Babysoroos

I just realised that I never posted anything about Timothy’s third birthday back in February. I am rectifying that now, but at some point I will edit the date for this post to put it back in February.

We had a few friends over for a little party. The kids painted rocks, outside (!) in the sun (!!), in February!

Timothy chose “pupcakes” for his birthday cake this year (I think influenced by the cupcakes Ben had taken to school for his half-birthday a couple of weeks earlier. He wanted vanilla, with chocolate frosting, and sprinkles. When we went to the store to get the sprinkles, he was faced with the Valentine’s display and chose these heart-shaped ones.

And he still tried to hide a little while we sang Happy Birthday to him, but not quite as determinedly as last year.

At three years old, Timothy is talking really well, which is a huge change from six months earlier. We had about four months of speech therapy, which ended right as he turned three. He still has some funny pronunciation issues, but he can talk, and talk, and talk, and mostly he’s intelligible.

He climbs and jumps and swings (he can even sort of pump by himself) and rides a bike and digs and plays in the sandpit. He likes to help plant things in the garden (and by help, I do actually really mean *help*), and loves to prune bushes and trees. He spends a lot of time outdoors.

Indoors, he likes to draw and can write a decent version of his name. He *loves* to cut things — we’ve been through several phases of finding patches of tiny cut up pieces of paper on the floor. And some ruined clothes. He spends lots of time playing with his cars and trucks, lining them up in traffic jams or sending them off to emergencies. Quite the imagination. He likes to dress up as a fireman. He loves to look through books and listen to stories.

He’s a pretty darn sweet, cute, funny little guy.

Lying on the floor, working on writing.

Timothy’s actually getting pretty good at tracing letters!

One day while Ben was at school, Timothy decided to play picnic in the living room. I needed to do something and set Nate down to watch.

I didn’t realise he was old enough to join in games like this already, but Timothy was handing him stuff and he was eating it, so I guess he knows how to play! 🙂

Timothy seems to have something of an obsession about Africa at the moment. Several times every day, he tells us he wants to go to Africa. In a boat. A motor boat.

One day, after drawing squares and rectangles and Ts on the mini Etch-a-Sketch, and showing us each creation, he suddenly said he’d drawn Africa.

And it may be upside-down and back-to-front, but I think it’s a darn good job for a not-quite-3 year old!

Below is the same image, just flipped vertically.

Nate’s first time on a swing! He seemed to enjoy it — had a great big grin on his face before I could get the camera out.

Tim loves swinging, as high as possible.

And Ben climbing. He got quite high up on this thing and was very proud of himself.

Nathaniel is 3 months old today. So in the family tradition, we dressed him up and took pictures. Looks just a little bit like his brothers, don’t you think? 😉

Nathaniel, 3 months

Timothy, 3 months

Benjamin, 3 months

We’re all doing well, just busy with visitors and Ben starting Kindergarten, and getting used to being a family of five. It’s been a crazy few months of adjustments but we’re finally settling into a routine. Sort of.

Nathaniel had his 2 month appointment today, and weighs 13lbs 10oz. That’s up almost two pounds since he was last weighed, two weeks ago, at the midwife’s office. So while he’s smaller than both his brothers at this age, he’s gaining weight at about the same rate now. And otherwise he’s healthy.

Here are a few recent photos of him:

Both big brothers love to hold him and make frequent requests (demands?) to do so:

And here are all of them, The Whidbey Soroos Boys, together:

Just to prove that I can take a straight portrait of Tim…

He was pretty excited about opening some presents from family on his birthday morning.

And eventually he was willing to sit for the “official” birthday photo with crown.

Then we had a party the next day.

Complete with cake:

The party guests started to sing Happy Birthday to him:

Which for some reason, caused this:

But he came around and blew out the candles when it was time:

All in all, he had a good couple of days, I think.