THREE
Nick Names: Sweetness, Bud
Height: 35.5 inches (Measured at home, so let’s call this an estimate) [Update: Doctor measured him at 36 inches, 17th percentile]
Weight: 29 pounds [Doctor weighed him at 29 lbs, 6 oz, 25th percentile)
Favorite Color: Orange
Favorite Food: Cake and cookies
Other Favorites: Cookie Monster, reading, playing outside (especially with the hose), riding his bike, his brother, Maia, cooking, doing puzzles
HAPPY BIRTHDAY E!! YOU’RE THREE!
Three feels big. Heavy and important and monumental. Two still felt like a baby, still felt close to birth, with everything felt fresh and new. Three feels so big and so old. It’s hard to explain the feeling, but when I had babies I didn’t feel like a mother so much. I felt like a caregiver of tiny humans, someone who was given a gift of these squishly little creatures to take care of. Now I feel like I have a child. A child that I have to raise, mother, and teach.
Three is old enough to ask questions and remember things that I’ve told him. Three is big enough that I need to think about what I say before I saw it, unless I want it repeated forever and to everyone.
Three is old enough to be interested in the computer and want to type too. E says “errtyhhccccbhh vytujjmmm./ z/yyyyyhhhhhhyip’;llhhkhmku7lo0.;igggjhjkll/” Actually he wants to do everything we do these days. He sits at the desk and works next to Tom, he cooks in the kitchen with us, uses the vacuum like he sees us do, and picks up on all our words and catch phrases. He’ll bring me a book and say “It’s been a while since we read this one!” even if we read it an hour ago. Apparently something he’s picked up from us.
He’s incredibly sweet, has started to tell us he loves us, and he loves to scoot over and give us cuddles or a squeeze at random parts of the day. Although he can fight with and get annoyed with his brother, he’s also very cute towards him. He’ll come running when he’s crying and bring him things to make him happy. He likes to sit next to him and say that he’s “here for him” if he needs him.
There’s a lot that makes him nervous – bees in the yard, a recent thunderstorm that didn’t bug G at all kept E up for an hour. He’s still scared of dogs and often tells me that there are dogs in his room coming to get him. He’ll go so far as to refuse a pull up that has Pluto (the Disney dog) on them. He also has a silly streak, loves to laugh and be tickled, and the things that come out of his mouth are the best. He often interrupts Tom’s work calls to tell him something completely random and hilarious.
He’s suddenly super independent, and capable. Gone is the baby I’ve held on to for the past few years, and suddenly a small child is here, able to surprise me every day with new things he’s learned. I asked him to pick out some clothes for his baby brother recently, and he went upstairs, pushed something over to the wall so he could climb up and turn on the light, went to G’s closet and pulled out pants, socks, and even grabbed a shirt off a hanger. Then he brought it all back downstairs to us.
I also decided recently to see if he was able to get himself dressed – partly out of curiosity, and partly out of necessity. Sure enough, he can do it almost completely on his own. Sure, his pants are occasionally on backwards, but the smile on his face after he’s done it “on my self” is worth it. He loves to call himself a big boy, and if I ask him where my baby went, he’ll tell me that my baby is over there (and point to G).
The older he gets, the better his memory is getting too. Gone are the days where I can count on him forgetting what we say. Everything that happened once, he’ll remember and be able to tell you about. He also likes to plan ahead what’s going to happen for the next hour or so: “I put on my pjs, I say goodnight to dad, we read a book, we say goodnight, I go to sleep, I wake up…” he can go on and on.
He still loves to mimic anything we do, especially when it comes to household chores. He helps with laundry, vacuums the house with his play vacuum and his favorite thing is to run the dishwasher for Tom. When we go outside, he uses his leaf blower and takes laps around the house. He knows how to turn on the hose by himself (and always shuts it off when he’s done) and will water trees and plants. Cooking is still one of his favorite things, and although we’ll make pretzels and bread and pancakes, cake and cookies are his all time favorite.
Speaking of cookies, Cookie Monster is still his favorite (hence the birthday theme), although he’s pretty obsessed with everything Sesame Street these days.
One thing that’s happened recently that’s super exciting is that E has found a love for books. He’s never liked them much before. He’d put up with us reading one every night before bed, but he wasn’t paying attention. Now, though, he’s obsessed. He makes us read them over and over again. He’ll “read” them himself, and then reads them to G. He’s even started to memorize a few of his favorites. One of which is The Paperbag Princess, which he’ll read to me while giggling the whole time that he’s remembered the story. It’s mostly adorable, although less so when he uses some of the lines on his brother, as he did the other day when G wanted to play with him. Most of the time E wants to play with his little brother, but occasionally he wants whatever he’s playing with to himself. So as G came over and tried to play with him, E turned to him and said: “Noooo go away. I will eat you tomorrow.”
Happy birthday little one. We love you.