And Now He's THREE!!

3 years old seemed to be a significant milestone for Kade.  I swear he matured overnight!  He's officially out of diapers (except for naps and overnight).  Potty training seemed to go a lot easier than expected but maybe the worst is yet to come?  He goes to the bathroom on his own, sometimes without even telling us he's going, flushes and washes hands without prompting.  He's tall enough that he can stand, with a couple inches clearance, over the toilet and I haven't even noticed any pee on the floor or the walls!  I guess I assumed the bathroom would be drenched :-)  However, we may have allowed too many outdoor pees because he drops his pants anywhere and everywhere, even at a softball game when 2 games were being played and at least 50 people were present.  We've even caught him running from his room to go outside, passing 2 bathrooms along the way, to pee on the grass.  Oops.  He's also started playing for significant amounts of time on his own and he sat on the couch today for 30 minutes straight watching a cartoon!  Who is this 3 year old?!

This year, for Kade's birthday, we loaded up the camper and headed to Lady A's hometown for 3 days!  It was awesome!  I'm not sure who had more fun, Kade or Erik.  Her family farms and they don't mess around with their tractors.  My boys were in John Deere heaven.  It was so great to see where she came from and it made us appreciate her decision to adopt even more.  Kade's life would have been equally amazing had she chose to parent and we realize, even more, how truly we blessed we are that we have Kade, Lady A and her family in our life.  God is good.

We also had a small gathering at our house on his birthday with grandparents and available aunts and uncles.  We opened presents, ate some food and had a bonfire.  Kade had a blast playing with everyone, especially Uncle Jay who still has the energy and imagination of a 3 year old.  Man, those 2 can play!!

Here's to another great year in Kade's life!

We took a ton of great pictures but to protect Lady A's privacy, these few are the only non-identifying ones.

Getting ready to go to a tractor show!  

We couldn't get him out of the skid steers.

Getting a tattoo of a fish.

The final product.

Driving an excavator.  Erik and Kade were so excited because you could actually sit in all the implements!

We had to get a picture of the Farmall for Grandpa H.  Although this tractor stuck out like a sore thumb among all the brand new, huge tractors!

Enjoying his new lazy boy from his birth great grandparents D & C.  Look at those feet!

We even caught the tail end of the Vikings scrimmage!

The Birthday Boy!

Hang on tight, Vi!  He's a crazy driver!

This is the best picture I could get of him with his cake.  As you can see by his "work boots", he was too busy working to stand still.