Jackson's 3rd Birthday

Jackson had his 3rd birthday on August 8th. Here are the things we did to celebrate his birthday: We went to the Idaho Falls zoo 2 days before his birthday. I had been telling him we would go for a little while since he liked the San Diego one so much. My parents came along with me and the kids. Jackson surprised me by getting out of the stroller at one of the first animals we saw and then walking for pretty much the rest of our several hour stay at the zoo. Unfortunately, one of his sandals gave him a blister towards the end of the trip. He really enjoyed seeing all the animals and especially liked following the free-roaming peacock around when we sat down for lunch. I forgot to take my camera and have not yet got the pictures that my mom took with hers, so no pictures to post of this outing.

On the day of his birthday, we had a BBQ and birthday party for all of our family members that were around and could come. Jackson knew just what to do with his presents this time around and he made quite the haul. I tried my luck at making a dragon cake, since he is really into dinosaurs and dragons right now. I was worried that it might not be very good, but I surprised myself with a quite a good looking dragon both inside and out! Jackson loved it - which made all the time spent on it worth it.

The dragon cake I made for Jackson's birthday

Aaron posing by the cake

Jackson blowing out his candles

Jackson with all his presents

Here are a few Things about Jackson at age 3:

1. He loves Dinosaurs - as mentioned above. He usually has to sleep with one of his plastic replicas each night. I have been telling him all the names of the different dinos and he is actually really good at pronouncing their names. For example, he can pronounce every syllable correctly of "Acrocanthosaurus" - which happens to be his favorite one.
2. He loves to read.
3. Things he has done for the first time this summer are: ride a jet ski, ride a 4-wheeler, go camping, and start pushing the peddles on this trike.
4. A few of his favorites:

• books - The Berenstain Bears and the Bad dream, Lama Lama Mad at Mama
  
• meals - couscous, rice, peanut butter sandwiches
• movies - Wall-E, Cars
• TV show - Elmo (Sesame) Street
• songs - Popcorn popping on the Apricot Tree, Incy Wincy Spider
• fruit - pears
• veggie - beans and broccoli
• treat - fruit snacks, granola bar
• toy - plastic dinosaur - Acrocanthosaurs

Here are Jackson's stats from his 3 year check-up:

• Weight - 36.6 lbs (90th percentile)
• Height - 40 in (95th percentile)
  

(yes - he is a big boy, I frequently get asked if he is about a year older than he is. Hard to believe he started out life as a preemie!)

Jackson is such a great kid to have around these days. He usually has something to say or to do that brings a smile or laugh to his parents. We are so glad he came into our lives 3 years ago!