Ike's Third Birthday

On this day three years ago, Mr. Teichert Blaine came into our lives. In the wee hours of the morning on my fourth day of being overdue, I finally went into labor. Twelve hours later, I held him in my arms for a few minutes before he was taken away to the NICU. As soon as he is old enough to appreciate this, I will remind him that on his way into the world he inhaled his own poop and had to spend several days in the care unit as a result. Ike has a great sense of humor and I imagine he won't mind when his brothers start calling him poo-eater. Speaking of nick names, I wanted to call him Ty but Clark insisted on Ike. Named after one of my favorite artists and my beloved Grandpa, Ike has some big shoes to fill.

Last night I snuck into Ike's room to take one last picture of my two year old boy. Ike has a bed. A nice little toddler bed with some cute Pottery Barn bedding. Does he sleep in it? No. He sleeps on the floor. Occasionally he sleeps inside his closet. Sometimes he lets me put a quilt under him, but mostly he prefers to sleep directly on the floor.

Ike loves breakfast foods. Pancakes, sausages, eggs. He gobbles it all up. He otherwise shows very little interest in food. This morning we made him German pancakes and let him have all the powdered sugar and syrup he wanted. My apologies to his nursery leaders.

Ike will only wear basketball shorts. He has a drawer full of cute and stylish little pairs of shorts but he refuses to wear them. Getting him dressed for church each week is a battle. This afternoon when we got home from church and Ike discovered that all of his basketball shorts were dirty, Booker kindly (and rather unexpectedly) allowed Ike to wear one of his pairs. Hence the oversized basketball shorts.

Before opening presents, we made Ike eat dinner. He ate so fast that he threw up everywhere. He recovered pretty quickly...

Ike worships the ground that Booker walks on. We decided on a repeat of presents for Ike- his gifts are the same ones Booker got three weeks ago. A collection of nerf guns and a pillow pet. Ike was THRILLED.

Ike is always reminding us that his favorite color is green. I suspect that his actual favorite color is blue but since Booker has already laid claim to that favorite color, Ike has settled on green. A green pillow pet for my little peacemaker.

Now that Booker has started school, Ike is allowed to be a three year old again. With his older brother gone, Ike's been choosing shows like Blue's Clues and Dora instead of Avatar and Spongebob. He's playing more with blocks and stuffed animals and less with light sabers. I'm glad to have my little guy back again. I took him to Walmart to pick a cake (poor second child, my cake-making skills were exhausted a few weeks ago) and Ike picked a Thomas cake. I was so glad. I thought surely he would be excited about a Spiderman cake, but nope, he wanted Thomas.

Typical thunder-stealing Booker...

Ike, you really are the sweetest kid I know. If my boys were a banana-peanut butter-nutella sandwich, Ike would be the delicious middle sandwiched between these two crazy guys...

We love you so much, Ike. Happy birthday!