Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Happy 3rd Birthday Eliot






Oh three.
 
 

Your 2's brought us some new parenting challenges. Standoffs and discipline and limit testing galore. But also a personality and sense of humor as well as the ability to communicate and ask questions. This has been an awesome year. It's hard for me to even remember what you were like at the beginning of this year, and I know it has been an amazing jump! You are so very able now.

This year you've become interested in other kids, you have friends in the neighborhood now (basically, everyone is your friend because that's what any other kid is to you). You love trains, the Disney Cars movie, and anything related to the character Mater from it. You became a big brother this year...and you're a great one. At first you were a little unsure of how to act around Malcolm, but now you love to cuddle him and talk to him and even give him hugs. You're so gentle and pretty careful. He's already nuts about you and loves to watch you.

You're looking more like a little boy now than a baby. With longer limbs that only have a hint of that beautiful toddler chubbiness at the bends. You're often to busy to sit with me for long, but sometimes you still ask me to cuddle with you. You say "yeth" for yes, "jumpoline" for trampoline, "juice" for water, and you have a friend Tatiana at daycare you you call "Tati-nana". At some point you said "belly buppon" for belly button, but that ended pretty quickly to my dismay.

You are still not potty trained. You are socially and verbally gifted, but still pretty hesitant when it comes to anything physical. You are adorably handsome and complete strangers still come up to me to tell me so. Toot toot.

You'll begin preschool this upcoming fall and that fast march towards adulthood. I can't even believe it. You're going to stop being mine soon, stop wanting me to play with you or hold your hand while you fall asleep. Sometimes you already push me away when I try to hug you or give you kisses. You get so busy, so intense in your playing sometime. You'll sit playing trains for an hour without noticing anyone around you sometimes. Then you'll stop and ask me to "Play with Percy Mama!"

I know you'll stop asking me for cuddles and reminding me that I forgot to kiss and hug you goodbye someday. I try not to take these things for granted, and try not to say no, but sometimes the laundry needs doing or Malcolm needs feeding or I just need 5 minutes to myself. I kick myself every time I skip one of your cuddles because I already know they're so fleeting. So I'm sorry, sorry for every time I said I didn't have time to cuddle right now or didn't come play trains with you. I'm sorry every time I lost my temper. You are constantly asking if people are happy. "Mama, are you happy? Be happy Mama" Oh buddy, I'm never fully angry, just frustrated and tired sometimes but joyful with life underneath it all. Joyful with you little boy. So happy with our little family.

I keep trying my best and you keep blowing me away by what you can acheive. 3 years. So fast....