Freddie is THREE!

As hard as it is to believe, our little Freddie Bear is now THREE YEARS OLD. And just like that, we've gone from having two toddlers to a pair of preschoolers.

How in the world did THAT happen?!?

The cliche is completely true: "the days are long, but the years are short."

Freddie has been ready for his birthday for awhile now. Since Jones got his bed tent in October, he's said that's what he wanted for his birthday, too, and as I tried to prep them for the flow of the year, I told them there was Halloween and then Thanksgiving and then Christmas and then Freddie's birthday, so they quickly memorized the pattern and knew what was coming when.

Anytime you say to Freddie, "How old are you?" he'll say, "January 2nd!" I'm not exactly sure how he got THAT confused, but it's adorable enough to try to remember.

Like we do every year, we went to the Pressleys' for our New Year's Day dinner. Though we had a family party planned for his actual birthday, his Nan still made sure he had a "choct" cake to go with his black eyed peas and collard greens.

Later that day, I decorated his room. He isn't typically as demonstrative as Jones, but he was definitely excited to see his room all fancied up.

On the morning of his actual birthday, we woke him up and gave him his presents. Ever since Lizzie Gray gave Jones a Paw Patrol watch for Christmas, Freddie has said he's wanted one, so I got him a Lightnin' McQueen one for Jones to give him. As Freddie opened it, Jones stood excitedly by, loudly whispering, "It's a Lightnin' McQueen watch!"

Then, he went back to his room to get ready for breakfast at Waffle "Housh." When he got there, he saw the race car tent he's waited so long to get his hands on. He also got a call from the Paw Patrol. From there, we headed to the Awful Waffle for his favorite breakfast.

Then, we had errands to run - when you see his party decorations, you'll KNOW we went to the Dollar Tree - but we also picked up a nugget tray and some fresh fruit from our new and wonderful Waynesville Chick-Fil-A.

After that, the boys played outside and took a nap, while I cleaned inside and got set up for the birthday party. We'd planned to just have the family over for cake. Then, Jeremy decided he'd make some barbecue, which led to serving a full dinner, which was great, because Jeremy's barbecue is amazing.

As for the cake, I tried something new this year. I let Jones tell me what kind of cake to order back in October, but it occurred to me that Freddie may get a kick out of picking out his own cake from the giant book at the grocery store.

So off to "Bob Ingle's" we went. I thought this would THRILL him. I imagined pulling out the plastic pages, offering him carte blanche with the cartoon cakes. Instead, he sat in the car buggy, eating his free sugar cookie, as I pulled pages from the book and asked them which he'd pick.

To my surprise - my money was on the Matchbox cake - he went with Mickey and Pluto in the Toon Car. That, of course, inspired the theme of the Dollar Tree decorations.

Then came the guests - everyone in the family came, save DooDoo, who had basketball practice, and Uncle David. Even Boogie made the trip! Just before I he started to open his presents, I privately asked him, "Now, what do you do when someone gives you a present?" He kept walking by me and said, "Thank you ... and take a picture."

That's my boy.

Ultimately, the party went great - he loved showing off his clubhouse to his cousins, and we ended the nite with the two boxes of sparklers that we didn't use on New Year's Eve.

It was an outstanding nite, celebrating an outstanding boy with the outstanding family I'm so thankful we have.

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(About the video below: I love this whole thing, especially the way that, as soon as Jones finishes singing, "Happy Birthday," he goes right into what's been our Stultz family birthday song, since I was about five years old.

Stolen from the "Ache in Every Stake" episode of "The Three Stooges" - my favorite of all their sketches - the song goes, "We baked you a birthday cake, if you get a tummy ache, and you moan and groan and woe, don't forget we told you so!" I didn't realize Jones knew it. I mean, we've sung it to both of the boys at every birthday celebration they've ever had, but it wasn't until last week I realized that it'd stuck.

We were at Bogart's, and Freddie randomly said, "Sing 'Happy Birthday' to me," so I did. Then Jones asked me to sing it again - or so I thought. But when I started singing it again, he said, "No. 'We made you a birthday cake ...," WHICH HE HASN'T HEARD, SINCE HIS BIRTHDAY BACK IN OCTOBER. It THRILLED me. I was so excited, in fact, that I called my dad right then and there to tell him about it. I love that we got him doing the same thing on this video. He's just carrying on an ole ... FAM'ly tradition).

I honestly think this is my favorite picture of the boys yet.

Way to go, Uncle Brian! We're all looking!