     Go Diego Go!

10.     What is your favorite animal?       Monkey

11.       What is your favorite drink?       Lemonade

12.      What is your favorite holiday?      Christmas

13.      What is your favorite fruit?        Blueberries

14.     What is your favorite snack?         Granola Bars

15.      What are you going to be when you grow up?       A Baboon - we're working on this one!