3 years old

Oh my Colterman,

3 years old. This has been quite the year my little man. You've stretched me in ways I didn't know possible, you've humbled me in countless areas, you've filled my heart with joy to the point of tears, and you've made me cry in worry. It's been a year full of ups and downs and I wouldn't want it any other way. Having you as my little man every day is a priceless gift. Even through the challenges and the times where I hide behind the counter eating chocolate, I would not trade any minute of it away. You are an absolute special gift to me my sweet boy.

                                                  

                                                  
The amount of growth this year is absolutely incredible. I can't really remember what you were doing at 2, but I know you have changed so much. You are so smart. I'll read you a book 2 or 3 times and then you can pretty much recite it. You often act out books during play, or will start singing an except from a book. You know most of your letters, quite a few sounds, a lot of shapes and numbers too. You have an incredible memory and can remember days later something that you were frustrated about, a certain train you liked at the children's museum, or when mom wouldn't let you borrow the dump truck from Jack & Avery's house. You often ask me what the words are in a song we are listening to and I can tell you are committing them to memory. I'll often be in conversation with someone and if I say something that perks your ear like Edmonds or rockets you immediately say the word with a cute grin. You're. always. listening.

                                                      
                                          

You love to play imagination games. We very rarely sit down and play something like cars or blocks. There always has to be a story behind it- a big car race going on, a building that needs to be demolished by the construction crew. You've taken on all sorts of different personas ...Fireman Mark or Barry, worker man, conductor, etc. You also have a pair of pants that is assigned to each character so when you wake up, you decide if who you're going to be, and that's what pants you'll wear. It is devastating when you want to wear the same "worker" pants (which are navy church slacks) 3 days in a row and I tell you we have to wash them. Speaking of pants, you can put them on by yourself, but you prefer to wear them backwards... which makes buttoning and unbuttoning very interesting. Anyway, back to play. One of your favorite places to act out stories is your closet. It has been a digger, train engine, package truck, rocket ship and fire engine. You like to use dad's amp as your "stool" to step on to whatever the closet is. You will usually say something like "we're just waiting on the conductor.. hmm where is he? Oh! Here he is!" Then you'll step on the stool and climb up on the bins of clothes. You always want someone to come in the closet with you, which makes it very interesting trying to wrangle your sister at the same time. But I wouldn't trade these moments for anything. I will always cherish delivering packages to 123 sycamore street, rescuing a sick cat from the tree again, and visiting mom at the hospital who just had 30 babies with you. Throughout the day, if we're talking about something, you'll all of sudden want to play what we're talking about. "Want to play pillow pets? Want to play snails? Want to play underwear shop?" We have played some of the most bizarre things.

                                           

                                         

Another thing I love is your thirst for knowledge. Some of your favorite books to check out from the library are non fiction books about different things like rockets, trains, and construction equipment. You have all sorts of questions all the time like where yard waste goes, or where a rocket booster goes after it drops off, or why the bottom of the space shuttle got really hot during reentry. I love to learn with you because most of the time, I have no idea how to answer your questions. It's so fun learning that the boosters fall into the ocean and a boat and scuba divers retrieve them, or learning about the composting process at the yard waste plant. Your mind is always swimming with different thoughts, and I love it when you share them with me.

                                    
                                     

At your well check, you weighed in at 32.5 lb You are a fairly picky eater, and you definitely aren't a fan of veggies and meat, so we often have to bribe you with carbs, or trick you with green smoothies or hiding veggies in food. We switched you to almond milk instead of dairy in hopes of boosting your iron because you were basically drinking a huge cup of milk for dinner. You are still taking naps pretty much every day for about 2 hours. We have to wake you up if you sleep past 3 because it makes for a horrendous bedtime. Speaking of bedtime, it is not a super fun time. You still like to read books, and most of the time instead of songs, you want me to tell you stories. This goes smoothly, but it is quite the party once we leave. It's a back and forth routine of you turning on the light, and us having to take away things or discipline you. It is not uncommon for one of us to go into your room to find you with a totally different outfit on.. just last night you were in a full on swim suit and shirt.  You will go through every pair of pants or underwear and even get into your clothes  bins in your closet and try to put on size 12 mo. clothes. Oh deary me.. it is exhausting. You will take around 1-2 hours to fall asleep. You're usually asleep by 9 and awake by 6:30/7. We kept holding off on potty training because life has been so busy and I wasn't sure how it would go. I really didn't want to get into a battle with you. Boy was I surprised. We started a week ago and you haven't had one accident. You're still in pull ups at night, but during the day you rock the undies so well!! I seriously can't believe it. We're so proud of you.

                                                    

You have a fairly serious and reserved personality, but every now and then you bust out these cute little things like saying  "I love _____________" out of the blue about the most random things. "I love green beads. I love smoke stacks." It's hilarious. I need to be better about writing things down, because the silliest things come out of your mouth. A lot of times you'll look at Maddie while she's eating and you'll say "you're a mess lady!" Yesterday I was driving the car and asked where Wilson (your train) was. You said "He's just chillin' in my hand." Another silly thing you do is go up to me (or stuffed animals) and hold them super tight and jump up and down saying "huggy tuggy" over and over. You also love me to give you different kinds of hugs & kisses "package man hug" "Maglev slipping on a banana hug" "Nana bear kiss." In the last couple of months you have started giggling a lot more and finding lots of things funny. I love to hear you crack up. A lot of times books make you laugh like a mail delivery for Mrs. Pickens who ordered chickens, or things other kids do like Owen stealing the bag of pirates booty and hiding in a tube at the park. You will say what happened over and over and let out the sweetest giggle.

                                     

                                                    

Some of your favorite things are rockets/space shuttles, trains, legos, diggers/construction sites/demolition, the moon, smokestacks & water towers, crosswalk buttons, drums, fire trucks, UPS/fedex, Edmonds, James, gymnastics class, books, spinning around, galloping/hopping, dessert, Chipotle, digging in the front yard, wheels at playgrounds, playing in dad's toolbox, Mighty Machines, stuffed animals, helping to cook, and being with mom. Some of your dislikes are loud noises/parties, taking a shower, going to bed, socks, when we run out of strawberry yogurt, when Maddie gets into something you're really concentrating on, you don't get to borrow things from people's houses, and when we run out of lightening or "model train" pull ups.

                                   

                                   

We're working on a few really challenging areas .. mainly around the areas of transitioning from one activity to the next when you're not ready, adjusting to things out of the routine like when dad is home on the weekend or a friend stops by unexpectedly, and learning how to play better with friends. We've seen great strides in lots of areas in the past month, which is exciting, but we will continue to pray all the time for you, and continue to seek help to learn how to help you the best.

                                                 
There have been many days these past three years that I have looked forward to the time when you would be in preschool and I would have a little more time to myself. However, now that the time is coming when you could be in school, I feel myself holding on tighter to you because I can't believe how quick this time has gone. Soon enough, you wont be spending the majority of your days with me. Oh my sweet boy, I hope you know just how much I love you. There is something indescribable about a parent's love.

                                 

Happy 3 years.