A Portrait of the Boy as a 3 Year Old

He knows his ABCs, although when he sings it, ‘S’ is ‘X’ so there are two Xs (exes? X’? Exi’?). He has recognized “C” on the computer keyboard for a while as well as a few other letters like J for Joe and X (I’m realizing his favorite letter is X). He also has said, “Look at that stop sign! It has an O next to a P and a T and an S!” He can count to 20ish pretty consistently but when there are a lot of things in one place he says there are a hundred or a million of them. He recognizes many numbers like 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8. He knows his shapes including spheres (pronounced ‘spears’) and cylinders and semicircles.

He has been able to get his bottom half undressed for a while and recently started pulling off his shirt. He can get his pants on now and it’s fun to watch him concentrate as he does it. He is not potty trained but he wants to be. He’s excited about his Paw Patrol underwear and would prefer to wear them though he’s often too absorbed in what he’s doing to recognize he has to go to the bathroom. I think that being at school makes him want to ditch the diapers too because it’s the cool thing to do.

He just started getting into music. Usually after the bath he dances around his room and asks to hear certain songs. He always has another dance move (“Did you see my new dance move?!”).

Favorite books:

• Goodnight Moon
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar
• Give a Mouse a Cookie series
• Clifford

Favorite color: red
Favorite show: Blaze and the Monster Machines
Favorite school supply: tie between scissors and glue
Favorite activities:

• Going swimming
• Going on “the cation“
• Building and smashing everything
• Playing store with a giant box in the garage or in the toy box in the playhouse at Poppy and Inny’s
• Filling buckets, moving buckets, emptying buckets, repeat
• Chasing imaginary monsters on our night walks
• Pretend picnics in the yard or the house
• Blowing and chasing bubbles
• Wasting water disguised as washing his hands or watering plants or filling buckets or cleaning dishes etc

Favorite toys:

• His hammer
• Hot Wheels racecar track
• Marble Maze
• Blocks
• Anything that lights up. His flashlight, “beary,” his elephant that projects stars on the ceiling
• Dad’s tools

Favorite movie: none. I’ve discovered that every Pixar, Disney and classic starts with something dramatic. He’s typically in tears within the first 15 minutes and we shut it off.

Favorite foods:

• Peanut butter and jelly toast, not toasted
• Every fruit on the planet including loquats, pomegranates and persimmons which all grow in the neighborhood
• Pizza
• Cupcakes
• Salad (this video cracks me up, he’s so excited)

Low points from the last year:

• Going to the dentist
• Staying overnight at the hospital when he had his infection

• When he ate _____________ (fill in the blank with your favorite item below):
  • floss (twice)
  • Chapstick cap
  • licorice from the Vons parking lot
  • hunks of grass
  • sea snail eggs (yes, we called poison control) … sorta can’t blame him. They look like candy.
  • 
  • a stranger’s gum off the ground (this was followed by croup and a trip to the ER… I swear it was the germs from the gum)
• Tantrums, 50% of the time over milk, 25% of the time over wanting something sugary and the last 25% misc. Even though it’s normal at this age, that doesn’t make them easier or less sad.
• Starting preschool

High points from the last year:

• Vacation in Palm Desert
• Bringing home sister–he had a little gray bunny ready as a gift to her
• Starting preschool
• Gymnastics and pool time at the YMCA
• Going kayaking and paddleboarding and paddleboating
• Going to Disneyland
• Riding the train to Oxnard
• Moving into a new bedroom with a big boy bed

• His birthday! If the point of celebrating a birthday is to make someone feel special, then we nailed it! On Saturday, he had a Paw Patrol-themed party with his best buddy Morgan. On Sunday, we went apple picking. On Monday, I took the day off, we went to the lake in the morning, to Urban Jungle in the afternoon and had a BBQ at Poppy and Inny’s house with all his favorite people and all his favorite food. He was genuinely having the best day ever. As a mom, this is all I can hope for.