I am so sorry it’s been so long since I wrote a blog post about you. With your little brother coming into the world a little over a year ago, I had to stay on top of posts for him because so much happens in the first year. (And let’s be honest, that’s about all the posting I was doing. Keeping up with blogging while raising two young kids is HARD.) You, being now three years old, are changing at a much slower rate, but nonetheless, you are growing and learning and becoming a little boy instead of a toddler. And I need to make sure that you're getting a little blog love, too. :)
So let’s see.
First off, you are now 3 1/2 years old. I recently taught you this fact, so now when anyone asks how old you are, you proudly reply with "three-and-a-half." And when they ask what your name is, you reply, "Kwewsonweesnoke." And of course they have no idea what you’re saying, so they respond, "Ohhhhh, why, that's a nice name!" and I usually have to jump in and clear the air with "His name is Krew."
Life with you is very up and down. Some moments, and even days, are wonderful, and you are a total sweetheart and melt everyone’s hearts. But you are emotional. We lovingly call you our emo son. I often refer to you as melodramatic. And I’m not trying to be mean or exaggerate when I say that. It is simply a description for your personality. You feel things, and they bother you a lot. You switch from happy-go-lucky to angry, pouty, and withdrawn at the flip of a switch, and we’re never quite sure what will cause it. And then once you get into one of these bad moods, it’s very hard to pull you out of it.
Also, you’ve become quite adept at manipulating. We have to watch ourselves, or you will trick us into giving you your way when we really shouldn’t. And then of course that will encourage more manipulating, which we definitely don’t want.
When we have many rough days in a row, I implement what I call “attitude boot camp”, where you get sent to your room (or more recently, the corner) every time you talk disrespectfully, whine, or disobey. Those are long and tiring days, but they also usually whip you back into shape and remind you to control yourself a bit more. I don’t like being overly strict with you, but sometimes it’s necessary, because I want you to grow to be a strong, unselfish, controlled man of the Lord. And that starts now. I do a lot of praying, a lot of reading about parenting, and a lot of following my head instead of my heart. My heart wants to give you everything you want, to make everything ok for you always, but my head knows that I need to let you experience disappointment and to teach you to control your emotions. This parenting is hard stuff!!
You’re very outgoing with your friends, but when around strangers or in new or crowded situations you become very overwhelmed, quiet, and introverted. Even though you go to Sunday school nearly every Sunday, you always resist, and when we finally get you to go in, you walk into the room and sit to the side by yourself, sometimes under the table, just watching the other children. At times I understand you, because I remember feeling the ways I think you're feeling, but at other times I just get so frustrated and don't know what to do. I know you come across as rude sometimes, but there’s only so much I can do without pushing you in the wrong direction and making things worse.
But let’s get back to the lighter side of things.
You love many different kinds of toys and activities. Cars, trucks, food, tools, costumes, trains, Legos, coloring, stickers, play-doh, the list goes on and on. Puzzles are a big thing for you right now. Kid, you LOVE puzzles. And I'm not talking about drop-the-pieces-in-the-matching-hole puzzles. I'm talking about 20-30 piece puzzles that don't have a frame to fit into. You've learned to separate the edges from the middle pieces, then split those piles into matching colors, and then you're on your way. You will do the same puzzle over and over again, and will persevere no matter how tough it gets. Within reason, of course. I think you might get a smidgen overwhelmed if I dumped a 100-piece puzzle in front of you. But still, you impress me.
Then there come your letters of the alphabet. I think you know maybe five. K, r, s, b...okay, maybe just four. ;) I've tried doing flash cards with you, but you get all antsy and can't handle it for more than two minutes. Letters just aren't your thing. And that's ok. You'll get there.
