I cannot believe it was three years ago Chris was born. Honestly it seems much longer that we've had him. I can hardly remember what it was like to be childless.
He has grown to be such a smart boy. He counts to 19 (skipping 13 and never getting to 20), he knows his ABCs and recognizes the letters everywhere. He loves reading books and has amazing comprehension. By amazing, I mean that he actually has comprehension and can tell me the story before we read it, or can use the pictures as cues to what is happening (if we have read the story before). Having worked with so many children and teenagers with special needs, it amazes me to see what a typical three year old can do. He will also tell me about a movie or story totally out of context, so that's awesome to me to hear him have such a good memory.
He is still very social. He waves to everyone we pass on our walks. He gets a little shy sometimes when strangers talk to him, but once he starts talking he doesn't stop. He loves to play with friends. Lydia continues to be his favorite friend. They are two peas in a pod. He shares well but has become more opinionated, so he doesn't share as readily or as easily as he used to.
He is very physical. He doesn't really somersault, he puts his head on the ground then flips his legs over his head. He jumps on everything and off of everything. My mom pointed out that he is running more like a boy and less like a toddler. He also climbs everything, including his crib. We got him a big boy bed for his birthday.
He can be hilarious and also super hard to deal with. He has so much energy, which can be fun or so tedious. He knows a little bit how to manipulate and bargain, so we are dealing a little with that. Overall, he is sweet and such a joy. He loves to sing songs; my favorite is to hear him sing "I Love to See the Temple" because he does so well and knows most of the words. He can be pretty talkative. He will tell me all sorts of things, much of which I won't understand, but he feels it is important enough to tell me so I listen. His favorite thing to say is, "Mommy, are you sure?" and we have no idea why! He will ask it out of nowhere, not after I am asking him to do something like you would think. It's always super random. It's also one of those things we laughed at when he first started saying it, and now he thinks it's funny and continues to do it to get a laugh. Which he never gets these days for that question lol.
He is a great big brother to Kara. He loves to try to make her laugh and to tickle her. He does get a little jealous, I think, and he will often demand my attention as soon as I start feeding her. Sometimes he takes her toys or playfully swats at her, and he always stares at me when he does it so I know he is just doing it to try to get me to react. A couple months ago, he would always steal her pacifier out of her mouth and put it in his, again for attention, but he has stopped doing that.
One of our biggest struggles with him is food. He hardly eats anything. I confess I let him graze all morning long, but he doesn't get a snack before dinner and yet he still hardly eats a thing. He eats very little variety of food. Even things he loves, like rice, some days he refuses. So, he's a skinny and tall little boy. I figure it's a stage, and I need to keep offering him food but not pushing it too hard.
Some of his favorites: he says his favorite color is blue. He loves to watch Thomas the Train, Blaze the Monster Truck, Paw Patrol, and Barney. Yes, Barney. You can thank Netflix for that one. He's learning lots of fun little songs, though, so I like that. He will come up to me and sing the "I love you, you love me" song and give me a "great big hug" and a kiss, which I love. He loves to play with balls, trains, cars, and pretty much any vehicle. If he could play in the sink with the water or dig in sand all day, he would be one happy camper. Favorite food is probably fruit snacks, though he also loves cookies, "ola" (granola) bars, goldfish, shredded cheese (yes, shredded), smoothies and juice, tortillas, rice, sausage (breakfast sausage), cereal, broccoli (thank goodness there is one vegetable he will eat willingly), bread/toast, and eggs. He likes his eggs either scrambled or only the whites fried. Strange, but he seriously won't eat the yolk unless it's scrambled. He also loves water. He is known at church for the number of times he says, "More water, please." He steals everyone's water and just drinks a ton. It's great.
Potty training. Yes, well, let's see. I attempted it last May, and he clearly wasn't ready. I attempted it last... September? He was more ready, but I was not ready to be hugely pregnant and keep getting up to take him to the potty at regular intervals. So, now it's becoming time again. For his birthday, he is getting a big boy bed, and so I don't want to throw all these changes at him at once. I also have to gear up to be ready for this... So I'm thinking the beginning of April we will try this all again! I'm thinking he will be successful this time around. He wakes up with a dry diaper, goes to the bathroom pretty much the same time every day, he can pull his pants up and down, he talks about going potty all the time, etc etc. You get the gist, he has all the signs of readiness. I just have to be brave enough to make myself do this. It really is much easier just to leave them in diapers, isn't it? I know eventually the potty training will pay off, but it's that month or so (hopefully less?) when I have to make sure he doesn't wet his pants everywhere we go that I'm worried about. It's crazy this is something I think about! He can't be old enough to wear underwear! Big boys do that! My son is still my baby. Maybe not, but I would like to think so.
And that's that. Again, I'm too lazy to sort through pictures. Here are some lovely pictures of our cutie pie:
