Some things you should know about Joey, age 3...

We just can't believe that our little Joey Bear is 3 years old! He has always been such a pleasant little boy but it seems that overnight he has turned into our little man. He has such a sensibility about him and it's so much fun to have real conversations with him about things like, "How do we leave our planet?"

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Here are a few things going on in Joey's life right now that we want to remember forever:

Joey is very skilled at identifying different makes of cars on the road. His current list includes: VW, Toyota, BMW, Honda, Lexus, Audi, GMC, Ford, Chevy, Cadillac, Jaguar and Chrysler. We are working on Mazda, Nissan and Saturn. The annual car show comes to town next month and we think it is going to blow his mind!

Joey is the best big brother ever. He wants to be a part of Owen's every naptime and bedtime routine. Before naps, Joey and Owen sit side-by-side on the rocking chair in Owen's room and we all sing "You Are My Sunshine" together. During Owen's bedtime routine, Joey likes to read with Owen, say prayers, sing "Hush Little Baby" and then he kisses Owen on the forehead and says, "I love you, good night, wan an, wua ai ni (good night and I love you in Chinese), I'll be right outside."

As of about a month ago, Joey is completely potty-trained! He even wears big boy underwear to bed at night and has not had a single accident!

Joey gave up napping a few months ago although on some days he's so tired that he will fall asleep on the couch or even on the living room floor. Cutting out his nap has made his bedtime routine so much smoother and he's even starting to sleep in a bit later in the morning (and by sleeping in I mean sleeping until 6:30 or 7:00). Each night at bedtime we read 1 or 2 books, then Joey goes pee pee in the potty, then he comes back to the room to plug in his car (surprised, are we?) nightlight, and then he climbs into his bed and we sing songs. We have been singing the 5 same songs every night for as long as I can remember: "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," "Hush Little Baby," "You Are My Sunshine," "Beetlecar" (this is a Maguire original), and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider." After the songs, Joey goes through a list of things that will not wake him up. It goes something like this: "No cars, no trucks, no fire engines, no helicopters, no airplanes, no showers, no bathtubs, no toilets flushing, no loud dishes, nothing's going to wake me up." Then we say our good night's and I love you's and call it a night.

Joey is so lucky to have a great group of friends from our neighborhood playgroup. His best buddies that we play with all the time are: Cristian, Zander, Hannah, Kaitlin, Sammy and Griffin. Joey and Griffin have even had a couple of sleepovers at our house with Joey sleeping in his own bed and Griffin sleeping on a kid-sized air mattress and they've done surprisingly well!

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Joey is absolutely our life's pride and joy and although we are sad that he's no longer our baby, we are so excited to watch him grow everyday into a wonderful little man. We love you, Joey!