Happy Birthday Jordy!!!
My little boy turned 3 today. Wow! 3 sounds so grown up. LOL!
He has been looking forward to his birthday and reminding us all for the last few weeks that soon he will be 3. The other day he told me that when he is big he is going to cook some food for me because I cooked food for him when he was little. When I asked what he was going to cook for me and he said “sausages…. And ONION!” 
Last night Tim blew up heaps of balloons so when Jordy woke this morning the van was filled with balloons. I heard him chatting to Tim when he first woke and, like he does every morning, he told Tim what he dreamt about during the night…. I knew the minute that he sat up cos he started yammering and I heard him say that there was a balloon on the table and he could see an “orange balloon, a blue balloon, purple, green, LOTS of balloons here, Dad!” His voice getting more and more excited as he saw more and more colours.
Then he remembered what day it was and said “It might be my birthday!” Tim had a hard time keeping him somewhat quiet so he would not wake Darcy. He threw the balloons and ran through them and kicked them and piled them in the bed. Very adorable. He wanted to know where the balloons had come from and Tim told him it was the Balloon Fairy. Jordy did not think so and said maybe Mum did it. But later on he told me that the Dancing Balloon Fairy danced in and put the balloons there and then went home to Mummy Dancing Fairy and Daddy Dancing Fairy and Baby Darcy Dancing Fairy.
When Darcy woke up the two of them played crazy fellas in the balloons for ages. Darcy kept sitting and bouncing on them and trying to climb on them. Jordy played tennis with them.
Then we went over to Mum and Dad’s van and Jordy opened his card and present from them. They got him Harold the Helicopter (from Thomas the Tank Engine) and he was totally excited when he saw it. He had played with it in Big W in Darwin a few weeks ago when Mum and I were in there and he did not want to leave it behind and he remembered it and could not believe that it was here and he could keep it so that was really cute. He has flown it all over the place all morning. 
Tim made him an aeroplane cake which looked pretty neat. Complete with little lego pilot. We wanted to sing Happy Birthday but Jordy did not want us to sing to him, he wanted us to sing to the aeroplane!!?? So we sang that “Up in the air I fly, zoom zoom a zoom zoom zoom” song instead. Then he hogged into the cake. Poor Darcy was stuck with his fruit platter cos we did not have a chance to get a decent recipe for a dairy-free cake. 
Then we gave him our pressies. Some sticker books and some DVDs. Not very exciting but we don’t have room for much. I want to get him an origami book and a soccer ball but have not had a chance to buy it yet.
Then back to our van and the kids went crazy in the balloons again. Phew! All before 10am cos Tim and Mum had to start work at 10. Jordy opened his cards from Nanny and Poppy and from Uncle Brian. The kid is cashed up now! The money went straight into his Thomas the Tank Engine wallet which is where he puts loose change for donuts. That’s a lot of donuts!
The other kids that live here and not here at the moment (their car broke down in Darwin and they can’t get back) so that was a bit sad that he has no one else to play with. Darcy and Jordy play so great together and they are best buddies but it still would have been nice to have had a few friends to play a party game with.
So, what’s my three year old up to?? It’s interesting that there are so many milestones that seem obvious to me for Darcy but for Jordy things are not so clear. I guess as they get older there are no definite things that they achieve and can suddenly do. He just gets better with his counting and understanding letters and letter sounds, builds more and more complex lego planes, gets more creative with his games and the concepts that he understands. He loves playing that memory game where you turn over cards to find the matching pairs. And he loves matching the picture cards to the words but I think a lot of the words that he matches he does cos the colours of the cards match as well. He likes spot the difference books and just LOVES Where’s Wally. I have to say that I am amazed by his Where’s Wally skills. The kid can spot things a mile off.
There is this computer game that he started playing back when we stayed with his Nanny and Poppy where you have to find things hidden in a picture, and also play a version of Mah Jong, and match pictures of pelicans and all sorts of little observational things. It’s a game for adults so even Tim and Mum and I all love it as well… well, Jordy can play it all by himself. In the beginning I had to help with some of the harder matching games but not anymore. And he has the memory of an elephant. He’ll come out with a comment about something that he remembers and he has all the details right and even knows things that now one else remembers and whatever he is talking about happened six months ago! Goes to show how early they start paying attention to things that we adults just assume they are too young for.
He is massively into planes and rockets, still! And has recently started tap dancing… can I call it tap dancing?? If you imagine some crazy spastic looking flapping of hands and legs then you have it about right! But it certainly makes a noise on the van floor. The dance often comes complete with hand stands and leg kicks and spins and somersaults. He watched too much “So You Think You Can Dance?” back at home I think.
