Our little G is 3! I can hardly believe that our little man turned 3 years old today. I’m not sure where the time has gone, but it seems that it is flying by. We had a great day celebrating our big boy.
On Saturday Garrett will have his big Birthday party. This year, with a little gentle encouragement from Mom, G chose a soccer themed party. We will be hosting the party at one of his favorite parks where the kids will be able to play soccer or on the playground. I’m making him a soccer ball cake surrounded by cupcakes to make the field. Since I’m now 10 days out from my due date, I’ve been pushing for an easy theme and cake. I don’t think it gets much more simple than this! He is very excited and asks every morning if it is his party day!
To celebrate the big day today, we spent the better part of the day at one of our favorite pools, Pirate’s Cove. We had originally hoped to make it to another pool in the area that we recently went to and loved, but a lot of our Mom’s Group friends are out of town. Another group of friends mainly from preschool coincidentally planned a day at Pirate’s Cove, so we joined them along with Marcy, Jacob & Ellie. The kids had the best time swimming. G went on the bigger tube slide for the first time today. Up until very recently he has been afraid of covered slides of any sort. About a month ago he conquered that fear and today he went straight for the big slide. We played in the sand box, had lunch and enjoyed spending time with all of our friends. The boys both fell asleep on the way out of the parking lot and got a good nap. Once Daddy got home Garrett opened his presents. He was very excited to open gifts. He was hoping for building “stuff” and was so glad that both sets of Grandparents obliged with Legos & MagnaTiles. Mommy & Daddy really struggled with gifts for the G man, so we got him a couple of new games, a book and a stomp rocket. Brother got him a tennis set that he was super excited about and that I’m sure will provide hours of entertainment for them. After presents we headed to G’s favorite restaurant for dinner, Chipotle. He was a pretty cheap date, so we splurged and let the kids have the kids meals with juice boxes. Big stuff for them! Dinner was followed by cupcakes at Buzz. Garrett seemed to really enjoy his day and gave me huge hugs at bedtime. It was great!
As for the update on Garrett in general, he is now 27 lbs and 36″ tall (in shoes). He continues to be our small, skinny boy; though I keep contending that he is putting meat on his bones and starting to get pretend chub. Travis laughs at me and says he is still ridiculously small! He eats like a horse and is not the least bit picky when it comes to food. He loves veggies, doesn’t care if things mix together and will try whatever food is given to him. He loves sweets, especially cake and brownies and at least once a week asks if he can have some sort of dessert for breakfast.
He is much more the people pleaser than Jack and certainly likes to make his brother happy. This isn’t to say that he doesn’t have a mind of his own, but just that if it isn’t a big deal to him then he is the one to broker a trade or give something up. He has a harder time when he is the one to make the choice and often makes a decision based on what he thinks others would like. A great example of this happened recently. One afternoon Jack and I were asking Garrett what he wanted for his Birthday. Garrett didn’t have any ideas, so we started throwing some out to him. He just agreed to everything we suggested. After a few minutes he told me to let Jack pick out his gift. I thought he meant that Jack would know what he liked but then G corrected me and said “No Mom. Just buy something that Jack would like and it’ll be a fine present for me.” When I explained that he got to ask for things that he wanted because it was his special day and he didn’t need to consider what would make Jack happy, he got this very pained look on his face. He then told me “Mom, just don’t get me too many presents. I have lots of toys and I don’t need more things. And if I have too many things to open on my Birthday it will just make me sick in my belly. Just get something Jack wants and that will be good.” Then he walked out of the room, leaving me speechless and feeling a bit guilty. He really doesn’t care about stuff and he really does care about his brother. He is a sweet-natured kid.
At age 3 Garrett has probably the most developed sense of humor I have ever seen in a young kid. He is funny, cracks jokes and finds humor in places that are unimaginable for a kid of his age. He has the art of the punch line down and knows how to play it straight. His sense of humor is a bit dry and honestly I can’t imagine how he comes up with things. He certainly takes after Travis with his quick one liners. He keeps us entertained! Occasionally he is overt, but for the most part, like every other aspect of his personality, he just flies under the radar cracking little jokes. He just has a cool personality!
All that being said, Garrett is the instigator at our house. He is a bit sneaky and knows just how to get his brother in trouble. He can push Jack’s buttons easily and knows when to back off to make sure that he gets in less trouble than Jack. He hates to be in trouble and goes straight for the full on fit when he thinks he is going to be reprimanded. He is starting to throw tantrums that can be quite dramatic. However, if you tell him to turn it off then he generally will. It is like the flip of a switch. If he thinks you mean business when he is throwing a fit, then he can turn it off immediately. He is strong-willed but generally easily dissuaded. And he is confident and comfortable on his own, even to a fault. Recently we have had to pay extra attention when we are getting ready to leave someplace, because if we have articulated that we are heading to the car then he is likely to just walk out and stand next to the car waiting for us. It doesn’t matter that we were headed to the restroom or something first, because he is ready to go and he’ll just wait there for us. We are working on this!
Garrett is our precious 3-year-old boy. He makes us laugh, keeps the peace and drives us crazy…sometimes all in a matter of minutes. He is such a good boy and a joy to those around him. We are thankful for our little G Man. Happy Birthday baby boy!
Two Many Monkeys 