SCW - 3 years old

Stats

31 lbs 8 oz (52%)

37.75" (59%)

What an anticipated birthday this one was! He had asked multiple times a day, every day, for a month, when would his birthday be. Celebrating is something that comes natural to Shep! I am so glad Shepherd is in our family. He has so much joy in his little body, when he gets happy (which isn't hard) it practically bursts out of him. He definitely has his meltdowns but overall he mostly just LOVES LIFE.

Let's jump in with some quotes shall we:

At the carwash...

"Is that tickling you car?!"

"I pooped a family!"

Darlene asked him if he was going to put back a bug back in the mud that he picked up.

"No..."

Well then what are you going to do with it?

"Love it." (pets it softly)

He hoards/carries around small objects constantly, the trinket/piece of junk usually rotates every few days. For a while he carried around a tiny, light blue bible that Zach was given when he was born. I was caught of guard driving in the car one day when he yelled from the back....

"I can't. Find. JESUS!!!!!!!!" (furiously thumbing through the tiny pages.)

"Why they call it juice, mom?"

Because they take the juice out of an orange and you drink it.

"How they get the juice out?"

They squeeze it all out.

(big eyes) "They POP the orange?!"

"I peed! I did it all by myself. I promise!"

"I JUST WOKE UP!" He sits at the top of the stairs every morning and every afternoon (after nap) and yells this until someone responds. He is our very best sleeper. It's rare if he gets up before 8am, he might wake up earlier than that but he loves to just lay in bed and take his sweet time adjusting to not being asleep. He will take a 2-3 hour nap most afternoons if I let him too.

What a lover he is. Constantly hugging and kissing, telling us he misses us, or is proud of you, or loves you. I literally can't get enough of him.

He's a great buddy. If you are working on a project (like Zach frequently is), Shepherd is very content to just sit with you and watch or hand you things you need. He never complains that he's bored and acts genuinely interested in what you are doing. I'm serious when I say, he's just a good little buddy to have work next to you.

The unfortunate thing about having an older brother is that I feel like he has skipped over some things. For instance Reagan at this age was super into Thomas the Train, Shep has almost passed over that entirely and moved onto things like Transformers and the Avengers.

Verbally he is off the charts. The kid talks and talks and talks. He recites stories and memories, has a vivid imagination and figures out (using context clues) what a new word means without much help from me. Physical coordination wise....ehhhhh....let's say we are still working on that. Accident prone would be accurate. It still surprises Zach and I sometimes the weird ways he figures out how to hurt himself. He has the scooter action figured out but pedaling a tricycle is still going to take some practice. We're good with small motor skills actually, he's got scissors down pat and holds writing utensils correctly. Side note; I remember when Reagan was in preschool they commented on us needing to work on scissor-use at home and I remember thinking "scissors?! I totally forgot that was a thing. Like a thing you need to teach someone to do!"

He is going to preschool in the fall! Two mornings a week for 2.5 hours. He'll go to Calvary United Methodist which is literally walking distance from our house and Reagan went there as well. I think he's going to love it. And I will too =)

Reflecting back on parenting Reagan at this age (and just in general, the first child verses second child thing) I am much more confident as a parent this time around. I don't feel embarrassed if my child acts a certain way and I'm much more quick to recognize what a gut feeling is (and subsequently act on that feeling.) I have pretty much resigned to the childhood scapegoat of everything being "just a phase." Biting, tics, insomnia, etc. It has helped to me to be much more relaxed and present and therefore find joy in each stage. These will be the "good old days." It hit me h a r d the other day that there will come a time in life when I will look at someone who is chasing after  little ones who kick at you and arch their back because they don't want to be redirected (from bodily harm I might add) and actually yearn to have those moments back. I am the farthest from having it all figured out, waking up to rock a teething toddler back to sleep sucks but reflecting on it makes it all seem sweet. So i'll reflect, to remind myself when it happens again tonight to have a better attitude about it.

I interviewed Shep to hear his thoughts and opinions at age 3. I made sure to detail his perfectly chubby fingers and toes. I needed to before I nibbled them right off. 

Celebrating his birthday...

I died to myself and got some Avengers themed things. I know that's dramatic but Zach gave me a literal pat on the back over it. I would do it 1,000 times over because it made Shep SOO happy. 

Zach's dad worked on this (once blue) truck for months. Shepherd is obsessed with Chris' red truck and so like the Grandpa he is, he painstakingly customized this one to look identical. It's one of those gifts where we're all like "yay be excited to open it but ohmygosh please don't touch it too hard because it's kept a hobby shop open during their slow season for all the things your grandpa has purchased for it." You know, one of those types of gifts.

 Well. This cake was not my best work. If Shepherd asks, that was the reddest frosting you've ever seen.

There is something sweet and a little nostalgic about pictures lit from birthday candles. Its one of my top favorite things in mom-life. Another is watching my kids play in the backyard. A third is when my boys' starting getting brown, sun-kissed skin in the summer.  

We ended the night by having some BP with the new bat he got. 

Reagan at three here and here.