Monday, October 1, 2012

3 Years Old

Ryan is an energetic three-year-old with lots of funny faces, funny voices, funny sayings, and funny stories. He has developed quite an imagination with stories focusing on super heroes, animals, and trips to places "far far away, across the ocean, we need to take an airplane and a helicopter, and a boat to get there." His stories are fun to listen to although he seems to clam up around unfamiliar people or will do a weird baby-talk thing while we are at the park using single syllables or noises and gestures instead of the full-on paragraphs that he uses when talking at home.

He loves being active, playing sports and wrestling, searching for bugs, playing at the park, and swinging on his swing set. Indoor activities still revolve around his farm animals and setting up various fences although he also likes playing with some of his Little People, like the nativity set or zoo animals.  He doesn't have much patience for coloring but likes putting stickers (a/k/a address labels) on the pages of his coloring book.

He usually watches half of Wild Kratts and half of Curious George in the morning while we get ready and will vividly repeat the animals facts he learned on Wild Kratts throughout the day. He watches a few other PBS shows throughout the week like Cat and the Hat, Sid the Science Kid, Word Girl, Super Why, or Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. Curious George books continue to be a favorite along with Clifford, his new Marley books, Farmer Brown goes Round and Round (I've heard him trying to repeat all the different mixed-up farm animal sounds), the Big Red Tractor by Francis Chan (he loves telling people that God made everything and that God will take care of us), and Three Billy Goats Gruff (in case you need an explanation of why he'll go around saying "Snip, Snap, Snout, this tale's told out).  I have a set of Disney movie books (Aladdin, Robin Hood, Lion King, Fox & the House, Pinnochio, Sleeping Beauty, etc.) that he likes to page through at night in bed but we're trying to enforce him laying down and trying to sleep by 9:00, otherwise he would stay up forever "reading."  He falls asleep to Go Fish's Splash CD most nights, but sometimes rotates a CD of Sunday School Songs they sing at nursery, Farm Animals, and Bob & Larry's Sunday School Favorites.

He loves to chase Nika and has to be reminded to be nice to her...often. Timeouts usually end in him giving a lengthy explanation, if not demonstration, of what he did wrong, what he should of done, and an apology to the victim and for not listening. So he knows what to do...now we just have to work on doing it.


He's become a bit of a dawdler at mealtimes but overall he's a decent eater. His favorites are apples, string cheese (or any cheese), grapes, and Peanut Butter Captain Crunch and he's pretty good at eating vegetables.  His favorite "treats" at the moment are fruit snacks, Bomb Pops, and Skittles (at sporting events).  Getting him to sleep can be a bit of a chore at times, but once he's asleep he rarely gets up during the night, which I know we shouldn't take for granted. He's still taking a 2 hour nap in the afternoon most days and we all have a better day if he gets his regular nap in.  Just don't wake the bear when he's sleeping in the afternoon.

Potty training is going much better with big-boy underwear worn during most waking hours, including to daycare.  He's being stubborn about going #2 on the potty and holds it in too long, but has had some success recently and I think we're on the downward slope. Thank.Goodness.
 
At his 3-year checkup today, he measured 39.5" tall and weighed 37lbs. which puts him in the 90-95th percentile for both height and weight for boys his age. He's wearing all 3T clothes but snapping pants just might not be in the cards for him at this point--elastic only (this mama knows how that feels :)).

Ryan is still acting excited about the baby and will ask questions about it (Mommy, when you eat, does the food fall on the baby?) or tell people about the baby in mommy's tummy. He got to feel the baby kick this week and told me the baby must be doing somersaults! (I concur).

It's been a fun 3 years and it's hard to believe this is the same tiny person I held in my arms 3 years ago, not knowing what in the world I was getting into, but I can say we've definitely been blessed by the journey and by the joy he brings to our lives!

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