Nelson Family Blog: Thanksgiving Day 2017/Elliott's 3rd Birthday

Just like that, one of my favorite holidays of the year is over. We had a great Thanksgiving Day yesterday. We headed out to Jim and Barb's at around 9am, and started off the day by watching the Thanksgiving Day parade with the kids, while helping prep dinner. The kids really enjoyed watching the parade and all the large character balloons.

After the parade, we ate a wonderful Thanksgiving Dinner, while watching the Vikings, who beat the Lions by the way.

After too much sitting around and too much food, we went outside and enjoyed the wonderful day. It was sunny, calm, and about 60 degrees. It was crazy nice outside, and we tried to enjoy it as much as we could. The kids loved their rides on all the toys out on the farm.

We also helped put up the Christmas Tree and decorate it. The kids loved helping, and it really put me in the Christmas spirit, can't wait to start listening to Christmas Music.

We stayed until around 7:30 and then we headed back to town. Emma wanted to spend the night badly, so she spent the night out on the farm last night, and the plan is for her to stay out there until Grandma and Grandpa come to town to help celebrate Elliott's birthday.

When we got back to town last night, Elliott was still wide awake, so we decided to do some Black Friday shopping at Walmart. It actually wasn't too bad, it was kinda busy, but we missed the major crowd, and Elliott was really good and stayed in the cart. We found too much stuff, but it was pretty fun and we found some good deals. After that, we finally went home and put our tired almost-three-year-old to bed.

Today is Elliott's birthday!! I cannot believe that we have a 3 year old now. Not sure where that time went. Elliott is at a pretty fun age, even if he does push our buttons and drive us crazy sometimes.

Elliott has been potty trained for close to 3 months already, and it was super easy. He pretty much caught on right away, and we really didn't even have to use pull ups. He wears underwear all the time, stays dry all night long, and can even go to the bathroom alone and pull his pants back up by himself. It's pretty awesome. Every once in a while he waits too long and sprinkles in his undies a little, but otherwise he is good.

He is also in his own big boy bed, which is a blessing and a curse. Once he falls asleep, he sleeps really well, doesn't fall out of bed, and does really well. But, he always has to fight bedtime, and get out of bed at least 3 or 4 times before he finally stays in bed to fall asleep. It gets a little exhausting at times.

He is also in full 3 year old mode in that he doesn't always like to listen and he is testing boundaries. He talks back to us, and still throws some pretty impressive tantrums when he doesn't get his way.

It's not all bad though. He is a very sweet little boy when he wants to be. He loves to cuddle together with blankets when reading books or watching some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He gives me the sweetest little eyes and then says "Mommy, you want to play with me?" and it's about impossible to say no. And we get a lot of "I love you too, Mommy!". Melts my heart.

Elliott is very talkative. He loves to tell stories, ask many questions, and loves to sing songs. His vocabulary is very good for a 3 year old, and he is a talking machine. He also repeats himself quite a bit, which drives Emma crazy. He is liking daycare, and doing very well there.

Today, we are planning a pretty low-key day for Elliott. We are planning on spending most of the day at home, so I can catch up on cleaning and laundry, and then this evening we are having supper with Grandma and Grandpa, and having a Mickey Mouse birthday cake and opening presents. Then, tonight we are going to go to the Parade of Lights downtown. I think the kids will really enjoy the parade!

Tomorrow, we are basically waking up and then heading to Minnesota to have Thanksgiving with my side of the family. It should be another fun Thanksgiving celebration.

Happy Birthday Elliott!!! We love you!