3 G

Our baby turned 3 yesterday!  I am in shock about it.  He is the last of the boys to have a birthday in the "birthday season" here at the Spencer house--although he's the first in the calendar year, and he has been waiting and waiting for his moment in the sun.  It was super fun to see the other boys get excited for him as the day approached, and on the day of everyone was super nice and loving to him.  He got lots of "birthday" hugs and kisses (not too different from any ordinary day) and some birthday "bumps" as well.  :-)  He had many requests for the kind of cake he wanted, so I ended up choosing the puppy cake from the wonderful book Granny gave us.  George was pleased.  He wanted to eat it all day long, but did so great waiting.

James and I didn't even get George a proper present.  He's been asking for "grapefruit snacks" (fruit snacks) for the last couple of weeks, so I bought him his own box of those, along with some jelly bellies.  He was so excited to open those up, and the first thing he wanted to do was share them.  His grandparents came through with some wonderful cards and presents--which he went to sleep cuddling with--and it was so sweet to see him carefully open these with a huge smile on his face.  I think he felt pretty special.

We worked on the three fingers thing all day--he tried quite a few variations, but this seems to work best for now.  "I Three!"

George is so much fun to cuddle.  He's sitting on my lap right now, leaning against me, and just melting into me.  Every once in a while he turns to me, reaches up for my face, and gives me a big kiss.  All through church he kisses and kisses me.  I love these cuddles.  We are also quite lenient when he says, "I cuddle on yours bed!"  How can we resist him?   We haven't figured it out yet.  Here are some other George-isms he's been saying lately.

"Who thinks Mom's cute?"--he said this after I asked (at the dinner table) "Who thinks Georgie's cute?" (and of course we all raised our hands).
"Is yours arm better?"--He still asks James this about his arm (he hurt his rotator cuff about a month ago) every night.  I got to experience how sweet this was when I cut my finger and he kept asking how my owie was.  Super thoughtful!
"No Santa, come my house.  Got it?"--Georgie is so friendly usually, to everyone.  He makes friends very readily.  In fact, at our ward Christmas party, lining up to see Santa, he saw a man passing by who was larger and wearing a red shirt, and yes, had a beard--and he said, "Hi Santa!" and gave him a hug.  However, when it came time to sit on Santa's lap, he was scared of the "official" Santa.  So ever since then, when people would say (well-meaning people, of course) "Is Santa coming to your house George?"  He would adamantly respond with the above.

"Da da dadeedadee Afro Circus"--This is an extremely annoying song that the boys sing and George has picked up on it.  One day when I was dropping Tommy off at kindergarten, George jumped out from behind my leg (where he sometimes hides when feeling shy) and said, "Hey Miss Kohn!" and proceeded to sing the little ditty while dancing.  The other moms and Ms. Kohn and I all stared at each other as he then hid back behind my leg again.  :-)
"Daddy, do Track 19!  Star Wars!  No, Old Flag!"--so we have a cd stuck in our car, and the boys have all memorized the tracks to it.  Whenever we drive to hockey, they take turns requesting certain tracks.  Even Georgie has discovered which ones he likes.  The best is when he sings along--although if he catches you watching him he will say, "No, turn around, don't look at me!"
"Um, what?"--just a cute thing he says.  :-)
Hulk song--this was one he made up one time, singing "hulk hulk hulk" to the tune of Jingle Bells.  He made up several songs to that tune.

"up, up, and away!"--another cute thing he says
"Hands up!  You're dead!"--yeah, he points a gun (or a hockey stick gun) at you when he says this.  They don't get the whole hands up thing, I guess.
"I want show/tell you someting"--I love it when he says this.  Then he takes you somewhere to show you--usually he wants some candy or treat on top of the fridge.
Brown Bear what do you see?--This is such a fun book to read to George.  He sings it with me and he anticipates the next animal.  He's learning his colors pretty well too!

"I love you too!"--This is one of the sweetest G sayings. He always responds when you say "I love you" to him--either with a kiss, or with the same words.  He's a heart-warmer, for sure!
"That was fun!"--another heart-warming saying.  He is super thoughtful for a 3 year old.  He has learned the importance of expresing joy and gratitude--something it takes many people a lifetime to learn!  After we take him anywhere, he will almost always say, "That was fun swimming/sledding/on a walk/skating with you!"

I love to hear George sing.  He does it quite a lot.  One time when I was rocking him to sleep he was quietly singing Twinkle Twinkle and right in the middle of it he fell asleep.  It was seriously the cutest thing ever.  Or one of them anyway.
"Don't look at me, I excercizin!"--the other day George was in the mudroom for quite awhile.  I kept peeking in to check on him and all I could see was that he was playing with some of James' and my shoes.  He kept saying, "don't look at me Mom!"  Finally I caught him in the act of "exercizin" on one of the mats.  He was on his back, doing stretches, and was using the shoes as weights.  It was super funny!
He calls these items very cute names:
Bath--hot tub
belt--seat belt
heat vent--warm hair
fruit snacks--grapefruit snacks

"Took mine owie off!"--The other day I couldn't stop giggling when I heard him loudly proclaiming this to James (a few times because James was distracted at first).  It's just such a funny thing to envision!  And then he said it in such a proud tone!
"Mommy, come here!  Mommy Spencer!"--One day when I was a little late coming to his call.   Of course I arrived with a smile!

Things he's into:
skating--We have never tried real skates on a child this small until now.  And lo and behold--he can stay on his feet pretty well!  He does better when the ice is fairly scuffed up--if its too clean, he slips and slides quite a bit more.  He lasts very nicely for about 20 minutes.  After that you have to take lots of breaks/rests.  :-)
swimming--He loves to swim.  He has learned a lot of bravery from going with Tommy so much, and now he will take off his water wings and "swim" quite well.  He pushes off the wall on his back and his tummy, and he loves to look underwater with his goggles.  He's got the breathing thing down quite well, and usually only has one gagging/choking session per swimming visit.
sledding--He has missed out on quite a few sledding visits the older boys have gone on, so I took pity on him and took him out the other day.  The little hill by our house is perfect for him--he can ride down on his own and walk back up just fine with no help.  We had a really fun time for about 45 minutes.  He is soooo sweet and really good company too.
basketball clothes--in honor of his birthday we pulled out the 3T clothes from the closet this week.  He was thrilled to discover a cute little basketball outfit (shiny clothes) and has been wanting to wear them every day.  Part of the reason he's so thrilled is because all of his brothers are playing basketball right now, so of course he wants to be just like them.
puzzles--he loves to pull out a puzzle or game with me in the afternoons.  He is pretty good at them too!
memory match/go fish--I had a fun time teaching G go fish (he calls it "goldfish") although of course he lays all his cards out where you can see them.  It is fun to see him get a match--he lights up with his whole body/face and says "YES!" or "YAY!" with a fist pump.   Our Go Fish game has babies and mamas, so he likes to make them talk to each other in cute little animal voices while he waits for his next turn.  Memory match is delightful as well--helping him find matches is the best part of the game for all of us!

There's so much to love and adore in this sweet little boy.  We love him and are so glad he's in our family!

So this is a brown-speckled dog with black and white spots.  The ears are the yellow circles, the tongue is the red thing.  The cupcakes are the feet, and the collar goes between the two layers and is not visible in this picture.  As soon as the sparkler was done its thing, Georgie (who had been watching in fascination) said, "Again?  Do it again!"  He wanted to do his whole birthday over again today as well.  And many more, on Channel Four...