Warning - Polars bears have invaded California!

Just kidding - I just wanted to make sure I got your attention. Please note that there are four new postings here since my birthday. Make sure you scroll down and catch up with our activities since my big birthday celebration.

Joshie bear has a lot less HAIR!!

Joshie got his first haircut a few weeks ago. For a while, many of you may remember, that the little guy was sporting an outrageous baby mohawk. Well, finally the sides of his hair grew in and then he started to get lots of curls at the back of his head. Mom and dad finally took him to get a haircut when it just got completely out of control - Poor little guy, he was starting to look a little scraggly.

Let's just say Joshie is a little attached to mommy and upon being put into the car chair at the salon, he waited about two seconds before the tears welled up and the screaming commenced. My mom and the hair lady decided that it might be easier if mom held him, so we went to another chair and he sat in mom's lap. It was unpleasant for everyone, but Joshie looks like a little boy again instead of a little street urchin:).

See the before shot of the back of Joshie's head, the middle of haircut unhappy shot and the final happy result.

My, what big teeth you have!

I visited the dentist for the very first time a few weeks ago and it was lots of fun. As I was sitting in the waiting room, mom yelled out "Oh Matthew, there are wild animals behind the door!". At first I that she had finally gone over the edge, but then I noticed a squirrel's tail bobbing around behind the glass and then I saw a mouse tail. "What is that?". Upon venturing over to the door, I opened it up and met my dentist. You see, they weren't real animals at all, just little puppets.

My visit was lots of fun and I was such a good patient. After letting me play with the dentist chair controls, the water and the suction device, the dentist was able to check out all my teeth, clean them and floss them. For being such a great patient, I got several surprises including a new toothbrush, a little camera from the toy chest and a little stuffed kitty cat. I had a great time and my mom was very proud of me.

See a recent picture of me above where I proudly display all of my pearly whites!!

Happy belated birthday Daddy!

Daddy's birthday was on September 19 and he celebrated his 29th birthday for the 13th year in a row! I am not sure how that is really possible but I believe most of what mom and dad tell me so WHATEVER!

I kept asking Daddy if he was having a firetruck party too, but unfortunately, he didn't and he seemed happy just to share a little cake with his family and wear a silly birthday hat just for me and my brother. I loved the cake and Joshie and I loved helping daddy blow out the candles on his cake.

Mom and dad tell me that Joshie's birthday is coming up next - I hope there will be something exciting planned for his big day, but mom and dad say it will only be just a few friends over for some cake. I mean what else is there to do - the little guy still can't even walk on his own. At least I will get to have more cake!!!!

My three year checkup stats - uh, yes, over a month late!

Mom has been a bit delinquent in keeping up the blog lately. Our last entry was on my birthday and that was a month and a half ago. Give the old girl a break - we have been very busy and I have lots and lots of stuff to tell you about including my 3 year checkup at the doctor, my daddy's birthday, my first visit to the dentist, Joshie's first haircut and finally our recent vacation to the beach in San Diego. Check back and make sure to catch up on all the exciting things going on in me and my little brothers' life as mommy plans to post updates for you regarding all these topics. I have posted a few recent pictures of me and my favorite little guy so you can see how we are are both growing and still getting along...famously! (at least for now until Joshie can defend himself a little better):)

So, my stats at my three year old checkup were as follows: 39 inches height (75% percentile) and 32 lbs weight (55% percentile). I did great at my checkup and I thought it was all fun and games. When the dr. asked my mom if I was talking alot, she didn't really have to answer as I filled the dr in on my swimming lessons, schools, bears, fish, pirates and a whole assortment of other unrelated topics! Let's just say he isn't concerned a bit regarding my verbal skills. This was the first time that the dr. checked my reflexes which I found very amusing. He proceeded to hit me in the knees and elbows with a hammer and it made me jump and laugh. Mom promptly explained that only the dr. was allowed to do that and I shouldn't plan to do the same to my little brother upon my return home.

No shots this time, but I did get the flu mist. It is sort of like a reverse sneeze into my nose. The nurse opened a little vial and then shot the stuff up my nose. Cool!

Happy Birthday to me - I am three!!!

I wish I could have a birthday everyday! What an exciting few days I have had. First, on Friday the 5th (my actual birthday) mommy brought a fruit snack to school for me and all of my little friends. The teacher held a special birthday celebration for me and I got to walk around a candle three times and then practice blowing it out. All of my little friends sang Happy Birthday to me and then I got to give all of them the snack. Mommy brought toothpicks for us to eat with and that was an extra special treat. (We little kids get the biggest kick out of the littlest things).

The BIG day was Saturday - my firetruck party! It all started out very stressful as Joshie decided that in honor of my birthday, he would actually cut three of his four incoming teeth. We thought he had already cut them, but something was definitely bothering him and it was definitely teeth related. Our trip in the car to pick up my special birthday cake was filled with lots of screaming, crying and general unhappiness. But after a trip to the pharmacy for some baby tylenol and a bottle of formula and then some serious hugging and cuddling (mommy included) everyone recovered and we made it to the party on time.

My party was a blast! All my best "peeps" were there and we all went down the slide, played in the rescue vehicle blowups, jumped in the jumpy house and did some toddler rock climbing. At the end of the play time, there was an attempt to take a group photo. One of the parents at the party accurately described this as "trying to herd a group of cats!". The picture you see includes about 3/4 of my guests, but you get the idea. We look tired, don't we?

We retired to the party room to eat delicious pizza and lemonade and then topped it all off with my very special firetruck cake! My cake had a real firetruck and three fireman on top of it. I loved it all. I especially loved licking the icing off the feet of the fireman (again, the little things).

Thanks to all my little friends and their parents for making my third birthday such a wonderful day that I will talk about until my FOURTH birthday party (ha, ha).

Ride the BART-A, it will make you smarta!

In addition to my overall obsession with cars and trucks and airplanes, many of you know that I also love trains! As a special treat (I really know that they were just bored and didn't know what else to do) mom and dad took me for a very special train ride. At least I thought it was very special train ride - we rode on BART!!! Whew, what fun.

First of all, we parked the car in this huge parking lot in a virtual "sea" of cars. Mom says they are building a parking garage for those cars at the Dublin BART, so it was extra fun as there was construction all around as well (and you know how I feel about construction trucks in general, right?) After walking into the terminal, we had to purchase a special ticket at a machine and mom let me put in the ticket, help her add money and then push a button to get the ticket back. Next we got to use the ticket at this weird gate where you had to push a bar as you walked through. Next we walked up to the fabulous platform. From my many readings about Curious George at the train station, I knew not to stand too close to the edge - it was all very exciting to me. When the train arrived, the doors opened with a big hiss and we got in to choose our very own seats. Once the train started moving, I must have said over and over a million times, "Where is the train going?" I am sure this annoyed all the other passengers, but mom and dad thought it was very cute. The other highlight of the train trip was that I found some sticky gum in the window sill and asking about it occupied my 15 minute train trip back in the other direction.

What fun I had on the train! Even Baby J had fun and loved the train as much as I did. See the attached pictures of me and J having fun, a big smile from J and me and my favorite girl sitting in our train seat.

PS. Mom says to tell you that she knows that BART doesn't have the A after it, (see the title above), but the rapid transit system in Atlanta is called MARTA, so this was just one of her awkward attempts at humor:)