Ansel's third birthday!

Time is such a funny thing... I can't believe my little guy is three years old.. yet his crazy birth seems like a lifetime ago! It seems like he's been a part of our family forever and it seems weird to think of what life was like before he entered our world :) I'm so grateful things have gone the way they have.

This is such a fun age! I love all the conversations and funny and witty things Ansel comes up with. Oh, and being potty trained.. love that too. Makes life a little easier!

He was so excited to have a Thomas Train cake this year! He woke on his birthday so excited to see it.. (It took awhile to make.. having to mix all the colors!) Just a few minutes after he came across it.. I could hear him playing in the kitchen.. still very excited about it. I went out there and he proudly showed me the additions he had made!! So funny.. He added the other trains (that I was originally going to use.. so atleast they were brand new and washed already!) They were heavy though.. and had magnets in them..so I decided not to use them after all! Well, Ansel fixed the cake up a little by adding them.. and even had them all going the same direction. Funny though.. it looked like a little train wreck with the log that flew off to the side. He definitely had more fun playing in it.. ( and it was more for that than for eating!)

He had his last appointment with Dr. Porte (his NICU doctor.. who does the developmental appointments until they turn three). Dr. Porte was thrilled with his progress. The only thing he's a little behind on is his gross motor skills that involve the side trunk muscles (like jumping and stuff).. he has low muscle tone there still which is common with little preemies (but it's mild and just improves with time.. so nothing major or to worry about). They changed around some of his medicines to see if that will help him a little (mostly for his asthma and reflux.. he seems to have the whole asthma/allergies/acid reflux trio....) Dr. Porte said his lymph nodes in his neck are pretty good sized and figured he has some type of allergies (but we're not sure what...aside from the typical seasonal ones) Ansel says he has a hurt tummy nearly every day (likely the reflux issue) but he's doing a little better with that now that he's regularly on reflux medicine again. He had to go get a bunch of bloodwork done the other day too.. just to kind of check some things out.. but we're still waiting on that to come back. He's still of course not hitting charts.. but he had gained a little bit! He was almost 24 lbs. and was 35inches tall. Dr. Porte kept saying though how great he's doing.. especially given his start.. and that we should be proud :) And of course we are... I'm happy he's done so well. It's so exciting to see him progress and learn everyday. We're very lucky to have him in our lives.

On another side note.. we also just had our fourth anniversary a few weeks back (November 26th).. Our fifth will actually be on Thanksgiving next year! What a great thing to be grateful for. Cody's so wonderful and (kind of like I mentioned the weird time thing earlier) it's seems like we've been together forever already! I'm grateful I have him... he makes my life so much happier :)

I love this time of year anyway.. Thanksgiving and Christmas are my favorite holidays.. and then to add to that we have such special family memories at this time of year which seem to enhance the richness of those holidays even more!