Three Years

38 1/4 inches (75th %ile)
34 1/2 lbs (75th %ile


My Dearest Boy,
As I write this (in July), anticipating the birth of your sister, I reflect alllllll the way back to when you were just a wiggle in my tummy. We still have our good days and bad (and I suspect we always will), but I marvel at the boy you're becoming--so smart, and funny, silly, (and sometimes a teeny bit violent, but we're working on it), and wonderful.

Some highlights:

- 96% of all sentences begin with "but." Regardless of whether or not this makes any grammatical sense or is in any way related to the previously uttered sentence.

- the "why" questions. Especially when they don't make sense.
"Dat's a FIRE station!"
"Nope, it's a POLICE station."
"But why is it a POLICE station?"

- "But, when my lil sister's born, you won't have to go potty anymore!"

- Calling the little green guy from Star Wars "Zoda," and then later telling me I was going to "Zoga class."

- Helping me water the garden by dumping eleventy billion cans of water...on the same plant.

- Asking what you want for your birthday. Your response? "A golf shirt. A blue golf shirt." Um, okaaaay.

- Playing with your Toy Story aliens on the bay windowsill. You put them in the red corvette (they travel in style) and zoom them around, and then they take turns going into the "jail" (the lantern I just can't bear to fill with a candle, since it makes such a pleasing toy).

- Watching your pretend play. All of it. Using the Candy Land guys as supplemental fire fighters in the fire house. Allowing the Toy Story characters to finally play with others. Constantly cooking things for us.

- You are trying so hard to like to draw. This usually involves an elaborate procedure of setting out paper-no-coloring-book-no-paper and crayons-no-markers-no-crayons, which takes at least ten minutes, at which point you draw for 32.5 seconds and announce that you "made DIS for you! where can we hang it?"

- A current favorite pastime involves (yay!) music. You're obsessed with playing the drums (which I totally called, like, two years ago). You use your red rhythm sticks to play the little blue drum that lives in your room, and you prefer it when I accompany you either on kazoo or penny whistle. Songs of choice are from the "Miss Mary" collection (Music Together, natch). Additionally, you're enamored with Rock Band on the Wii. It's become a favorite way for our family to end the day: usually me on vocals, Daddy on guitar, and you on--what else?--drum set.

- "Are you talking to me? Me, ____(name), in the blue shirt?"
We're alone in the house, so.....yup.

- Telling Avery (the dog) all about the characters in the Winnie the Pooh movie. "Dere's Pooh Bear and Tigger--he's a silly guy--and Owl and Christopher....I dunno....and Rabbit and Eeyore."

- "What should we call your little sister?"
"Barbie."

- During the "Pinocchio" show at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, "I wish I could have donkey ears."

- "I can't walk. I'm too crabby."

- Calling it a "smurfee." You meant "smoothie."

- Per your Mimi: Watching out the window at the 22 songbirds at our feeder, the grandbuddy began to rap on the window, because he wanted to see them all fly away.
Me: Don't hit the window too hard.
Him: Why? Because it will hurt their feelings?

- At night, you rarely fall asleep faster than 45 minutes after we've put you to bed. But tonight you decided to sing "This Old Man"--all ten verses. Except when you get to the rhyming part ("He played nine, he played knick knack on my pline"), you just make it up. Hilarious.

- Naked in the bathtub: "I'm wearing my body!"


I love you, my little man, my original baby.
Mom