Tiago turns 3 with three parties

The night before Tiago's birthday, when I was putting him in bed, I told him the story about the day he was born. About waiting around in the hospital all day, and how he was finally born at 9:29 on a Friday night.  About meeting Papa the next day via Skype. When the story was over, he smiled at me and said, "That was a great story, Mom."

It wasn't a well-told story, but it was a good one.  It's been good having him in our family for the last 3 years.  Hyrum wasn't here to celebrate with us, and keeps telling me on the phone how much he misses Tiago.  The older he gets, the more we see of his personality, and the more we like having him around.

He's quite sweet at this age.  Whenever he gets hurt, the first (and sometimes only) thing he wants is for me to kiss it better.  And he'll willingly kiss anyone else that gets hurt.  He is always aware of where people are, and when they're missing.  If he decides they're "lost", he'll go look for them.  He warns "the girls" when they're in danger.  "Don't do that, girl, you'll fall."  If people are sad, he doesn't forget about it.  When I was sick in August, I told him I had to lay down because my body hurt.  For the next few weeks, whenever I was laying down, he'd ask, "Mom, your body hurts?"

This far in his life, his birthday celebrations have been minimal.  When he was born, it was just me and my mom to greet him.  For his first birthday, in Germany, we invited another family over for dinner.  

And last year, it was just the five of us, in an empty apartment in SC, with a store-bought cake.

This year we made it up to him... we celebrated him turning three with three parties!

On Tuesday night, I invited all my siblings over for dinner.  With it being a workday, I didn't expect many people to come, but we ended up with a crowd of 15 people besides me and Tiago.  He was so excited to play with some cousins and open presents.  We ate a great meal (thanks, Mom!) and relaxed.  Until it started to thunder and lightning.  Tiago was like a spooked horse, and kind of went crazy.  He took me into a quiet room and told me to whisper.  If it got too loud, he started to cry.  I don't think it was the actual storm that scared him, but a combination of everything going on.  We convinced him to stick around to blow out the candles on his Elmo cake,  After taking a bite of his cake, he was begging me to go to bed, so his fun ended pretty abruptly.  In truth, that made the rest of the evening so much more enjoyable for me!  The next day we let him swing away at his little pinata.  (It never broke, until we 'asisted' it.)

 By this point he was nervous/scared/whatever-you'd-call-it

On Friday, Edna and her family came over to visit, and brought more cupcakes and a present.  He enjoyed blowing out a candle and licking off all the frosting.  It's fun watching all the kids play together.

On Saturday, there was another party at Hyrum's parents house.  We thought it was just breakfast, but it ended up being quite the celebration!  Tiago loved the Mickey Mouse themed decorations, and a giant balloon that was about his size.  Again, he had cousins to play with, and delicious food.  By the third time blowing out the candles, he was quite the pro.  He commented, "There were so many letter candles!"  (They spelled out 'happy birthday'.)

It was so fun to be in Utah for Tiago's birthday, even though it unfortunately that meant Hyrum was away at an Army training.  Having so much family around showing him love almost made up for Papa's absence.  

Tiago turns 3 with three parties

The night before Tiago's birthday, when I was putting him in bed, I told him the story about the day he was born. About waiting around in the hospital all day, and how he was finally born at 9:29 on a Friday night.  About meeting Papa the next day via Skype. When the story was over, he smiled at me and said, "That was a great story, Mom."

It wasn't a well-told story, but it was a good one.  It's been good having him in our family for the last 3 years.  Hyrum wasn't here to celebrate with us, and keeps telling me on the phone how much he misses Tiago.  The older he gets, the more we see of his personality, and the more we like having him around.

He's quite sweet at this age.  Whenever he gets hurt, the first (and sometimes only) thing he wants is for me to kiss it better.  And he'll willingly kiss anyone else that gets hurt.  He is always aware of where people are, and when they're missing.  If he decides they're "lost", he'll go look for them.  He warns "the girls" when they're in danger.  "Don't do that, girl, you'll fall."  If people are sad, he doesn't forget about it.  When I was sick in August, I told him I had to lay down because my body hurt.  For the next few weeks, whenever I was laying down, he'd ask, "Mom, your body hurts?"

This far in his life, his birthday celebrations have been minimal.  When he was born, it was just me and my mom to greet him.  For his first birthday, in Germany, we invited another family over for dinner.  

And last year, it was just the five of us, in an empty apartment in SC, with a store-bought cake.

This year we made it up to him... we celebrated him turning three with three parties!

On Tuesday night, I invited all my siblings over for dinner.  With it being a workday, I didn't expect many people to come, but we ended up with a crowd of 15 people besides me and Tiago.  He was so excited to play with some cousins and open presents.  We ate a great meal (thanks, Mom!) and relaxed.  Until it started to thunder and lightning.  Tiago was like a spooked horse, and kind of went crazy.  He took me into a quiet room and told me to whisper.  If it got too loud, he started to cry.  I don't think it was the actual storm that scared him, but a combination of everything going on.  We convinced him to stick around to blow out the candles on his Elmo cake,  After taking a bite of his cake, he was begging me to go to bed, so his fun ended pretty abruptly.  In truth, that made the rest of the evening so much more enjoyable for me!  The next day we let him swing away at his little pinata.  (It never broke, until we 'asisted' it.)

 By this point he was nervous/scared/whatever-you'd-call-it

On Friday, Edna and her family came over to visit, and brought more cupcakes and a present.  He enjoyed blowing out a candle and licking off all the frosting.  It's fun watching all the kids play together.

On Saturday, there was another party at Hyrum's parents house.  We thought it was just breakfast, but it ended up being quite the celebration!  Tiago loved the Mickey Mouse themed decorations, and a giant balloon that was about his size.  Again, he had cousins to play with, and delicious food.  By the third time blowing out the candles, he was quite the pro.  He commented, "There were so many letter candles!"  (They spelled out 'happy birthday'.)

It was so fun to be in Utah for Tiago's birthday, even though it unfortunately that meant Hyrum was away at an Army training.  Having so much family around showing him love almost made up for Papa's absence.