Happy birthday, Rhino, my sweet three year-old!

You're three years old now and all ready telling everyone you see "I'm Rhino. I'm three!" We didn't have a large celebration this year, but had a great little party at your Grandma and Grandpa's in New York two weeks ago. You enjoyed a train cake, made by Mommy & Aunt Jen. You loved all the attention, the Thomas & Friends party hats, ripping into presents, singing Happy Birthday to yourself, and picking candy off the train cake and sugary landscape. It was a fantastic birthday and you're still

Like I mentioned, we went to visit your grandparents (and aunt, uncle, great-aunts, great-great-aunts, great-grandparents, etc!) You've now flown across the Pacific Ocean seven times in your three years! I am so proud of how well you handled all the travel this time. You either slept, colored, played on the iPad or watched movies while we were on the plane. For the hours that we were waiting in the airport, you were usually playing with your little brother — chasing each other around, making silly faces and noises, and putting on quite a show! You love going through security checks and were very helpful with putting items in bins and pushing the bins on the rollers down to the scanner. Wherever you saw a mat with footprints on it (for people getting scanned to stand with legs spread) you'd get so excited and place your tiny feet on the prints and stay there! You also had some long car rides, bus trips, and quite a long train ride (the trains were especially exciting for you!) Even though the travel was long and you were tired, you were quite a trooper.

The visit in New York was all sorts of fun for you! You really liked being around all your relatives, who gave you plenty of attention! You got lots of play-time in with Grandma and Grandpa. They played your new favorite board game: Blokus (which you play with your own rules!) You exercised and stretched with Aunt Jen and Grandpa. You helped cook and ate lots of big-boy meals at the dinner table. You loved Jasmine and Mugsy, the dogs, and were really gentle with them and had fun! You got to sleep on a big air mattress with your brother, go out to restaurants, play with neat new toys, take lots of pictures with Grandma and Grandpa's camera, and spend time with lots of people who love you very much! We've been back for a week now and you're still asking about "Grandpa's house!"

I haven't scheduled your annual pediatrician appointment, but will soon. You seem to be growing well (you're in 3T clothes now) and are talking more and more! Your vocabulary has grown tremendously lately and other people are starting to understand you better than they were. Your favorite toys are still your train sets and you love to be read to or just browse through books. You are getting really good at jigsaw puzzles and will do them over and over! You're playing a lot of different toddler and preschool games on the iPad and I can see you learning how to problem solve. You also draw great pictures! You doodle a lot of pictures of people (of me, Daddy, Heron, Uncle Matt, Grandpa, etc!) They all have very large heads with vertical lines for eyes, a tiny stick body, and little stick ears and are so adorable! You draw other things too, some of which we can't recognize right away, but you tell us all about the train going through the tunnel or the dog. And you're excellent at drawing railroad tracks!

You still really enjoy going to church and ask all week about church and your friends and snack time and Jesus! You make some fun little crafts in there, sing songs, hear stories, and play with toys. You're still memorizing bible verses for Wednesday night well. You've been reciting John 3:16 to us for weeks now! You remind me throughout the day by asking "bible verse?" and we practice together. You also like to say a short prayer before each meal or snack ("Dear Lord, thank you for this food. Amen.") and get bent out of shape if Heron doesn't fold his hands with you while you pray. I know that right now you like to go to church to play with trucks and eat snack and that you'll memorize your verse because you get candy and toys for it, but I'm so glad that you're enjoying and learning a little bit about Jesus. I'm excited to teach you and see you grow as you learn about our Lord over the years.

You have some favorite foods, which I don't think have really changed lately. Dinner time is often difficult, but throughout the day I can pretty much always count on you eating any peanut butter sandwich (honey, jelly, plain, doesn't matter!), any fruit, anything sweet, raw carrots and celery, any bread, cheese, and a handful of other typically toddler-friendly snack foods. You are spending more time in the kitchen lately as you've gotten more interested in helping me or "I can do by myself." You can make your own sandwiches, slice your own bananas and cheese and pour your own juice. You like to do a lot of other things on your own as well, including attempting to get dressed and undressed (you're still figuring out buttons, but doing really well), putting on your own boots and jacket, sweeping the floor and brushing your teeth. Now why is it so hard for me to get you to pick up your toys??

Three years really seem to have flown by. You're such a compassionate, messy, humorous, noisy, friendly, loving little boy and I just can't wait to see what the next year brings! I love so much my little "big boy!"

- Mommy