Raising Schuurmans: We have a 3 year old

     Last Wednesday, Marcus Paul turned THREE years old! He is such a great source of joy in our lives. We had originally planned to have a party for him, but due to all kinds of different reasons we decided to spoil him rotten all day long instead. Lucky enough, his actual birthday was on a Wednesday, which is Mark's day off, so we planed a family fun day.
     The day before, I took Marcus to the Toy Box to pick out a present for himself. It's a toy store where we always get presents for his friends on their birthdays and he always says, "when it's MY birthday, we're going to get ME something." Well, we did. After searching the whole store and playing with may different items, he settled on a camouflaged power popper and we got extra balls to go with it. The sweet lady at the counter wrapped it and let him pick out what color bow to put on it.
   So on his birthday, as soon as he woke up, he asked if he could open his present. :) He did and immediately began to play with it. Then for breakfast, he asked if he could have his birthday cookie cake. I say, "no" so many times, why not try to say, "yes" as much as possible, at least on his birthday? So we said yes and put candles, sang, "Happy Birthday," and the whole sha-bang. After breakfast, Grandpa and Grandma Schuurman came over and went to Headlines with us for a quick meeting. Grandpa played with Marcus outside and they watched a big-rig unload a bunch of hot peppers (totally exciting for a boy his age) and they ran around on the side. After that we took him to one of his favorite restaurants for lunch... Chick-Fil-A. He played in the play area both before and after eating his lunch and this time got to have lemonade with his meal instead of his usual chocolate milk.
   Back in January he went to Asheville's Fun Depot for a friend's birthday party, so again, he stated that this is where he wanted to go for HIS birthday. I was SO PLEASED to find out that when it's your birthday, you can go for FREE!!! You know that's one of our favorite words around here. ;) He played video games, went mini-bowling, played skee-ball, and had an absolute blast on the soft-play areas which included slides, tunnels, and huge inflatables. He STARTED to ride the go-karts but freaked when they cranked it up, so he got out and Mark and his dad had an absolute giggle fest as they bumped into each other and raced around the track. Right before we left Grandma treated him to some Dippin Dots ice cream and we cashed his tickets in for a few prizes. He was wore slap out and slept 3 hours when we got home.
After church, in typical crazy birthday fashion, we all went out to IHOP (International House of Pancakes) and had a very late supper. Marcus had a chocolate pancake with a whipped cream smiley face, sprinkled with chocolate chips. He even covered it with strawberry syrup. The poor child was in a sugar coma when we got home and didn't fall asleep until nearly midnight.
   It was definitely a fun-filled birthday for our little man and he's been talking about it ever since. The only thing he didn't seem to like about his birthday was his 3 year old check up at the doctor a few days later. We haven't been to the doctor's office (for him) in almost a year because he's not been sick, thankfully since he first turned two. I was pleased when he got on the scale by himself and then let the nurse check his height without a fuss. But then he absolutely refused her taking his blood pressure. Once Dr. Love came into the room and began his examination, Marcus screamed his ever-loving face off. The whole exam I had to hold him down so Dr. Love could check everything out. He had NO PROBLEM checking out the inside of his mouth and looking down his throat since his mouth was open and screaming the whole time. The INSTANT Dr. Love was finished, he said, "all done," and Marcus quit crying. Strong willed? Absolutely. Thankfully, everything looks great, and he's a very healthy little boy. Well, he's not so little. He's in the 97th percentile for height and 90th percentile for weight. I gulped when I heard that last stat, but Dr. Love explained that it was 90th percentile in a group of other 3 year olds. If you put him in a group of other children who were as tall as he is, he'd be in the 42nd percentile. So that made me feel better. He described Marcus as a big ol' boy who is just stout. Dr. Love is our favorite!
   So there you have it! The birthday festivities of Marcus Paul! Hopefully in a few days I'll blog about the rest of Grandma and Grandpa Schuurman's visit, with more picture.