To My Handsome Blake on His Third Birthday

I love you so much, my little Blakey boy!  I wanted to show this picture because it is just SO you.  You have a spunky, fun little personality.  You are very playful and silly.  Last week you were hamming it up and pulling silly faces for pictures outside of the temple after uncle Joseph's wedding.  

You are also very headstrong and determined to have things go your way.  We've dealt with our share of the two year old fits this past year (many while dragging you into and out of Natalie's school because you couldn't open the doors by yourself or walk by yourself without holding my hand), but in between, you are so sweet.   Lately you've been telling me, "Whatever you say, Mommy!"   You love your baby sister, and you are so tender with her...sometimes in a very rough sort of way, but that's the only way boys know how to show love.  :)  You are a joy to have in our home. 

My favorite thing that you do right now is when we're in the car coming home from somewhere, you always take your shoes off and say, "Do you smell my stinky little feet?"  

If it were up to you, you would lounge around in pajamas all day watching tv and drinking milk from your "ba ba", which is really Natalie's Little Mermaid cup. :)  There's a funny story behind that.  When I weaned you from your real bottle, you would not drink milk from a cup-sippy or regular.  You went a week without drinking any milk and I was concerned.  We finally convinced you to drink milk from Natalie's mermaid cup with a straw, and now that's the only way that you'll have it.  

You love to eat whole wheat pancakes for breakfast.  About a week ago, you started liking hot cereal or "porridge" as we call it.  You rush to gobble it up before Goldilocks comes to eat it.  You are so picky, yet you will eat cottage cheese and hummus right out of the container!

You love music.  Whenever the theme songs come on in your favorite shows, your attention is peaked and you sing right along.  And you always ask me to play the piano so you can dance.  You are always in the center of the circle and full of song requests during singing time at church nursery.

You are so into superheros right now.  Spiderman and Batman are your favorites.  You wear your Spiderman mask around the house all the time.  You are so cute-before you put it on, you say "Look mom, I'm Peter Parker".  Then you slowly put the mask on like you're morphing into Spiderman. 

You still love Thomas the Train.  You wanted another Thomas the Train cake this year, and since we are not big cake eaters, I made it when we visited Grandma and Grandpa Hales last week so we could share with everyone.  

You are still very much an early riser.  At six o'clock on the dot each morning, I hear from your bedroom, "Mommy, it's morning time!"

Your hair is as crazy as you are.  You have a double cowlick in the back, which makes the job of taming your hair quite difficult.  Often times, I just let it go free.

You are a grandpa's boy all the way.  You talk about them all the time and play with them constantly when we visit.

You potty trained so easily for me a few months ago.  You really are such a good boy...and so smart too.  You knew all your ABC's at the age of two and you constantly amaze me with what else you know.

It's sad for me to watch you lose that toddler look (mommy has such a hard time with change), but you are growing into a handsome young man.  You are such a sweet, cute boy. We adore and love you so much, Blake!  Happy Birthday!

Love Mom.