McKay - 3 Years

McKay turned 3 years old on July 17, 2010. Some of his 'skills' are the following:

• He can count to about 15. Then there a bunch of 'ufteen's until he hits 20.
• He recognizes most of the letters in the alphabet and knows which are the vowels. He can spell his name, On and Off. He likes to 'play abc's' on the computer (www.starfall.com) and can run the mouse. He has also started tracing letters I've written for him.
  
• McKay LOVES to sing songs, talk on the phone and computer (web cam) and read books.
• He loves the park, the library, the discovery museum, playing with his friends (Thomas, Andrea, Evee, Connor, Jared), and cars and trains.
• McKay loves to 'create' whether it is painting, coloring, or sticking stickers and does a good job.
• He has an EXCELLENT memory and is constantly amazing us with what he remembers.
• He is day-time potty trained.
• His favorite shows are Word World and Cars.
• His current lunch time preference is a cheese sandwich. Peanut Butter and Jelly was the favorite for a few months before that.
• McKay loves cookies, both eating them and making them. He is always very eager to help out in the kitchen and is very good at licking the bowl, which he comes by VERY honestly. :)
• McKay loves family home evening and again amazes us with what he knows and remembers. He recognizes by name Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, Temples, President Monson, baptism and that Daddy will baptize him at 8, the Sacrament, etc. At our last home evening we started quizzing him after he surprised us by recognizing the Book of Mormon in a picture.
• We can tell what stood out in McKay's day or what he wants to do by what he prays for at night. The most recent was that we could move our house and set up our Christmas tree. He has been anxious for 'Nanna Papa Dustin Chantelle' to come back so I told him the next time we would see them will be at Christmas. Now he regularly asks if we can set up the Christmas tree - then it will be Christmas and they will all 'come home' right?
• McKay can't fall asleep mad. Since he decided he was done with naps at 2 1/2 he is often so tired by bedtime that it isn't a very pleasant experience helping him get ready for bed. He will not fall asleep until we've gone in and given him hugs and kisses.
• McKay understands pretty much everything we say to him and we can understand most of what he says.
• McKay is a tease.
• He is really sweet with Max and can't wait until he is big enough to play trains and cars with him and run and the list goes on and on.

We celebrated McKay's birthday when my family was here so on his actual birthday we took him to lunch at Stacks.

It is a breakfast place so the white stuff is actually whipped cream with fruit on the bottom and chocolate chips. Not the greatest but it still made McKay happy!

After lunch we took him to a movie in the theater. It is so expensive that we haven't been to a movie as a family since we lived in Utah and didn't have to pay for McKay. We took him to Toy Story 3. After the movie ended McKay exclaimed "I love that show!" and we decided it was totally worth the ridiculous price!

We celebrated McKay's birthday on the 4th of July. It was so fun to have family here to celebrate with us! We invited friends over to help us eat cake and ice cream for McKay's first 2 birthdays but it isn't the same. We told McKay Nanna would come back with everyone else in July for his birthday. Boy was he excited for July to come!

He even took a nap that afternoon which gave Chantelle and I a chance to decorate his cake. It was fun having help! I let her do all the hard parts. :) He was so excited when he saw the cake waiting on the counter. Needless to say, he ate his dinner in a hurry!

Last year he wasn't too sure about blowing out his candles in front of the friends we had invited over so all year we talked about candles and blowing them out. He helped Jordan and I on our birthdays and knew exactly what to do when it was his turn.

We made some delicious homemade ice cream but McKay preferred his Cars cake.

McKay got Yahtzee Jr which happens to be based on Toy Story 3 (total coincidence) and LOVES playing his 'dice mame' any time anyone will play with him. He got the Memory game from Nanna & Papa and is very good at it and loves to play it too. It is looking like I will have someone to play games with me. Yay!

He also got a Thomas the Tank Engine remote train and track. He set it up and played with it every day for a solid 3 weeks after he got it. He is enjoying the additional cars he got on his cake and often gives one to both Max and I to play with him.

After he opened his presents we walked to Central Park for the 4th of July fireworks show. Everyone enjoyed it and McKay keeps asking if we can all go to the fireworks again. I have a feeling Nanna and Papa may need to come visit us again next July 17th. :) Thanks for helping us celebrate McKay's birthday guys! I am pretty sure McKay will never forget it!

We love our sweet boy and feel so lucky to be his parents.