What does a 3 year old look like?

This!!!! 

(I think this is the start of a new tradition to take pictures of you when you wake up on your birthday--insert evil mommy laugh here)

Dear SD:
You are three years old today and we can't wait to celebrate with our friends and families this weekend. You are thisclose to 30 pounds and are over 3 feet tall (you are literally more than half of me!).  You are just awesome and make Daddy and I laugh every single day.  You are still very well behaved, although you do have to visit time out every now and then.

Your favorite things right now are:

• Your UNC basketball that plays the fight song
• Your NC State football that plays the fight song (I'm seeing a theme here...)
• Basketball & Football
• Pushing the button to make the garage door go up & down
• Playing outside on S & S's "park"  (also known as their awesome play set in their backyard)
• Yo Gabba Gabba and Elmo
• Lime Popsicles
• Slides
• Pizza and mushetti (spaghetti)
• Brown Shoes (these have been on the favorites list for more than a year and we're on your second pair)
• Getting food and running from Lucy so that she chases you around the house

You have been discharged from the Special Infant Clinic & Surgery.  You still see Nephrology, but only once a year.  The only therapy you currently get is speech therapy, which is to help you overcome the speech delays due to your hearing loss (the tubes fixed the hearing loss).  

You are such a goofy kid.  You climb on anything you get the chance to climb on and love to jump.  Your laugh is contagious and you crack up about everything.  You still love to sleep and let us know when you are ready for bed; you nap 3 hours a day (making many parents very jealous).  Your smile and dimples light up a room - especially when you bat your eyelashes and flirt!

You've recently met a lot of very scared mommies & daddies with babies in the NICU and have given them so much hope.   Your story continues to amaze and surprise people because there's no indication now that you were given a less than 30% chance at survival at birth.

You continue to be our most favorite thing in the whole world.  You are the best thing that's ever happened to us.

Love you more,
Mommy & Daddy

P.S.  The only bad thing about turning three is that you now have to spend three minutes in time out rather than two!

Here's Mommy & Daddy on their 3rd Birthdays

(don't let the Wonder Woman in Daddy's hand go unnoticed)

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary to my wonderful Hubs.  Six years ago we had the best party of our lives got married! The weekend was filled with touching moments like those below.  I think we should get married every year just an excuse to get all these people back together again.

Hubs and his bestie dancing

My Dad: "Is it over yet???"

My Dad and Hubs: "She's all yours now, son - good luck!"

No words....

Parents of the Bride & Groom

where has the summer gone?

I don't know where the time has gone.  We spent a lot of time and effort and sprouted many gray hairs over the process called "purchasing a short sale home."  In the end, we are thrilled that we stuck it out and we LOVE our new home and neighborhood.  It was certainly worth the wait.  The weekend that we chose to move, it was 105 degrees outside, but we survived!  

Super Dude + Lucy on the porch of our new house

Super Dude's new room

SD also was moved up to the next class at preschool, along with several of his best buds from his previous class.  It was bitter sweet because we love his previous teachers, but the new ones are wonderful, too.  This class is more structured and they work on potty training more actively.  Woohoo!

And, here's a video of him jamming to our amazingly talented friend, Melanie, on iTunes.  [Her website is http://www.melanieedwardslabs.com/home.html and her songs can be purchased on iTunes if you like what you hear]

ready....set....go!

monkey did it

Super Dude has been known to color on the walls if we don't watch him closely when he has markers.  After his surgery, monkey became his constant side-kick.  He even helps monkey color his own pictures!  One day, we discovered a large circle drawn on the wall and when asked "Who did that?" SD replied, "Monkey did it" which was partially true because the markers were physically in monkeys hands!

just like daddy

This is hubs, when he was a wee-one.  When I asked Super Dude who it was, he said "Me!"

And here's Super Dude wearing a hat I found in the attic.

football sticker

Before we left for the hospital on Monday morning, Super Dude was playing with stickers and when we arrived, he was wearing a small football sticker on his hand.  During pre-op, the anesthesiologist noted that the football was perfectly placed on a juicy vein and we joked around about how the dude was just trying to help him out.

When the nurse came to remove the dude's IV today, she removed the dressing and guess what was under the dressing, sitting atop the IV?  The football sticker!  (yes, there was another layer of sterile dressing between the sticker and the actual IV)  I guess the anesthesiologist got the last laugh :)