Walker is THREE!

Happy Birthday, Buddy! This was a train-heavy birthday. This boy is SET for a while. :) 

Sister was super helpful.

SO excited to receive yet another addition to his train track collection.

  

A little cousin love at Walker's family party this afternoon. We missed you, little Tom (and Anne and Brian)!

Height: 37 inches (50th percentile)

Weight: 31.8 pounds (50th percentile)

He was super excited to have his "buhp-day pahty" (birthday party).

Seriously. SO sweet. It was a crummy picture, but I love it so. He's hugging his three biggest girl cousins...Kate, Brooke, and Cally. :)

Just including this one because of her face. Funny!!

A few notable facts about our sweet boy:

• He's literal. When Ben asks him if he wants to “run around with Daddy” Walker literally thinks they’re gonna run around, not run errands. :) And, if Ben says, “Daddy has a bug [to get something/do something/etc]” – Walker responds with “on your car?” like “Is there a bug on your car?”
• He's a very sensitive little guy...emotional, sensitive, kind, sweet, and caring. Except when he's mad then he's a bit dramatic. He'll still cry and throw himself onto the ground and sometimes he'll yell back at me. For example, when he once got mad at the breakfast that I had made him, he said, "I no like this plate! I no like this food. Dis hot. I want somepin' else."
• His naughty trains are the “cubblesome cucks” (troublesome trucks) and he’s afraid that the “cubblesome cucks” will wake him up at night (because they are naughty and one of them “giggles”and makes noise). He will not sleep with them and tells me, “I no sleep with them ke-cause the cubblesome cucks go wake me up.”
• I love it when he says "dere" instead of "there."
• He will often sing a song (or hum the tune to a song) when he's playing independently. I like to think that songs get stuck in his head. The ones I hear most frequently are "Wheels on the Bus" and "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and the Thomas the Train theme song. :)
• When he needs me, he calls me in a very high-pitched voice. "Mah-mmmyy!" 
• LOVES peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
• He's a modest one. He often says, “I look so handsome.”
• He will frequently answer questions we ask him with "maybe yes" and "maybe no" and "maybe...(whatever the answer is)" and "I don't know." :) Makes me laugh.
• Likes his toy cars and trains to have faces. Like Thomas and the other trains, and the cars from the movie Cars.
• Often, he gives the answer "nobody" when I think he really means "nothing." Example: I'll say, "Walker, what's your sister doing?" He'll answer, "Nobody." :)
• Vampires (yes, like you see at Halloween, but Walker still talks about the one in his aunt Tisha and uncle Greg's yard) are called “bam-fiuhs.” Took me forever to catch onto that one.
• Likes to wiggle his toes when he gets out of his socks. Does it every time. :)
• “Ooh, Mommy. It’s a boo-tiful (beautiful) day.” He actually uses the words “beautiful” and “pretty” and I think that’s sweet. Probably because he’s around his sister a lot. 
• Has gotten to where he asks for “Daddy” or “Da Da” when I’m making him do something that he doesn’t want to do. Like put on his clothes. 
• For some reason, he likes to flush the toilet with his foot. He hikes that leg up there and flushes the potty. He must have seen someone do that...somewhere...? :)
• He gets excited when his little tiny poops make a "snowman" in the potty.
• If something hurts, or if something looks like it might hurt, he calls it an "ouchie."
• Every single day he requests a "different shirt" because he never likes the one I've picked out for him. Every. Single. Day. No matter the shirt. One of my least favorite things is trying to get him dressed! :)
• Whenever Lainey doesn’t cry when I brush her hair – which is rarely – Walker will say, “Her not cryin’!” He acts surprised that she’s not crying! 
• He likes to pick out a single word in a song and say, “Freak!? That’s silly.” Then he laughs. No matter what the word is and if it’s actually silly or not. Even if the word is "hat." :)
• The word "bridge" is "bidge" and the word "sand" is "sam."
• Most babies are referred to as "her" and he always will say "her" instead of "she." For example, "Her said yes!" or "Her said no." :)
• He's notorious for picking out a piece of candy, tasting it, declaring that he doesn't like that piece of candy, and then asking for another one. He might "eat" three pieces of candy, but only a little bit of each one. He has a good strategy for eating dessert and he has great willpower. :) Unlike his mama! I would happily eat the three pieces of candy in their entirety. :)
• Most of the time, his trains get referred to as "choo-choo cains."
• Gets mad at Thomas (the train) for being naughty (like hiding or finding his way into a random box of toys). Thankfully, Thomas always says, “I’m sorry, Walker.” (Walker tells me this.)
• We saw a cute little lab puppy and Walker got down on the floor and asked the puppy, “You like to play choo-choo trains?” I'm telling you. If that puppy had said yes, I would have taken it home.
• Can finally pedal! (3yrs)
• Reagan is much nicer to Walker than she is to Lainey. I think Reagan can sense the difference in their personalities.
• He does NOT like the sun in his eyes. He flips out. :) He'll scream, "Toooo bight (bright)!" And then he just cries until I can wrangle out a pair of sunglasses to hand to him which he eventually gets frustrated with because they don't fit on his face just right. Sigh...
• Has learned how easy it is to go “wee-wee” outside. 
• Doesn’t say his “r’s” – “Ben Hawwis.” (He loves pointing out Daddy’s campaign signs.)
• Raises both arms in the air – fists closed – when he’s excited about something. Like playing choo choo trains.
• He always wants a full cup of milk. If I give him his sippy cup half full, he calls me out on it and requests some “milk on top.” (As in, fill it all the way to the top, Mom!)
• Doesn’t like having sticky/messy hands. I usually have to wipe them more than once.
• Calls people “Little Buddy.” (Like the character Wubbzy, in his favorite TV show Wow Wow Wubbzy.)
• He would love it if I would play choo-choo trains with him all day long. I mean it. All. Day. Long. If I tell him that I'm busy cleaning (or whatever) he'll respond with, "After you're done? Then you play choo-choo cains with me?" and he gets SO excited even if I only say "maybe." :) He loves playing choo-choo trains with his mommy. And boy, does it get exhausting. But I know that someday I'll look back on these times and laugh and be glad that we played choo-choo trains so often together. :) We even take them to all of Lainey's activities...dance on Tuesdays, then gymnastics on Wednesdays, and then dance again on Thursdays...his trains are a hit everywhere he goes. Thankfully he's gotten good at sharing with other kids and he loves the one-on-one time that he and I always get to play with those trains.
• For some reason, he likes being barefoot at the playground. Even on the wood chips! Ouch. For such a sensitive guy, those wood chips don't seem to bother him at all...
• Loves/hates ghosts. He wants to play "ghosts" but then gets overwhelmed and scared. He will go from giggling/laughing/cracking up to hysterically crying. Even when he knows that we are the ghosts (like Lainey with her blanket on her head or Ben with a blanket on his head).
• I would much rather take him into a breakable, fragile store than I would Lainey. He's a much better listener and not nearly as clumsy as his big sister. ;) 
• His preferred seating for watching TV is on top of the coffee table. Not his chair, not the couch, not the floor. He likes sitting on top of the coffee table (it's soft and squishy...we call it a coffee table but it's really a coffee table ottoman).
• Mannequins are “ghosts” if they’re white. He gets awfully confused about why they don’t have feet or faces (some of them). He actually prefers all things to have faces.

Happy Birthday to our sweet, train-loving, car-racing, precious boy. We LOVE you, Walker.