Charlie Turns 3!

I feel like it's a pretty neat coincidence that Charlie's 3rd birthday is my 300th blog post! Hooray!

I can't believe how much my "little" Charlie has grown over the past few months leading up to his third birthday. I was warned by dozens of people that my toddler would look HUGE once I had my baby, and I remember thinking that he did seem big, but not as huge as everyone made it out to sound. Then, about a month after her birth, I swear he went through a growth spurt! Even I could tell he was growing, which is saying something because normally you don't really notice the growth because it's so gradual. Almost overnight he filled out and nearly outgrew his size 2T clothes and jumped right into size 3T!

Along with the physical growth has come some new mental growth as well! He started speaking in sentences, remembering people, places, and events, and realizing he has a mind of his own. That last bit has pretty much made our life miserable for the past few months. I'm not sure if he just hit the "terrible twos" late, or if life's dirty little secret is that three is, in fact, MUCH worse than two! Regardless, he has become demanding, whiny, and basically an all-around "NO monster". Literally days after his 3rd birthday, he learned how to open doors and take his clothes off. A lot of the boundaries I've been enjoying as a mom have been smashed with that door-opening trick. Time to buy some knob locks or covers so I can keep him out of where I don't want him going! At least he hasn't figured out how to open the outside doors... yet! Part of me is glad he knows how to open doors, so when he's finally ready to potty train (yes... he STILL refuses! I'm positive he knows how to do it, but I'm pretty sure he just doesn't care), he can get out of his room and into the bathroom by himself without having to call for me. The other part of me cries inside every morning when he comes bursting into my bedroom earlier than I'm ready to wake up shouting, "Good mor-geeen!"

Some other things to note about Charlie at three years is that he loves to talk about and control the lights ("lights on? lights off?") and all the fans ("fan on? fan off?"). If he doesn't get his way, or he's not in control, he gets pretty upset. I think he might actually have a fear of fans, but knowing he can control them helps make him feel better. His favorite food is a "peanu'butter sannwich". If I ask him what he wants to eat for lunch, he will request one without fail. Every time. And since I'm allergic to peanuts, he actually gets sunflower seed butter instead, but he doesn't know the difference! ;) He also loves to eat cereal and requests some form of it by brand name every morning. Kix? Chex? Crispix? Lucky Charms? Pops? etc. Which reminds me how cute it is when he tries to say something but it comes out in "toddler" form. Like, one piece of Kix cereal is a "kick" and one piece of Chex is a "check". Also, one time he pointed to a piece of ice that fell on the floor and said "Oh no, i!" That smart little cookie is trying to de-pluralize words! So cute! Also, today after his bath he stood up and said, before his towel was around him, "Ooohhhhhh it's too colding!". It's fun to watch a little one try to learn and apply the rules of English, especially when it's incorrect! :D

(Look at that sweet, cheesing face... and that amazingly saucy face!)

He also recently discovered his love for trick-or-treating this last go-around. He enjoyed it so much that he has talked about and prayed about thanking God for trick-or-treating and Aunt Meghan's house (where we went trick-or-treating) every single day since. It's really quite endearing, and I'm glad he doesn't fully understand what I mean when I say we have to wait a whole year before we do it again. He's already getting excited for Christmas and I bet that he will be obsessed with it after all is said and done this year! :D

Some of his favorite things to do are to play in the bushes and plants outside our house (or anywhere, really), collect toys in a container and then take them out and throw them all around or tinker with them, go to gymnastics, read books, make his sister laugh by screaming at her, say "no", watch movies (especially Cars, Cars 2, Toy Story, and A Bug's Life) and learn about and play with bugs. Which brings me to the subject of his third birthday party! For a while, I kept asking him if he wanted a Cars theme party, but he kept saying no. Then, it hit me that he would LOVE a bug party. I asked him about it and he said "YES!". I'm a genius, I tell you. :)

I'll post all about his big bug party in the next post. For now, though, I just want to finish by saying how grateful I still am to be Charlie's mom. Even though sometimes he makes me want to scream or pull my hair out or bang my head against the wall, at the end of the day I am always glad that he's mine. That crazy kid made me a mom and is helping me grow and become a better, more patient person every day! Sometimes I seriously worry that I might totally mess him up, and often I blame his bratty behavior on my parenting skills (or lack thereof). I know I can always do better as a parent, but I'm trying to remember that a lot of his behavior goes with the age that he's at, and he's just par for the course as far as human development goes. My biggest hope for him is that I can help teach him how to be a kind, loving, sharing little boy. Someone who is thoughtful and who can compromise. I haven't been focusing as much lately on teaching him his ABCs and 123s as I used to so often. With the time I have to allot to him, I've been trying to teach him how to be nice and share and use his words and help others. Some days are great. Others are total disasters. Hopefully when we emerge from this crazy tunnel called toddlerhood, he will have picked up some good traits that will help him succeed in his life! :)

Lastly, here are just a few pictures of him opening his gifts from the family a couple days after his party. Look how excited he is for presents!

I love my little family! And Trevor looks pretty excited about this gift, too! :)

A tunnel! Like they have at gymnastics!

And some books to try to help get him excited about potty training! Haha.

And this cute little puzzle/playset from my Aunt Kristen.

Happy Third Birthday, Charlie!