Three Years Old!

My sweet Nathan Wilson,
Three years ago, you gave me the greatest honor of becoming a mother. Being your Mommy is one of the greatest blessings in my life. These past three years have been so special. I can't imagine you not being a part of our family. You are a precious, precious gift, and your Daddy and I love you more than we ever thought we could.

I feel that at three, there is very little baby left in you. I catch it occasionally in a sleepy snuggle, but you are certainly growing up and into a big boy! It's so fun to watch you grow and learn and see your personality develop. You are  thoughtful, helpful, outgoing, affectionate, and inquisitive.

You are a great helper, and you genuinely enjoy the opportunity to help. I can always count on you if I need a favor, and you always help cheerfully. You can't wait to get bigger and help Daddy mow the lawn and do "big people" things. You are a great help with your brother, sharing your food and sometimes your toys. You are also very affectionate. You love hugs and kisses and snuggles. You like to be held and carried still even though you are so big. You always give your friends big hugs and consider anyone close to your age to be your friend. I love that about you. You've never met a stranger and will talk and play with anyone you meet. You are social. You don't like to be alone or play by yourself. You always tell us that you need someone to stay with you so you won't be lonely. You also never want to be left out. You get jealous easily if your brother is doing something you're not and always want to join in.

You ask questions all the time. I expected that to come when you were a little older, but you are always curious and trying to figure out how everything works. The most common phrase out of your mouth is "How come?" Your questions are all over the place and many of them leave me stumped at how to respond. Here are some recent ones:

Why do animals have feet? followed by, How come my feet aren't purple?
Why do cars cost a lot of money?
Why does Daddy have to go to work?
How do we get to where God and Jesus live?
How does Elisabeth come out of your tummy?
Are we going to have another baby after Elisabeth?
Where does food go after I eat it?
Who lived in our house before we did?
Where do the garbage truck drivers live?
We also have the daily, "Why do I have to take a nap?" and "How come I can't have fruit snacks for breakfast?"
And I thought the baby stage was hard. It feels like a piece of cake compared to responding to all your questions :)

The biggest change in your development this year is your communication. You initiate and carry on conversations with us, and I love hearing you explore and understand your world. It's so fun to talk to you every night about the best parts of your day and your interests. And your memory, child, I can't get over it! You remember the smallest details about mundane events that happened months ago. It's wild. You remember more than I do. You'll remember the stickers that were in the basket at the doctor's office from our visit three months prior. You remember the things the fire fighters told you when they visited your school six months ago, and you remember the smallest details about places we visited and things you played with from months and months before. It seriously boggles my mind the amount your brain can hold. I know that good memory skills will make learning so much easier for you, and I'm thankful you have that gift even if I get in trouble sometimes because you'll remember things I've told you that I thought you'd forget :)

Your play has matured this year. You are engaging in imaginary play all the time developing stories and scenarios with your trains where they go off the track and the tow truck has to rescue them and always putting out fires inside and outside when you play fire fighter. There are fires everywhere in our house. You like to play restaurant and will take our order and cook our food for us. You write down our order and bring us our drinks and everything. You're the cutest waiter I've ever met.You are still very organized in the way you play. Everything has to be set up perfectly before you start playing, and you get frustrated when Samuel destroys your creations. You love to play outside in our backyard, or in our neighborhood playground or parks. You're always asking to go outside. You swing, slide, and play fireman.

You're not the most athletic kid, but considering who your parents are that's not too surprising. You did learn to jump a couple of months ago, so we are making progress. You're very active, running, climbing, etc., just not the most coordinated three year old I know.

You like to watch TV. You go in spurts with what shows you like (and it's changed some now that we cancelled our satellite TV and are dependent on  PBS and Netflix for your shows. Right now you watch a lot of Barney (especially the fire house one), Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, and Super Why. You don't have the attention span for movies just yet. We've tried a few, and your attention lasts about exactly as long as it takes for you to eat your bowl of popcorn.

Your favorite foods are fruit snacks, popcorn, cheeseburgers and fries, apples, macaroni and cheese, ice cream, and bell pepper. You refuse to drink milk, so I make sure you eat cheese and yogurt each day.

You have been completely potty trained (except at night) for about three months now, and it's wonderful, especially since we're transitioning you now to going on the big potty instead of your little one. You can pull your pants down, go unsupervised, and flush by yourself. Sometimes you still need help pulling your pants up and wiping, but I'll take it! You have done so wonderfully. You had been going regularly on the potty for the past 9 months or so, but refused to poop on the potty or to tell us when you needed to go. Then one day, everything just clicked, and you've had like 2 accidents since then. Occasionally you'll sleep really hard at nap time and have an accident while you're asleep, but that's rare. 

You usually sleep from about 8:30-9:00 to 7:00-7:30. You had a rough adjustment when we moved and woke up crying in the middle of the night for about a month and so from about 4:00 on every morning you were in our bed, and then all of the sudden you started sleeping again. I think you were just scared and not used to your new room. Now you sleep all night. We got you a big boy bed for your birthday, and you sleep great in it, and enjoy being able to get up by yourself once it is light outside. You still lie down for a nap everyday, but you don't consistently sleep. A lot of times you just play and read in your bed. You probably nap 2-3 times per week and rest and play the other days.

You are 100% a Mommy's boy. You love your horsey rides and wrestling and playing with daddy, but when it comes to bedtime routines etc, you always want Mommy to take care of you.

You know all your shapes and colors and can count to 10. You know the alphabet song, but don't recognize many letters yet, but you are able to spell your name thanks to the song Grammy taught you. She teaches you songs all the time and you are always singing something new.

We talk about the days of the week and you always want to know what day it is and what that means. You know that on Sundays we go to church, on Saturdays, Daddy doesn't have to work, and on Fridays you usually get to spend the night at Grammy's house. You like structure and having a plan for what we are doing for the day. So do I :). You usually want me to tell you each night when I put you to bed what we are doing the next day.

You really do love your brother and are concerned about him when he's not around, but you can be rough with him and you have a hard time sharing your toys. I understand because a lot of the time, he messes up or breaks your toys, but we are working with you to share with him and not push him out of your way when he's trying to get your stuff. You have sweet moments playing together, and I'm hoping as you both get older you can play together more and more.

It's an absolute joy to be your mom and to spend my days with you. I'm so thankful for the ability to stay home with you during these little years. I know my time with you at home is limited and I'm soaking up each minute and loving my days with my little buddy. There's no one else I'd rather be at home with during the day or running errands with except for you and your brother. I can find joy and laughter even on the hard days.

I hope you always, always know how loved you are and how proud you make me and your daddy. You're an amazing little guy! I know three is going to be a great year for you!