3

Isaac turned 3 on Sunday. Really? Yes. Really. My baby boy who took 35 hours of labor and a csection to birth in 2008 is now a 3 year old.  Three whole years of Isaac Joseph Rivers.  

What a ride it's been Miniman!  We see an amazing little person developing in front of our eyes. You still have your share of melt-downs, big-brother-meanness, and disobedience just to test the boundaries, but you're beginning to really get the hang of asking nice the first time, encouraging your brother using your words, using the potty, creating songs, pictures, stories, and games.  The seemingly requisite meltdown during family worship each week has shortened and in its place a love for singing about Jesus and reading Bible stories has emerged.  At night when you're scared, Daddy taught you a verse to say and we hear you say it quite often (not just at night, but other times too!), "When I am afraid, I put my trust in God."  Oh, son!  How our one prayer since the moment we found out we were pregnant with you has been that you would follow God with your whole heart.  Trust him son!  It's hard sometimes wondering if we're making an unseen God real and alive to you; then when you thank Him for your brother and your stuffed animals and your school at night, our hearts see that yours is beginning to understand the amazing God who created you.  We are so thankful he did and that he gave you to us!

Happy Birthday Isaac!

His birthday has been extended into somewhat of a birthday week.  We went to Singapore over the weekend so Thursday afternoon we gave him his gift from us: a bicycle!  No pictures (it'll be on the video which will hopefully get made soon) but he loves it!

In Singapore we rode the ridiculously efficient MRT and Isaac loved it (though he'd been on it before!)

Sunday we went to the Singapore Zoo for his actual birthday.  We met some friends of ours there and had a great time!  (side note: having friends in other countries makes for a far better experience traveling! We hardly ever travel somewhere where there's not a friendly face waiting to welcome us on the other side!)

These friends gave Isaac a stuffed orangutan as a gift.  He loved it!  The hat that he insisted on wearing that day was converted into an orangutan carrier and Kogiu (the orangutan's name - its from a book... anyway) rode in style for most of the rest of the day.

 

We ate a DELICIOUS Indian lunch then got ice cream and sang "Happy Birthday" to Isaac (also forthcoming on the video).  I like this picture though, as Isaac and Kogiu are eating their ice cream, a real orangutan and it's baby are in a tree nearby. Cool! 

 

My 3 men:) 

 

The Zoo also had a "Splash Zone" which is convenient as Singapore is pretty well located on the equator.  See Isaac by the slide?  All was going even better than we had hoped - him running independently up and down the stairs to the various slides, laughing, having a great time - until the water in the huge water bucket on top "dumped water on myself" as Isaac described it.  We lost sight of him for a couple minutes (mother's worst nightmare!) and had no clue the bucket dump had 'gotten' him, til we found him crying and walking away from the splash zone. :( He spent the rest of the time sitting away from the water explaining to us how he had "dumped myself" using this cute little hand motion with his 3 year old hands.  

 

  

Below is a picture of parenting at its finest.  Can you see Isaac and Daddy in the bottom left corner?  Your son is scared to go in the water?  Stand as close to the thing he's scared of and show him it won't hurt him.  It's legitimate.  It's, ironically, called "flooding" in Psychology.  Actually after that he added to his "I dumped myself" story a "but it's just wawer."  Still no sliding though.

 

When we got home from Singapore, the birthday fun continued as all grandparent packages arrived from the states on the same day!  In one contained party necessities... so the next day we had a little party for Isaac at his school.

  

This could be a post all in itself but lemme tell ya, if you're a neat freak and the thought of 16, 2-3 year olds with cupcakes makes you cringe and feel a bit nauseous, I highly recommend sending your child to a Chinese Preschool.  For at least 4-5 minutes every single child (including mine) sat in front of his cupcake without touching it with his hands behind his back waiting for the signal from the teacher as they got everything set.  Amazing!  And then they ate their cupcakes with soup spoons!  Awesome.  Isaac enjoyed it and for the next 2 days we had to explain to him that he would NOT be getting cupcakes at school that day. 

 

And to round out this "3" post... here's the first pic we have of Rivers kid #3!  He or she will be making their debut in October! 

 

Happy Birthday Isaac!  We love you Big Boy!