Happy 3rd Birthday to Ryder!

 Three years ago today, my heart grew a lot bigger! That was the day that Ryder was born and that was the day that I found how much love I could have for someone other than my husband or family. It was a different love, a love that was special. A Mommy's love. It was the day that they placed him on my chest and feeling him breathe and watching his facial features, I was just in awe of him. I can't believe it's been three years since this day! I thank God for choosing me to be Ryder's Mommy. He has shown me so much in these 3 years, and I have learned so much. I can't even begin to tell ya'll just how much a baby changes everything, in many more ways than one! Birthday celebrations are just the icing on the cake! As Ryder leaves his TWO's behind and enters the world of THREE's, here's some things I wanted to remember.

Dear Ryder,

• Whenever you need to go potty now, you love to take all of your clothes off to do so! You also like to get naked for no apparant reason and you think this is funny. But Mommy doesn't!
• You're still a picky eater, but lately have surprised Mommy and Daddy by eating edamame, broccoli, cauliflower, and green beans!
• You ended yours daycare days and started staying at home with Mommy, but have recently started a few days at your first Preschool and seem to like it
• A few months ago started asking "why" to everything. Everything!
• Favorite shows are Caillou, Kick Buttowski, and Bubble Guppies. This changes and when it does, we have to watch the same one over and over and over haha!
• October 20th you asked Mommy "where does Jesus live?" I answered in a way I thought you would understand, that he lived in the sky up in Heaven, then also said he lives on in your heart. Afterwards, you totally seemed to understand. You have also asked about God and want to know "is it a Boy or a Girl" haha. Since then, you now ask about everyday if God makes the trees, the trucks, the power lines, your toys, etc. We answer yes God made everything and you think this is wonderful!
• Clothing- most 3T shirts and , 9 1/2 shoe size, and size 3T in underwear. You are mostly potty trained except at night, but whenever you have a dry pull up in the morning, we reward you with a treat!
• We are working on our attitude and tantrums. Most days are good, but after Brynley was born you had a few meltdowns. You love to spit, think it's funny to toot, and make raspberries but I know this is because you are a boy, although we have been also working on this and using nice words! This is all for now, but they are all special to Mommy because they are what make you YOU!

 We took Ryder to the mall on Friday, his actual birthday, to get some clothes and to surprise him with his first birthday surprise of the day. Ryder loves shopping and Target is actually his favorite place on Earth. I think he would choose to go to Target and browse the toy aisle for hours if we would let him. I'm lucky that he likes going to the mall so that he behaves while we're out. He was especially excited when we told him what his first birthday surprise of the day was! We found a few cute shirts and pair of jeans, and Brynley even got a cute santa outfit while we were at Children's Place too.

 Surprise #2 was to ride the train at the mall. Everytime we're there, Ryder begs to ride this train, but we are always on a shopping mission and don't really want to get involved in the crowds, but we thought it was special for Ryder's birthday, and he was so happy when he realized what he was about to do! It also made his day to ride in his very favorite color. BLUE!

 Brynley and I hung out and waited while the boys rode the choo choo train. She literally looked like a live doll to me! I had dressed her in one of her sweet smocked dresses and put a big pink bow on her and just thought how blessed I was to have my baby girl to dress up! We get stopped all the time with Brynley, people coming over to say how precious she is, or to say how much they love babies. I'm still working on this, because I feel Momma pride when someone wants to compliment her, but at the same time very protective and worried about germs around her. I don't remember being approached so much with Ryder, but maybe it's because we stayed in more since he was our first, and we didn't have a toddler to get out with.

 While at the mall, we went ahead and gave in to another of Ryder's requests. Everytime he sees a gumball machine, he also begs for one. We just started letting him have gum from time to time, but I just worry that he will make a big mess with it. I will blame Scot on this bad habit, because he chews a lot of mint gum, and I don't usually, so Ryder is always asking him for a piece. Over and over and over.

 The next big surprise #4 was going to Chuck E Cheese. Originally I wanted to just take Ryder here with a friend or two, but I'm glad I changed my mind. Ryder had been seeing commercials to play and eat at Chuck E Cheese and seemed very excited to go, and Scot really wanted to take him because he remembered the fun he'd had as a kid. We ended up going just the three of us (and Brynley) and it wasn't what we remembered. I guess things change from the way they were remembered from a child's view. We used to have Showbiz pizza where the animals came on stage and sang and danced and then we played games and ate pizza, but I don't think they're around anymore either! It still turned out to be a fun time and Ryder had a blast which is what his day was all about anyways.

 Let me tell ya'll! This Ducky game was so funny, and I was holding Brynley and happened to see the game going off by itself. Turns out Ryder had loaded it with tokens while we weren't watching so it had nonstop games so I didn't want to lose coins, so I started playing my heart out while juggling Brynley in my arms until I could find Scot to tell him to take over. We laughed so hard afterwards!

 Ryder got the biggest joy out of redeeming his tickets in this ticket counter! I think he thought it was a game too haha!

 showing off his loot and of course he chose CANDY!

 Next surprise of the day was taking Ryder to Nona's bakery in Charlotte and letting him pick out a cupcake. Turns out he wanted a big M&M cookie instead, but Mommy chose an almond cupcake with buttercream frosting, and Scot had chocolate YUM!

 After our fun day celebrating Ryder, we headed back home and had a few gifts spread out for Ryder to open. He was so excited and did really well opening gifts, so I don't think we will have to worry about Christmas gifts this year. We finished the night by decorating for his party and it was a challenge to keep him out of everything, but it was such a fun day and he had a blast! I love my sweet boy so much and love everything about having a BOY! He has shown me patience, love, discipline, endurance, faithfulness, and so much more than I ever knew that I could ever know. Happy Birthday Little Goose!!

Love,

Mommy