Happy 3rd Birthday Sweet Mikey

I can’t believe it but it appears that Michael’s third birthday is upon us already! It seems like just recently that I was huge, pregnant, and miserable at the 4th of July, but that was three years ago. 

Dear Sweet Mikey, 

I cannot believe that you my sweet Michael are almost three. This year has flown and crawled by. Some days I think that you sit in your room (while not napping of course) and think up ways to drive me crazy, and some days I think you are so sweet. You my friend have grown up a lot this year. You have left your first home and friends and adapted surprisingly well to a new place. You have struggled to make new friends but you are trying and I love that about you. You have gained a little brother, and boy howdy was your reaction to him something I could have never imagined. I thought you would be jealous of Zach and irritated that he was too small to do anything, but instead you have adored this little guy from pretty much the moment that you met him. You wake up each morning asking for your “Zach-O”, you look out for him, wrestle him, share with him, and just seem to love having him around. I love to see the two of you play together, and don’t worry, someday in the not too distant future Zach will be big enough to play big kid games, he will follow you around, talk to you, and be your sweet little buddy. 

You, my crazy Michael, have a vivid imagination. The world is just one big jungle gym to you, one big mountain to climb, or pirate ship to sail in. You are rarely bored, and even more rarely sit still. Your vocabulary is crazy, really friend you are three, you shouldn't be able to say things like, “mommy that shirt isn't great, go change” or “mommy I usually love my Zach-O” or any of the other off the wall things that come out of your mouth on a daily basis. I am excited to see how you continue to grow and develop, and so excited for you in your next big adventures- soccer and preschool!

You still love Dad the most and that’s ok. You are so excited to see Daddy every day, you ask about him constantly, follow him around when he is here, and just generally adore him. I think you might be Daddy’s biggest fan (though Zach is trying to compete with you on that). 

You still love to be out and about and busy but this year you have become a bit more of a homebody. I’m not sure if this is you growing and maturing and developing more of an interest in toys, or if it has something to do with us moving and being in somewhat unfamiliar settings, but now you like to be home and before you never wanted to be home for long. 

This year you told us you wanted to be an accountant to you could “go to work in Daddy’s office”, I’m still pulling for a pediatrician, but I am excited to see what you end up doing. Who knows, maybe we will have three generations of Suker CPAs afterall- I think Daddy would love it. 

You still love to sing though you sing less than before. I think you are too busy thinking through scenarios in your head to sing as much these days. But when you do sing you are pretty good, you can recognize tunes, sing the right notes, and adapt your songs to melodies you have heard other places. This is crazy to me. 

You love to be outside and play with water. The sandbox and the tiny pool are probably your two favorite toys, I’m just glad that you havent figured out how fun they would be together (that’s probably what you are going to do tomorrow). You also love to paint and color, you tell me all the time that you are coloring a map and then you draw lines and tell me what it leads to, like “this is the road to target” and “this is the road to Daddy’s work”. Along those same lines, you are great at recognizing landmarks, I’m not so maybe we wont get lost as much anymore. 

You are learning to be more independent. I think it is just part of your personality to want to be with people and to be cautious when trying things, but this year I think you have tried and grown in this area. You are potty trained (yay!) and you can do it all by yourself now. You have mostly dress yourself, feed yourself, and do chores. You are growing up! 

You love to read. I thought some of your love for reading would fade but I am grateful it hasn’t. You love to ask for one more story, you read really long books, and you are even willing to listen to audio books. This year we have listened to Harry Potter, the Nicholas Flamel Series, Percy Jackson, the Kane Chronicles, and a couple more I can’t remember now. You my friend are going to be well read by the time you start kindergarten. 

You love cars, boats, trains, and planes. I think transportation rules your life. You started off your year obsessed with diggers and heavy construction equipment, transitioned to trains (so glad the Thomas phase is done), moved into planes (dusty went everywhere), then moved into Cars (lightening Mcqueen) and now just like all of them. 

You love TV… this isn't great, but it is funny to see how excited you get 

You still love water and baths. I hope that this is a sign of a life long love for swimming and personal hygiene… let’s take it as a sign. 

You dont like most food. I cant think of a single food item that you consistently like besides apple juice. It’s crazy to me that you continue to grow, but you do. You are so tall, but I think you like fasting. 

Sweet Michael we are blessed to have you in our family even when you have screaming fits. We love you, and we are excited to see what this next year brings, but let’s make a deal- let’s agree that we all sleep more, eat more, and yell less. 

Love, 

Mom

 These are just some random Mikey photos I found. Such great Mikey faces

 I found Michael in the backyard "paddling in my kayak" the other day. He was singing row row row your boat while paddling.

 He loves Jake and the neverland pirates right now. he found this outfit in the dress up bin.