You're Sure It's Not the Terrible Threes...

Rhode can be the sweetest, funniest, cutest, nicest boy alive, he really can. I have to remind myself of that these days...

He has just been a little bit trouble than usual. Sacrament meetings used to be completely bearable and are now almost impossible with me distracted by Asher and Rhode constantly having to be taken out into the hall. When friends are over and someone is crying, these days 90% of the time Rhode is at fault. And every small request is met with a devastatingly sad "I don't want to!" followed by the loss of control of all of his limbs.

Let me tell ya, it's tons of fun.

Of course, now that I think back, last year when I tried to blog about his birthday I was too enraged by his ravioli poking/food color disasters to focus on the good. He isn't nearly as destructive as he was then.... maybe there is hope for four year old Rhode!

All over-exaggerations aside, we had a fun little birthday get together. We celebrated his third birthday on the 13th with a small get together with friends. Our plan is to have family birthdays on odd years and friend birthdays on even years but since we don't actually have family in the area, we usually include our Las Vegas adopted family.

And for providing little on my end, Rhode got hooked up with some great birthday gear.

His favorite from mom and dad was this kid sized tent.

My kids are obsessed with tents. It is exhausting walking through Big 5 or any other outdoor themed store as they cannot help but make their way through every camp set up.

The tent is now set up in his room and has been his bed more often than not for the past week. We will call that one a $6 clearance winner.

My favorite of the day was his new super hero cape courtesy of our friends, the Warrens.

One side, Batman's super sidekick, Rhodeman.

The other side, Rhode's favorite super hero, Spiderman (he can sing the whole theme song even though he has never seen any kind of Spiderman show in his life)

Scarlet got hooked up with a cape of her own.

Supergirl...

And Super Ballerina Girl!

But the overall crowd favorite of the evening was from Grammy (Grandma Peggy's new name, just go with it)... shocker I know.

A 3 hole mini golf set.

As is Nielsen tradition, Rhode also got a bike. While Scarlet had to ditch the pacifier to score a bike, Rhode's habits to break were peeing in his underwear (as discussed previously) and sucking his thumb. Habits aren't completely gone, but significant strides have been made so we went with it. So far neither of our children are naturally inclined to bicycle riding greatness but there are definite signs of improvement. We might actually get to leave the 30 feet we practice on in front of our house someday!

My other son is much more cooperative... but doesn't sleep as well at night as Rhode does so we'll call it a draw there. Asher is officially two months old today. To commemorate, here is a video of his two best tricks.

Okay, they are his only tricks.

No, one of his tricks is not saying ma ma. But it sure gets him in a chatty mood!