Happy 30th Birthday, Jan!

This week our son Jan is celebrating his big 30! Here's a look back at his toddler and preschool years. He was pretty cute!

Jan's first Halloween costume. Scott was recovering from his ruptured appendix at that time so I was a single mom for a while.

This was our Christmas letter from 1993. Jan was "Loveable and Large, which describe Jan, age 1, as he locomotes around our living quarters looking for amusement."

A rare shot of Scott wearing glasses while acting out the nativity with David and Jan

At the Arboretum in Madison:

Here are David and Jan by our old bullet van, getting ready to drive back home after visiting my family in Utah.

Getting ready to go to church:

Jan loved all things summer: popsicles, ice cream, and swimming.

At about this time, I wrote about Jan, "Jan loves to read books and if I am sitting down he will bring me a book to read to him. Some of his favorites are Richard Scarry's Best Word Book Ever and Cars and Trucks and Things That Go." David and Jan were pretty good buddies:

I love this look on Jan's face. We were visiting some friends in Maryland who had a cat.

Here he is with a shapka, foreshadowing his mission to Latvia.

For some reason, Jan called this "being a grandmother" when he had his blanket tied around his head. I think it was related to the grandmother in Little Red Riding Hood.

Holding new baby brother Garrett:

Scott took Jan to "Dozer Day" at the local quarry where Jan got to check out all the heavy machinery. He loved it.

David starting kindergarten:

Something Jan loved when he was about this age was going to visit the cows at the cow barn on campus at UW-Madison. He could stay there watching them for hours. He also loved to feed the ducks. He had a huge sweet tooth.

Mom sledding with Garrett and Jan near the townhouse where we lived in Maryland:

Visiting Scott at his new lab at NIST:

At school, David brought home the class teddy bear to have a "sleepover" so Jan got out his beloved teddy bear too.

When Jan turned 3, we celebrated his birthday on Garrett's birthday because it was too hard for him to wait for his official birthday. He's looking pretty happy! Garrett, on the other hand, was quite ill.