I can't believe our first little Snugfits model is about to turn four! He still seems like a baby to me, maybe because I see him on our website everyday modeling some funny onesie or another on his chubby little baby body. He still has that thick marshmallow look to him, but now he's a taller marshmallow.

He's been riding Gavin's bike lately, much to Gavin's dismay, instead of the bigwheel. They fight over it constantly. Now I know where the phrase "Knock down, drag out" came from: Somebody somewhere had a 6 and a 4 year old brawling over a bike. The helmets and kneepads are employed more as combat armor than bike crashes.

The new thing is to hook up the baby trailer behind the little bike and pull Bodie around the circle, like a little rickshaw. It's a riot! Bodie loves it, but needless to say, Gavin and Garrett don't do well at taking turns on the bike. Sara and I decided it's time for Garrett to have his own two wheeler.

Gavin and I made a special trip to pick out a bike for Garrett. First to Target  (they always get first dibs on my dollars, before the cash gets inevitably sucked into the supermassive black hole across the street with initials WM). Gavin was extremely overstimulated with the excitement of the bike hunt. He was stimming around my red cart, hopping and skipping, staring at the lights on the ceiling then at the floor, bumping into Target patrons on occasion. I'm used to apologizing for him, since usually he's completely unaware of others when he's in that state. We finally made it to the bike rack at the back of the store. A quick scan of the bikes concluded that I indeed would have to feed more money to the juggernaut across the street. Target has squat for kids bikes. Oh, but Gavin had several picked out within the first 45 seconds. Unfortunately, Garrett would need stilts under his feet to reach the pedals.

Out the door we went to the world's largest employer, where we were greeted with a smile and an odd look as Gavin's excited stimmy dancing and humming around me was reaching an uncontrollable crescendo. We found the perfect bike right off the bat. It's a bright green bmx style Hotwheels edition - complete with training wheels already installed and a sweet hand throttle that makes a revving up noise when you twist the handle! Garrett's going to go berserk when he sees this tricked out ride!

We're going to make him search the house and yard for the bike on his birthday. It's so much fun - I make little clues for him and he has to figure out each clue to get to the next one, the excitement building with every step. The clues say things like "Your next clue is on the trunk of our biggest tree…" It'll be a riot. Now I just have to figure out where to hide this bright green bike...

It's been said that three is the new two. Well, Garrett is three. His birthday was celebrated with a trip to Chucky Cheese (his choice) and then a weekend at Grammy and Papa Geno's house (our choice). We had a second party for him there with all the family and a little backyard cookout. Sara made him an awesome "Super Why" cake, his favorite spelling hero from the PBS show of same name. He absorbed the celebrations with all of the humble modesty you would expect from a three year old.

All of this fanfare, focusing on his new "three-ness", has made a strange impact on our sweet little middle baby. He seems to be making a transformation of sorts, right before our eyes. He constantly mentions that he's "three now", and he is suddenly open to trying new things he wouldn't dare mess with before. Out of the blue, he's going from baby to "big boy". He still loves his little trike and always thought of the bigwheel as something only Gavin could handle, but not anymore. It turns out his feet do reach the pedals and he can make it go. Before, when I'd prod him into getting on it, he would only quarrel with me and insist that, in his words "I'm too wittle, I'm 2!" He wouldn't even try to pedal, he would just sit and scowl. Now he can suddenly zip around the driveway on the bigwheel with an uncharacteristic reckless abandon. He is even starting to try to ride Gavin's new bike! Here's a picture of him getting ready to take Bodie on a thrill ride. They didn't get very far that time! His feet don't make the pedals go all the way around yet on that bike.

He used to be such a cautious and careful little dude, now he's a real tough guy, ready to try anything dangerous. He's standing in his chair when we're not looking, he goes flying out the back door chasing after squirrels, and he's climbing anything and everything. It's like a switch got flipped in his head that says "Now I'm three, I'm invincible!"  I don't like it, but it is pretty cute. If this trend keeps up,  in a couple years I'll be giving him the keys to my truck and sending him to the store for us.

In contrast, when the baby is getting too much attention, he still tries to sweep in and steal the show. Here he is messing with Bodie while we were trying to do a photo shoot for Snugfits. He gets that little baby voice and coos at him, always patting him on the head in a display of superiority. It's hilarious, although sometimes the baby is none too pleased. It's all part of growing up, I guess!

Gavin's "American Flag Big Wheel Roller Skate Birthday Party" was terrific! Everything went great, just too fast. Lots of his friends from school and their parents came, the skating rink was packed! Almost everybody put on roller skates - that was unexpected. Nobody got hurt - that was really unexpected!

We had a local baker called "Imaginary Friends Bakery" whip up a special cake with a flapping flag which was a hit. I think everyone had a great time. Garrett mostly sat and munched snacks, he was in snacking heaven. He did take his trike around the track a few times. Bodie got to hang with his Grammy the whole time, and Gavin was able to keep his cool in the midst of all the excitement. I was worried he would be so over stimulated he would just lay on the floor and shut down.

Gavin's awesome teachers came with ... drumroll please ... a NEW BIKE! He was so fired up about that. Now it's all he wants to do, ride the bike! He's already zipping around the driveway with it. They also brought him a helmet and pads, very appropriate! So far he hasn't crashed. Thank God for training wheels!

When Gavin woke up yesterday at 5:30 am, the day after the party, he was very groggy. I gave him a big hug and asked him if he had a fun time. He said "Yes. And maybe for the next time when I am six we can have a North Carolina flag party." That might be a little more difficult. Maybe he'll have to change his mind. We can't fill all of his desires, just some of them! Then he said "Dad, please don't put the stinky air from your mouth onto my nose." Haha.