Three

On Dec. 30th Hunter turned 3 years old! It's still amazing to me that I have a 3 year old, he's no longer a toddler but a full fledged pre-schooler who seems even older than his age. We had his 3 year check up yesterday and he did amazing, unlike last year where he cried the entire time, this year he smiled and talked to the doctor and performed all the tests without any issues. He's perfectly healthy and now weighs 38 lbs and is 38.5" tall, our perfect 38/38. He's grown 3.5" in the last year which his doctor said is on the high side. It doesn't surprise me since he's bigger than most of the kids his age at school.

I really loved the age of 2, it was far from "terrible" that is typically associated with that age. Hunter really grew into such a wonderful, sweet, funny, smart little boy. His communication and reasoning skills amaze everyone that knows him and they all insist that he seems much older. I just love our conversations and seeing his imagination in action when he's playing. And he's funny. Really, really funny! This kid is a total comedian and we're convinced he's the future class clown. His goal in life is making people laugh and he does a great job of it.

Hunter is a total mama's boy, he's constantly offering up hugs and kisses and telling me that I'm pretty and that he loves me. Total heart melter. He also insist that I put him to bed or comfort him when he's sad which is sweet but exhausting at times. With all that said he does adore his daddy, they are always having little adventures and he's pretty much a mini version of Kristian personality-wise.

This was a big year for Hunter developmentally with the biggest change being that he is now potty-trained!!! Starting right at 2 1/2 he began using the potty at home (he had been using it at school for a few months prior) and within a couple weeks was fully day trained and in underwear with very few accidents. A couple months back we even began putting him in underwear during nap time and he did great. Now he's only in pull ups at night and sometimes he will wake up and tell me if he needs to go but he still has a wet pull up every morning so we are far from being 100% in underwear.

In November we finally transitioned him to a "big boy" bed ... converted his crib to a toddler bed. Hunter never tried to climb out of his crib and slept great in it, he even said he didn't want a big boy bed whenever we would ask him. But finally, on Thanksgiving weekend we bit the bullet and changed it over, surprisingly he LOVED his "new" bed. What he didn't love and what was a harder transition was getting rid of the paci which we did at the same time. He only used it for naps and bedtime but it definitely helped him sleep and taking it away was tough on all of us. For a good month he continued to ask for it and even now if he wakes up in the middle of night it's much harder to get him back to sleep. He has started having bad dreams and insisting there are monsters in his room so sleep hasn't been that great. He has also slowly begun to give up naps, much to my disappointment #napsforlife.

For his birthday this year I skipped the big birthday party at home and went the easy route of having his party at a local bounce house play place.... all I had to bring were the goody bags and juice boxes and his Aunt Melissa made and brought his cake. The bounce house place did everything else, including providing the food and drinks and all for far less than I normally spend on home parties so it was a win all the way around. Oh and he had a BLAST!

Hunter continues to bring us so much joy, I couldn't ask for a better little boy. He is the absolute light of our life and we are so thankful for him.

Last Day as a 2 year old!

Happy Birthday! 12/30/14