Growing up way too fast! Already 3!

Now that Braden is 3 years old it's time for a growth update:
Height = 34 inches; Weight = 28 pounds

Party time:  We had a small party at Gran's Easter weekend where Braden and Mackenzye beat up a pinata before we had cupcakes.  Here at home, we had a super hero party the weekend before his actual birthday.  I made capes out of t-shirts and swords out of pool noodles (cut in 1/2) for all the party guests.  They had the run of the fort, trampoline and sand table.  A few adults joined in on the trampoline too!

What he's up to:  Now, Braden likes coming home and playing doctor or going fishing - at least until he realizes there is enough daylight and not too many mosquitoes out yet so he can go play outside.  He really wants to try out his froggy floater, but he'll have to wait until the next pool party!  When he must be inside, he likes to spend indoor time coloring, watching movies with Daddy, or playing with dinosaurs, castles and cars.  Oh - he's also recently discovered that the ottoman opens into a storage bench.  Of course, all contents are now regularly removed and replaced with Braden.  :)

Demands of a 3-year-old:

• No! My dood it!
• No! You dood it! 
• No! My help!
• NO!
• No!  You help me!
• No!  My help you!
• NOOO! (at top of lungs and face turns red)
• No!  I don't want to!
• No!  I want that!
• No!  Don't want that!
• No!  Don't want walk!  My hold you!
• No!  Want walk!

Do you see the theme?

Duties of a 3-year-old:  I'm milking this whole "Now that you're 3 years old you are a BIG BOY!  Big boys..."  Some of what I've used this for (so far):  

• sleep in their own beds.  (He starts there but wakes up between 11 and 3 and wanders into our room unless one of us sleeps with him in his bed.  We're working on it.)
• don't use pacis.  Only babies use a paci. (Stopped asking for it after 3 days.)
• walk from the car to school in the morning.  (We're working our way up to walking the entire way.  We're 1/2 way after 2 days!)
• try a little bite of everything on their plate.  (His first attempt involved licking his food instead of actually chewing to try it.  When we got him to chew, his attempt at chewing broccoli was hilarious!  He pretended to chew for about 3 minutes before he actually chewed (torture).  He finally swallowed with some tea to help wash it down. *This boy will eat spinach like chicken, but broccoli and carrots are just awful evidently!*)
• I've GOT to come up with more!  I'm sure I'll make it up as we go along - as necessary.  I'm also open to suggestions!  (^_^)

Now that there's no paci in the car, Braden tells me about his day while we drive home.  When that's over, we either listen to the radio and sing along - which means I'm told, "Mommy, no sing!" - or he watches a movie.

The rest of us:
Daniel is busy working on getting some paperwork together for work - trying to make inspections easier.  He's taking his new role very seriously.

I'm trying to survive STAAR week!  On Monday we had our annual carnival before this week of testing.  This year a few of us braved the slime dumping booth (not dunking) and had cold green slime dumped over our heads every time a kid hit the target!  I managed to brave 7 buckets by myself before one of my students came to sit with me and we shared 5 buckets of slime.

Oh - I've managed to get the west 1/2 of the house painted inside.  I've still got the hallway and bedrooms left to finish.

Almost 3...

Well, it appears I'm not very good at keeping up with this blog this year. Here we go:

Haylee:

• We survived our first week of STAAR testing. Now, we get to wait until May for results.
• I picked up the spring cleaning bug evidently. About a month ago I decided to clean out the kitchen, pantry, breakfast, study, and laundry areas. I managed to evacuate 8 bags of trash that weekend! Once that was accomplished I made up my mind that I was going to paint the house - inside only. Since then, I've managed to paint the entry, living room, dining room, kitchen, breakfast, laundry bath, den, and the laundry room and hall - ceilings only so far. (I had planned on getting the hallway done this week in the evenings, but Braden and I fell ill.)

Daniel:

• Daniel is now a Lead in Training at HBS. With any luck, he'll be finished with his training by summer.
• I've been keeping Daniel busy at home. Along with my cleaning spree came some discoveries of things in need of fixing. We found an overloaded circuit, an ungrounded dimmer switch and roof supports in need of additional support. Daniel moved a dedicated outlet to where I put the microwave to help with the overloaded circuit. He then began shoring-up the roof so we don't have a collapse with the next wind gust. Once I purchased a new dimmer switch, Daniel properly installed a grounded dimmer in the den.

Both:

• We've been working on cleaning the back yard up. This involved de-spidering the fort - yuck! We got the back porch and furniture cleaned off, the trampoline has been swept and inspected and we installed new components on the fort - after de-spidering.

Braden:

• Daycare: He tells me he is going to see his friends during the drive to school in the mornings.
• Superhero phase: After bath time, he wants to wear his towel as a cape and socks as gloves. He runs around the house saying "Superhero!" while pushing one of us away from the other.
• Braden is also really into dinosaurs right now. This will mean many trips to the Houston Zoo this summer since they have a dino exhibit here for the summer. (I guess it's a good thing I renewed our membership.) If anyone would like to come with us, our membership lets 10 people in at a time! :)
• We just had Braden's 3-year check up. He weighed in at 28 lbs & is 34 inches tall. His blood pressure was 76/43 - I forgot how low kids bp can be! He had a hearing exam - no raising your hand if you hear a sound now-a-days. They have a fancy hearing tester that does it for you. His test came back a "refer" on both sides... Dr. G checked it out and said it's probably wax buildup interference.
• Potty training has stalled... He knows when he needs to go, just he chooses to not sit on the potty right now. I know this is a totally normal phase of potty training - and I am choosing to not fight it. We'll try again after his birthday - when he's a BIG boy! We're also going to work on "losing" paci after his birthday. :)