He is really funny with hide and seek and the warmer warmer colder colder game. He has enjoyed warmer warmer colder colder for a while now and we play it sort of often but he still has no clue how it is supposed to work. It is hilarious playing it with him. He’ll tell us we are getting warmer warmer but he sends us off in the wrong direction, or he’ll move the hiding object half way through, or he’ll half reveal it so we can have a ‘hint’ at where it is, or while he is saying colder colder he’ll point to where it is hiding, and all sorts of funny little things that make the game totally pointless.
Rhyming has become a sudden obsession. He has to rhyme everything (gets a little old I have to say!). Hat cat mat pat fat… fair enough, but when it becomes house, mouse, wouse, thouse, bijimOLOUSE! And he starts making up pretend words that seem to need to be shouted at the top of his lungs it can be a little annoying. I know, I should not complain. It’s funny cos the kids have some new stuffed toys and Jordy named them- the little kangaroo is Joey Licketts, the crocodile is Mololoowoogijama and the bear is Mr Billabillabillamugaloo or some darn thing with sixty syllables.
There are a selection of stuffed toys for sale at the café and Darcy has always pointed and grunted at them and wanted to hug and kiss them and carry them around. We did not bring any stuffed toys because Jordy could take or leave them and never really had a favourite doll or bear and it did not occur to me that Darcy might really want one, but being consistently the opposite to his brother it appears Darcy loves them. So I got him one to snuggle at night and a couple of times now he has woken and stirred and hugged croc and gone back to sleep. And the ambulance bear that was given to Jordy has been handed over to Darce. He is really cute with them and will kiss them on the nose and smile at them and hold them close under his chin for a snuggle. Darcy is a real snuggler too and often holds my face to turn it towards him so he can kiss me.
He is such a copy cat and loves to do everything Jordy does. He loves to draw at the moment and the dining table here is constantly being drawn all over. I can’t seem to convince Darcy that paper is for drawing on. Admittedly he tries to stay on the paper but does not quite have the idea that one hand holds the paper and one holds the pencil and so the piece of paper keeps moving and he just ends up drawing on the table.
He has figured out that he can climb up onto the lounge area with Jordy’s step. So now he goes and gets the step and carries it to where he wants to climb so that he can get up to the lounge and the bed and the kitchen bench. Trouble!!! He climbed up and pulled the kettle down last week and I was in the process of boiling the water. The water went all over him and all over the floor. Very scary thought as to what would have happened if he had done it 5min later when the water would have been boiling hot. A few things in the van have had to be re-thought now that he is able to climb up on everything. He even gets up on the back of the lounge and hangs off the window covers. And he climbs out of bed on his own! A backwards foot-first drop of over a metre and he just goes plop on the floor. Nugget.
About three weeks ago I stopped watching him go up and down the stairs in the van. They are steeper than regular stairs but the motivation to get in or out obviously outweighs any fear for him and he just figured it out. He does it really easily now and I don’t think he has fallen at all. He now tries to walk up and down smaller stairs all on his own with one foot after the other instead of sitting down to do it. He can’t quite manage a full size stair (his legs are too short) but there are some smaller steps around he and he goes them no worries just with a little quick-step stumble-run at the end.
He is making lots of word sounds and signing a lot now, and I love it. Even apart from the regular stuff like being handy for us when he can tell me if he is thirsty or hungry, I think it’s even more important that he can communicate about things that he is excited about. He loves dogs and birds and will yell “dog, dog, dog” and make the sign again and again and again and again when he sees one, even just a picture of one.
So far he signs food, dog, bird, bug, light, biscuit, toast, fish, book, hat, outside. Not all the signs are all that clear and co-ordinated yet and you need the context or word-sound to be sure of what he is signing (light can look like bird, and both bug and outside can look like he is waving etc) but at least he feels like he is getting the message across. He recognizes the signs for a few more things but does not make the sign himself; cat, cow, drink, kangaroo. And there are others that I use but that I am not sure if he has made the connection for them properly yet.
He does not seem to be into music as much as Jordy was at this age. He still gets the bum jiggling thing going and when Jordy dances Darcy will copy him. Oh, one hilarious thing he does, he now spins around and around until he gets dizzy and falls over, hits his head on the cupboard doors, and cacks himself laughing. The two boys try to wrestle together and it’s hard to remind Jordy to be gentle when he lays on Darcy cos Darcy is a classic and he lays on top of Jordy’s back or belly and slaps him with two open hands and just squeals with laughter. Oh, Darcy is a squealer! It’s horrible! He has this high pitched squeal and massive lungs that can keep the squeal going for forever. He then stops to see who is watching, gives a cheeky grin, and squeals all over again.
edited- i’ll have to come back with more photos… .the connection here is sooooooooooooooo slow that it is taking forever and i need to head back to the van to put the kids to bed. hugs all.
