Joey is 3!

So this post is a full month overdue, but JOEY IS 3! I cannot believe it’s been three whole years since this sweet boy joined our family! He has grown so much this past year. He is looking more and more like a big boy and less and less like my baby.

In honor of his birthday, I’ll do a quick update like the monthly ones I did his first year!

Nicknames: Joey, Joey Bear, Goose.

Likes: More like loves Cars and Lightning McQueen. His favorite toy, aside from his Lighting McQueen is his Green Truck. He’ll use it to store (more like hide from Ben) his Lighting McQueen.

He enjoys painting and will jump at the chance to do it. He also really likes riding in the car or going for walks. He and my mom are always walking to the center of town, and he already knows exactly where the bakery is and will insist my mom takes him in there so he can get a pastry.

His favorite foods include Frosted Flakes, Cocoa Puffs (cocoas), bow tie noodles, apples, strawberries, rice, chips, French Fries, bacon, bread, ice cream, pizza, and soup. And he loves, loves chocolate. His favorite being Kinder anything, but especially Kinder eggs.

Dislikes: To this day not a fan of eggs. He’s also switched to disliking potatoes in any form that isn’t French Fries. He’s also pretty picky about his foods touching or having toppings on things – he loves plain buttered noodles but will refuse spaghetti lol.

Milestones: milestones were hit and miss this year. More on that later. The big thing was, of course, his first big move!

Weight/Height: He’s weighing 30 pounds and is tall like a weed!

Clothing Size: He’s in 3T clothing and *this* close to moving up to 4T. His problem is that he’s all height so while he looks almost ready to move up in pant sizes because of length, they all fall.

Sleep: As soon as he hit his 2nd birthday, Joey completely dropped his naps, much to my dismay. He is, however, a pretty good night sleeper so I can’t complain much!

Random Tidbits: Joey gave us a big scare earlier this year, in September to be exact. We were having lunch, and he tried to get down from his chair but fell. While holding a fork. Said fork got stuck in his nose, and then came out, cutting the tip of his nose. When I picked him up off the floor, there was blood everywhere. And then, of course, my phone decided to stop working. All I can say is, thank goodness for amazing neighbors that come through in a crisis. My next door neighbor called the MPs and ambulance and then watched Ben until my mom could get him. Joey ended up needing surgery that evening to repair the nose cartilage.

The most significant concern or thing that stands out, aside from the nose incident, about Joey this year was a slip back regarding development. He lost almost all speech right around May (aka, PCS time). He’s also behind his peers in social skills.

Thankfully, we were put in touch with EDIS early intervention services, and he worked with a speech therapist and an occupational therapist for the last quarter of 2017, and that helped a lot.

We aren’t sure what caused this, and we have an appointment with a development pediatrician at the end of February to figure it out. There are a couple of theories, but we’ll see.

He also started a preschool program at the elementary school this week, where he goes four days a week, and we can already see it’s helping him!

I feel like I’m ending the post on a bad note, talking about his nose accident and developmental delays so let’s not? I cannot believe how much Joey has grown in the past year. Watching him become a big brother has been difficult at time, but overall a huge joy. He loves Ben and playing with him. Joey brings us so much joy every single day. He’s the cuddliest, most loving boy there is, and I cannot wait to see what this next year brings!