Go Fish!

At a playgroup recently, Diego's friend Jayden had a fun version of the Go Fish card game, made suitable for ages 3+. Diego was really interested in the game, and I loved the concept of it. He received some gift cards for his birthday so we picked up the game for him. The three of us played it the day we brought it home and had a great time. I love games, so the fact that he is now interested in them is wonderful! Diego ended up winning that night, and was not shy about giving himself a round of applause along with Mommy and Daddy.

3rd Birthday

Around here, we celebrate birthdays for days! Here are some highlights of what we did for Diego's third birthday!Birthday Dinner at the Ram (his choice) with Ice Cream cupcakes. YUM!

Cute (and a little naughty) boy! He spend the entire time we were at dinner trying to climb over the really high backs of the booth we were sitting in.

Cupcakes with his friends at Playgroup. I love that I caught him ready to blow out his candle. Last year, he got too close and burned his eyelashes. Yes, his eyelashes. I know, I'm horrible.

A little playtime at one of his favorite places, NW Kids Club. I am still amazed that his favorite thing to do is play train table. He has a traintable at home, but anywhere we go if there is a train table, he's there!

Jaycoby, Mindy and Ella joined us for playtime at NW Kids club for Diego's birthday. J was having a snack break.

Birthday party at NW Kids club. It was a blast! We had food, family, friends a fun! Diego and his friend Madeleine were almost inseperable the entire evening. It was really cute.

Mouth full of "Jelly Buttons"

REAL Big Boy Bed

Diego is finally in his real big boy bed! He has transitioned from crib, to toddler bed, to full size mattress on the floor, and now finally his real bed! If you can believe it, the head and foot boards are from his crib. It was a fully convertible crib and I'm so glad we got the one we did!
He loves his "beach bed" and of course jumping on it is his favorite.

Last night was the first night, I think it went well. He's totally crashed!

Rice Christmas Peas

Today at the store we picked up the supplies to make rice crispy treats and Diego wanted to help! He sat on the counter and helped stir and happily ate marshmallows and "rice Christmas peas". I love the way he says many things, but this is my new favorite. I try not to correct anything he says, I find it endearing the way he interprets things. His favorite part about making the rice Christmas peas (besides eating them) was that I let him put pink sprinkles on them. They had a Valentine feel to them because we used strawberry marshmallows (they are pink) so we added a little more pink. Fun times! I like having a little helper in the kitchen!

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Picking Out His Own Clothes

Today Diego picked out his own clothes for the first time. Normally he has no interest it doing so and would rather I just did it for him. So today when I asked him to pick out his clothes so he could get dressed I was shocked he came back with clothes! He has mastered removing his clothes but not quite putting them on. He does great with pants and can put his arms in his shirts if I put them over his head first. Lucky for Diego, I don't love putting clothes away so there was a laundry basket with shirts in it in his room and his pants are in drawers, so that made grabbing clothes easy. I loved what he picked out too!

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No More Baby Gates

Right after Christmas we took the baby gates off the stairs. They were both broken, and even though the company agreed to send us replacement gates for free, we decided it was time to take them down permanently. Diego is almost three and manages the stairs very well. Honestly, I think Eddie might have left the gates up til he was 5 or so, but I talked him into taking them.down for good.

Diego loves the freedom and goes up and down the stairs many times during the day. He will even take his clothes up to the hamper in his room if he gets dressed downstairs. Score! Less trips up and down for me.

The first week the gates were down we put a tension gate at the top of the stairs at night to prevent accidental tumbles. But, quickly learned this was a terrible idea because one morning Diego pushed the gate out and fell down the stairs. Lesson learned. We both felt terrible, but he survived without any bumps or bruises just a little healthy fear of going down the stairs carefully.

He has wandered downstairs a time or two in the middle of the night but other than that we are all loving the now open staircase. Diego loves to play games on the stairs or take a ball to the top and watch it crash down. His favorite game is "pillow". He carries a pillow to the top of the stairs and rolls it down to one of us, and we toss it up to him. He thinks this is the funniest thing ever!

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Swimming Lessons, 3rd Time Around

Diego and I are wrapping up our 3rd session of swimming lessons. I decided to try the Kroc Center this time and we have both really enjoyed it. Every lesson day, Diego says he doesn't want to go, but never actually has a real protest and by the time we get there he is so excited to get in the water. He gets really excited if the slide is on and he can go down a few times before swimming lessons start. Our first lesson, he decided he didn't like any of the toys they had available, so we brought our bathtub Thomas for the next few, after that I "accidentally" forgot Thomas at home and all was well. The class has really improved his ability to follow directions and stay on task. I am continually impressed at how well he has begun to listen to me, especially in public. Its weird, but he listens better in public places than he does at home, in most cases. He really enjoys the songs we sing during swimming and sings them at home a lot. His favorite is the "poky poky". His favorite part of lessons is when he gets to jump in and show his stuff! He is really helpful when we are getting changed in the locker room and can remove his own shoes and clothes, which makes things go so much faster! I asked his teacher if she thought he was ready to do Pre-School lessons (without me in the pool) and she said she thought for sure he was. He can't start until he's 3, so he will have to skip one session, but I will be enrolling him in the spring. I am a little sad he is old enough to be done with Mommy & Me swimming lessons, but also grateful I was able to participate in them with him for 3 sessons over the last 2 1/2 years. I'm excited to see him learn even more in Pre-School lessons.