Micaiah is three!

Well, first of all, I have to admit that I'm a bad mommy. For the last few weeks I had been telling Micaiah his birthday was on Friday. Well, Wednesday of this week I realized that the 19th was actually Saturday! He was already all geared up for his birthday to be Friday. So we decided to just pretend Friday was it. Then, on Saturday we couldn't help but celebrate his birthday again.

I have to say, I'm very happy to see this year come. Well, more like happy to see the "2's" go. Since Orin didn't live up to the terrible two's reputation, Micaiah decided to make up for it. Or maybe he's just living up to his incredibly insane birth. We have had quite the year. There were some days, after throwing his 5th tantrum for some silly reason like I told him we needed to put socks on, that I wondered if we would ever emerge. Damien said a few times, "Even a dog would have learned by now" meaning that even a dog would have learned that tantrums did not in any way help him get what he wanted. But Micaiah did learn. And we're now having a tantrum every 5 days instead of 5 a day. Ironically, even through all of it, we couldn't help but say multiple times per day how stinking adorable the kid was. Seriously, there is just something about him. I don't know what exactly, but his expressions, or his personality, or demeanor or something makes him so darn cute. We would often say that it was a good thing he gave us such a hard time because otherwise he'd have us totally wrapped around his cute little finger. It's so nice to have a happy little boy who brings such joy to our lives. Here is a little about our precious Micaiah at three years old.

He is 38 inches tall (75 percentile) and 30 lbs (fiftieth percentile).
The child eats anything. From salmon to dim sum. But he does not like french fries.
After a lot of hard work, Micaiah finally GOT his colors. His favorite color green.
He is great at sharing. I think Orin takes a little bit advantage of it and asks him to share things all of the time. Micaiah is especially great at sharing food. He loves to watch someone else enjoy his food.
The child is just so sweet. He loves to cuddle and give kisses. He's very gentle.
On the other hand, he's also very stubborn. If he gets his mind set on something, there is no getting it off of it. We know this can be an awesome trait and we're hoping to help him develop it into something can use for good, not evil. ;-)
He is a pretty calm kid. Especially compared to Orin. He can sit still, stand in line next to me without any problem and just relax.
He loves to copy Orin's every move. He is starting to develop some of his own likes, but he still likes to do a lot of what Orin does.
Cars, Cars, Cars. The child LOVES cars. It's really all he plays with. He likes any kind, but his favorite is from Cars the movie.
The child is a night owl - just like his daddy. He does great with his nap and definitely still needs it. But he seems to have a difficult time going to sleep at night. We can't quite figure out if he's just not tired or he's keeping himself awake because he doesn't want to go to sleep.
He's taking one afternoon nap for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours usually from about 2:30pm to 4pm.
Bed time begins around 8:30 but after reading, singing, praying, etc., it's about 9:15pm before they are usually in bed. He's not usually asleep until 10. He sleeps until about 8:15 and will get up to go potty but goes back to bed to wait until his light comes on at 8:45am. He is so good at staying in bed until it does.
He love to play the "rocket guitar" whenever he hears a hard rock song. He is incredibly dramatic with it and is so cute.
The child is terrified of thunder. He totally got this from Orin although Orin isn't scared of it anymore. Caiah will seriously be trembling in fear.
Micaiah loves animals. He is so gentle and sweet with them. Luckily he hasn't realized yet that people can have pets at home.
He's been potty trained for about 6 months. We didn't even attempt to train Orin until he turned three and it's strange to imagine still changing Micaiah's diapers.
Caiah can put on his own underwear and shorts but needs help with his shirt. He can wash his hands well and brush his teeth (although I usually do it as well). He hates having his hair brushed.
He is SO independent. His favorite saying used to be, "I want to do it." He isn't as instant about doing "everything" as he used to be. I think he's finally realized that it's nicer to have mommy or daddy do some things.
He is very particular about how he and Damien say goodbye each morning or after lunch. If he doesn't hear Damien say goodbye or say goodbye himself, he will have a meltdown. Damien is very careful to make sure their goodbye is "correct."
He is such a slow child. This is so funny to us because Orin always used to run everywhere. Micaiah walks so slow everywhere. We have to walk quite a distance to our car and it's very difficult when we're in a hurry. And the amazing thing is that he actually thinks he's going fast.
He loves to say hi to strangers.
Everyone comments on how well he can carry on a conversation. Both kids talked early, but Micaiah's conversation skills seemed to have bloomed much earlier than Orin's did. Soon after turning two he could carry on a pretty good conversation with anyone.
I really think he enjoys the two days that Orin is in school. I think he likes the quiet house and he spends a lot of the time just playing on his own and enjoys having the house to himself. However, by 11am he's asking when we're going to pick up Orin.
Micaiah can count to 29, say his ABCs, and can recognize about 1/4 of them.
Micaiah knows John 3:16, Proverbs 3:5-6, Romans 3:23 and Colossians 3:20. He just started AWANA (Cubbies) tonight and I think he's going to love it.

Pictures from his birth day!