He just keeps growing up! {Please stop!}

I cannot even tell you where the past three years have gone. Except to say they have been given heart and soul to one little boy (well, now two boys!).

So much has changed about our oldest son since the last update at 33 months old!

He is growing! He is nearly three now, all sturdy legs and cowlicks. Making my heart bigger by the day. Legs stretching out of 2Ts and into 3Ts! Face thinning out into little boy instead of little baby. (sad!)

He is brave. I remember when the toaster popping up used to scare him to shrieking. Now, he actually begs us to “scare me” by popping out from behind a wall or blanket! But he still has little boy fears. Like alligators, the FBI warning on videos, talking toys, and Santa Claus.

He is polite… mostly! I remember teaching him to sign Thank You (he rarely does it now), and he says “Thenk You,” and “No Thenk You” for just about everything. Including when I ask him to go potty! But he also shocked me one day at a neighbor’s house, by boldly proclaiming, “I want an orange!” when she opened the fridge! Oops! We’ll work on that!

He is kind. Well, he tries to be, but his enthusiastic in-the-face greetings to his baby brother, or pulling toys out of the baby’s hands saying, “You can’t eat that, it’s dirty!” [it’s not but he hears me saying that about things in public places!] often bring on tears from his little brother.

But he is kind: the other day I asked if I could have one of his apple slices, and he looked in the cup; he and I both noticed it was the last slice, so I said, “Oh, no, Mommy doesn’t want to take the last slice, you eat it.” To which he pulled out the apple, handed it to me and said, “Here, Mommy. That’s sharing!” {my heart!}

He is a communicator. Singing, talking, gesturing. I think he gets it from me. I remember his early vocalizations (Vroom Vroom was his first sound, and Dada and Car his first words!) Now, he rhymes. Everything. If you say a word, he’ll repeat it and all its rhyming counterparts. Example: if I sing “Away in a Manger” he will sing, “A-Bay in a Bange-er.” (Is there a term for what he’s doing? Just curious if I have any early childhood ed or linguistics readers!).

He is loving. As a babe, he would never snuggle. No, never! If I tried to lay his head on my shoulder, he’d pop it right back up like a Jack In The Box. Now, he is a snuggle bug (just not in bed!) wanting to “get up” on us all the time, saying, “I’m gonna SNUGgle you!”

He is a reader. His favorite books have cycled through everything from Sheep in a Jeep to The Cookie-Store Cat to How Much is a Million (weird book!) to Driving My Tractor to The Jesus Storybook Bible… his reading tastes are diverse to say the least. And happily, I can often find him on the rug, legs straight out paging through a book. {heart me that!}

He loves play. And he should – play is his “work” at this age. His favorite toys (besides cars and trucks and trains!) are cranes, lately. He will build something out of whatever is at hand – including the above “snowflake” made from the metal pieces of a disassembled bassinet! Also, he loves playdough sets that can press out shapes. Especially the new Diggin’ Rigs he got for Christmas! If I step on one more hardened chunk of dried out playdough… LOL! He is imaginative! He can “ride the train” with mom and dad before bedtime and wave to the imaginary cows passing by. He pretends to be a dinosaur. He insists Ocean State Job Lot is where the whales live. (“Mom, it’s where they LIVE!”).

He is… growing up!! As a friend once said, my favorite phase with my babies is always the one they are in right now! I struggle with the pangs of nostalgia looking back on the sweetness of months past. But, I always, always enjoy the current stage so very much! (Just please, don’t go so soon!!!).

Stay tuned, because very soon, our boy will be three years old. I can’t wait to share with you everything I have planned!