Lately you’ve been VERY into playing pretend. And since you don’t have any siblings of the appropriate age to play pretend with you, guess who you request??? Yeah, your mommy and daddy. Sometimes we’re animals, sometimes our hardwood floors are water and we don’t know how to swim and have to find safety, sometimes you have a house that we have to pay to get into it and leave (what kind of a place charges you to enter AND leave?), sometimes you’re cooking us food to eat...you come up with all kinds of stuff. And I must be honest...I’m a little eager for your brother to age a bit more so he can play these pretend games with you. I don’t mind doing them once in a while, but it’s not something that is particularly fun as a grown-up. When I am playing pretend with you, I try to flash back to when I was a kid and remember what I would have done back then. When I do that, you’re usually pretty happy with my playing skills. :)
You are such a lover of music still, especially singing and dancing. I’ve noticed that you’re starting to actually hit some notes with correct pitch, which makes me so excited. You also pick up dance moves from who-knows-where and pull them out quite regularly when you hear a fun tune. You used to do mostly ballet moves, but now you’ve progressed into more hip hop and tap moves. You make me and your daddy (and sometimes other people too) smile and laugh a lot when you do this. Depending on how much you keep up with it, I may try to convince your daddy to let me put you in tap lessons along with the sports I know he’ll want you playing. We’ll see.
You are a very focused child...if you have a task that you’re interested in, you can sit and work on it for what seems like hours. The other night we carved pumpkins with some friends, and you saw someone pin a paper pattern to their pumpkin using sewing pins and needles. The next day you asked if you could use some pins and needles to do something similar to your little pumpkin. Given that you’re a pretty careful child, I actually let you do this, and was shocked when you sat and worked on it for probably close to two hours. Which gave me some nice time to catch up on my to-do list since you’re little brother was napping. :) [Pictures of this pumpkin-sewing extravaganza are below.]
Your hair is coming in thicker, still a white blonde. Your eyes are still blue but have started showing hints of tan in the middle. I'm thinking they may eventually match your daddy's. Your face is thinning out and your toddler look is disappearing. Your body is drastically slimming down, so much that you can still wear all the clothes you wore a year ago, although they're shorter on you now. You're steadily growing in height, but there haven't been any substantial growth spurts and so I'd guess you're still around the 10th percentile. The other morning we measured you and you had finally reached 38 inches, which means you can now ride in a booster seat in the car. You were pretty stinkin' excited about that. :)
Sometimes you’re a picky eater, and sometimes you’ll eat anything in front of you. Just like your moods, we have no idea which way you’ll be from one day to the next. In general, we don’t give into your pickiness and do not allow you to have foods beyond what is being provided for dinner, and you don’t expect otherwise. Sometimes this means you go to bed with a not-quite-full belly, I’m sure, but I don’t think you’re lacking in nutrition by any means.
You have occasionally started showing a small amount of interest in your brother, which really warms my mommy heart. If he escapes up the stairs and I don’t notice, you’ll climb behind him to help keep him from falling. Sometimes you’ll at least play beside him, with the same toys, even though you’re not exactly interacting. Mostly you like to either ignore him or tattle on him. Ooooooh boy are you a tattler. We’ve already started working on that. :)
You love to help do a lot of things, and I’ve found that recently your help actually helps. For example, you’ll put toys away for me, bring me dishes from the table, wipe off your little table, carry things in from the car, etc. All things that I would have to do if you didn’t do them for me. It’s exciting to see us moving into the part of life where you start picking up some of the work you cause. :)
You’ve been asking some difficult theological questions lately that often leave me struggling for words. For example, why did Jesus die? What is sin? Where is Jesus? Jesus is God’s son but He’s God? Where is heaven? When are we going to heaven? I don’t want Mommy and Daddy to go to heaven!!!!! (That last statement is the hardest to respond to.) I need to find a book or blog post or something on how to speak theology to your toddler. (If you have any tips or resources, send them my way!)
You’re still not in school, rather you go to daycare at Grandma Eileen’s house twice a week while I go to work. We are going to enroll you in pre-K for next year, and your daddy and I both think you will be ready for more structure and education. We’ve not worried about preschool up to this point because you get so much socialization through daycare, but I do think that it would be good for you to go to at least a year of preschool prior to kindergarten.
Alright well I think that’s all for now! We love you so much, little man.
Love all the faces. :)
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