THREE

My baby is three.

He crossed into three year old territory about a month ago, and I've been wanting to reflect on what that means - for us and for him.

For us so far, three has been greeted with the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.  Mason is hilarious.  He says funny things and he does funny things, and I love to watch him learn new things and make new connections in his mind.  But three also comes with his need to be uncooperative (control?), not listen, and even hit, kick, etc., just to get a reaction.  And that part of parenting has me feeling like I've got an overwhelming task ahead of me to train this wild and free little person into the kind, sweet person I know he can be.  (Side note, tips are appreciated.)

But without dwelling on the hard part of things, which I remind myself is only a part of things, here are some of the things about Mason I don't want to forget.

1.  He uses the potty successfully, but he almost always insists on stripping down completely in order to use it.  I think he just likes to get completely comfortable?

2.  He loves animals (usually ammimals).  More specifically, tiny animal figurines.  He has quite a few by now, and often will want to carry them in his toolbox to the park, where, recently one of his tigers decided to hibernate for good.  It always amazes me how he can look at a pile of those little guys (which are scattered throughout our house) and say to me, "Mama, I'm missing a giraffe."  How he maintains his mental inventory, I'll never know.

3.  He believes that imagined situations could be real.  We have a book where a bad guy steals a piggy from a little boy and leads him on a wild chase to get it back, which includes running through a chocolate factory.  At one point they fall into the chocolate as well as the freezer, and (this is a prequel to our vacation recap I'll write) when we decided to go on a tour of a chocolate factory he was very concerned with falling into the chocolate and the freezer.  Good thing Mama can protect him!  (This also works to my advantage, as I may have told him if he doesn't go to sleep he will turn into a Beast.  Nap time and bed time has gone easier ever since.)

4.  He picks up on our words and phrases.  Over the Fourth of July, we were watching fireworks and at one point Mason said, "Oh, that scared me half to death!"  Ha!  At first I thought he picked that up from me, but having heard Byron say it several times in the past few weeks, I think it actually came from him.

5.  Mason's best friend is STILL his papa.

6.  He can't pronounce all sounds.  K and G and combos with R stick out to me the most.  And even the letters he can say, he sometimes substitutes.  He says tat instead of cat.  Lately he even says things like twease instead of please.  He can even say the P sound, so this leads me to make him say "Puh, Puh, Please."  He always replies with "Puh, Puh, Twease..."

7.  He still has the biggest feet.  They are bricks (cute bricks).  He may never learn to put his own shoes on because putting on shoes for him is literally like stuffing sausages into casing.

8.  He is legitimately fearful that his monkeys (from Barrel O Monkeys) that he plays with in the bathtub might get sucked down the drain.  Maybe our attempts to get him to pick up his bath toys were a little strong?

9.  He is the cutest little guy I know.

I am his number one fan, and I always will be.  He has changed our lives, and though it is hard sometimes, it is always worth it.  We love that little guy with all our hearts and can't wait for what the years ahead hold for us!