THREE

Dexter's three-year-old picture, taken Thursday at Portrait Innovations.  A million thanks to them for being so patient with him, as he was freaking out about the flash and about pictures in general.  A half hour or so of playing and buttering up, and he was good to go, hamming it up for the photographer.

Three.  THREE.  I am not entirely sure how that's possible.  Three YEARS I've been bumbling and fumbling through this motherhood thing, never knowing what I am doing.  Three years I've been loving you so fiercely that it brings tears to my eyes when I stop for a second to think, "Hey, wait, that cute kid is really mine."  Three years I've been snapping pictures, taking video, blogging about you for the far-away relatives who miss you all the time.  Three years I've been packing diaper bags and snacks, filling up sippy cups and snapping up car seat buckles.  Three years I've been making a plan for the day, filling our time with fun things to do.  Often I wonder, as my mom asks if we remember doing something (and I inevitably don't, because I suck), if the time and energy poured in to finding things to DO and places to GO is worth it.  Because are you going to remember three years from now?  How about thirty years from now?  And then your sharp little memory reminds me of something we did over the summer, that I had completely forgotten about and had no idea made such an impression on you.  OK.  Cool.  We'll keep going.  And doing.  And discovering.  And playing.

Three YEARS.  My baby.  THREE.

I hope you know how much we love you.  I hope you know how awesome we think you are.

Happy Birthday, little man.  THREE.

Dexter's birthday cake.  Home made, shockingly enough.  The engine is Nonna's chocolate cake recipe with chocolate buttercream frosting.  The coaches are from my friend Vanessa's pound cake recipe, which is TO DIE FOR, with regular buttercream frosting (colored with food coloring).

Dexter's first real view of his cake.  He wanted to light the candles right then and there.  And also, those trains don't belong there, Mama.  We need to put them back on the tracks, please.

It was kind of fun to make, really.  I made Grandma and Aunt Jeanne help with frosting and decorating.  And Daddy made the excellent Happy Birthday sign.  And Grandpa caught all kinds of incriminating things on video...

Dex must be special, getting a chocolate three from Bomboy's.  He was also a little bit concerned about the "snow plow" on the front of the train, as he didn't want the tracks to have snow on them.  So we took the snow plow off.  And promptly ate it...

Oh my.  Grandma and Grandpa love Dexter.  And also hate Mama and Daddy...

He was, actually, really impressive at the whole drumming thing.

Happy Birthday singing kind of freaks the child out a bit.  I dunno why - we are all AWESOME singers who sing at the same speed, all the time.  We're not scary at all.

THREE!

Dex shows how old he is

One more super cute photo from Thursday's three-year-old photo shoot.  Kind of reminiscent of last year's two-year-old picture.

Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Jeanne for coming down for the weekend.  We had fun in Lancaster on Saturday and at home on Sunday with presents, hot dogs, and cake.  I also have a feeling we will be hearing a lot of this over the next couple weeks: