Happy 5th Birthday, Tommy!

You don't even know this blog exists, so when I write to you on here, it's really in hopes that someday you'll be able to read about yourself in our family books.

You are five years old today. On one hand, I have to believe it because it says so on the calendar, and because 2011 minus 2006 clearly equals five. But on the other hand, I really can't believe it because it truly feels like we just brought you home from the hospital just a little while ago. 

I look at pictures of when you were first born, and when you were a tiny tot, and it feels like those days just happened. You'll probably hear us say that more as you get older, and you might hear other parents say that, and you'll probably roll your eyes. But really, until you have children of your own, you'll never realize how quickly time goes by. Someday I hope you'll know what it's like to look at your big five year old and wonder where that chubby giggling baby went. Or the tiny peanut who lay in his crib sweetly (that is, until a few minutes after this picture was taken):

But onward to topics about yourself that you'll care to read about someday:

Personality: You are a classic first-born. You are a rule follower. You are cautious. Ben's fearless activities make you nervous and you often implore him to be careful. Strangely, though, you're very brave and daring when it comes to climbing and jumping over rocks, even (or maybe especially) rocks that are piled high next to the Pacific Ocean.


You're a caring big brother. You continue to love babies. You'll find toys for them to play with, play peek-a-boo, and will push them around the deck in our Little Tikes car. You're so in love with your new baby cousin, Aaron. After visiting with him the other day, you told me, "Mommy, I love Aaron so much. He's so sweet."


You can be quiet and contemplative at times. When we went to the beach recently, you would just stand and watch it for a few minutes. At other times you're a stereotypical crazy, rough boy. There are times when you think about things a bit too hard and overanalyze them. You'll start your sentences with "I'm afraid that..." or "But what if...happens?" I think this comes from your engineering nature. You have a great ability to think about things from all different angles and a few steps ahead. 


You are a joy to be around. We have a routine now where you and I spend about thirty minutes together between the time you get up from your quiet time and when Ben wakes up from nap. We'll read books, play games, or just draw together. I look forward to that little pocket of one-on-one time when we can have fun conversations and I can get to know you a little better every day.


Likes/Dislikes: Your least favorite food is cooked spinach (or any other greens). You actually love raw spinach, preferably surrounded by cranberries, feta, and salad dressing. Watermelon is your favorite food ever. You could eat half a watermelon if we let you.


You discovered a love geography this year when I hung on our wall a map of the world so we could see where missionaries live that we were praying for. We realized that you had a knack for geography when you started to remember the names of most of the countries that are outlined on our map. Geography is often a topic of conversation at meal times since you can look over at the map and ask questions about what the other countries are named, what people there are like, and how long it takes to get there.


Abilities: You are slowly learning to read. You really want to learn how to read, but you get frustrated easily by the drudgery of sounding out all the letters. So we're slowly going through our Bob Books whenever you're in the mood to do some reading. I'm realizing that the way you like to learn is to be shown how to do something a few times and then be given time to figure it out own your own. You always have a stack of books to look at during your afternoon quiet time and I think that's when you apply your reading lessons. Weeks after a reading lesson, you'll read a sentence that I didn't know you knew how to read, and it always surprises me!


I've been working with you on learning some independence around the house. You can make your own lunch now, so long as it is peanut butter and honey sandwich with sides of cheese and fruit. You can also do your laundry from start to finish (although you're enthusiasm for this is seriously waning).


Tommy, I know that some day you're going to be a strong, good man. You have a good work ethic and you enjoy being helpful to others. My main prayer for you is that you would grow up to love and serve God, and I also pray that you would be a godly husband and father someday. Happy birthday, Tommy!


Sidenote: All day today you kept saying things like, "I can't really believe I'm five!" and "I'm not used to being five yet." I have a feeling you're going to enjoy your new year. :)

Ben at 3½

You're three-and-a-half, but you say that you're four when people ask you how old you are. You insist that you answer this way because that's what size clothes you wear, but really it's because you're always trying to find a loophole so that you can be the same age as Tommy. The other day on the playground, a few people asked you how old you are and you said, 'size four!', and of course, they thought you meant that you're four years old. You didn't bother correcting them.


You're a fun-loving little guy and you're usually happy and cheerful. You're still just as physical as ever, and you often get along well with other kids who like to be physical, even if they're one or two years older than you. You're still adventures on the playground, as evidenced in this video, which is just a small glimpse at your skill as a monkey:

Books: You're not really into books, but you'll sit and listen when it's time to read a book. You're enjoying Daddy's reading of The House at Pooh Corner and A Cricket in Times Square.


Food: Peanut butter and honey sandwiches remain your favorite food.


Shows: Since the television hasn't been on in months, (except for a rare occasion when other kids are over and we put on a movie at night), I'm probably going to retire this category, at least for summer time. Ever the warm weather came, I decided to keep the TV off so you kids could find creative ways to spend your time and not keep begging me to watch a show. It worked, and you haven't asked me to watch a show in quite awhile.


Toys: Tools, anything that can be made into a tool. Drums, and anything that can be made into a drum. Tinkertoys frequently become hammers or percussion instruments. But mostly, you play outside and find things to do and games to play with your brother. You really love Tommy and much prefer to do whatever he's doing.

Activities & Skills: You're able to ride your bike completely on your own now, and you don't need us to help you push off. You love to sing. Frequently throughout the day, you'll find a few sticks (see Tinkertoys, above) to bang together and will parade through the house singing praise songs. You can only remember a few words of most praise songs, and then usually inaccurately, so your songs end up sounding something like this, "Nothing our God can do!.....Nothing our God can do!....Nothing that we do!..." (The real song goes, "My God is so great, so strong and so mighty, there's nothing my God cannot do!")


Behavior: You used to be incredibly stubborn, especially when it came to obeying a simple instruction like, "Clean up your blocks." You seem to have left most of your stubbornness behind in your second year. 


These days the behavior issues we have with you are more about the heart. For instance, a little while ago we had a situation where a boy hit you with a stick. He was disciplined by his parent and then he apologized to you, but you refused to forgive him. After praying about it together and talking about it, and then praying and talking some more, you eventually forgave him happily. But getting to that point was a lot more work than I was expecting! 


New things: You recently started pronouncing your "L" sounds correctly and clearly. It's sad in a way, because it means no more hearing the words "bwankie", "wuv", or "pwaybround".


Other stuff: You don't like to do work. If I ask you to put to do what you think is too much work around the house, you'll whine and say, "But my aaaarms don't wooooork!" or "I don't know hoooooow!" We're working on this. You also don't like to walk long distances, but you've gotten a lot better about this in the past few months.


You like to help in the kitchen and you're getting really good at cutting fruit and vegetables with a butter knife. Often I'll give you a pile of carrots or zucchini to cut and you slice everything up for me. You're also learning how to make scrambled eggs.

You really love people. One day you told me, "Mommy, I like to say hi to people because I love them." I believe you! You always say hi to people wherever we are, whether it's a really strange-looking man on the sidewalk downtown or an employee stocking shelves at Target. You're friendly to everyone and ask them about themselves. I have a feeling you're going to be a compassionate and friendly man when you grow up.


You insist on looking at books upside down. You know the right way to look at books, but you like them upside done for some reason. Whenever I fix it for you, you turn it back the way you had it.


I'm looking forward to your 4th birthday, because you'll finally be four and then I can finally stop lecturing you on the importance of telling the truth. Unless, of course, you start insisting that you're five, since you were already four. 

Tommy - 4½ Years

It's been rewarding watching your personality develop more as you've progressed through age four. The newest thing about you is that you are talking a lot. And I do mean A LOT. You are constantly asking questions about everything: "What does ____ mean?", "What's for dinner?", "Why did you turn the car around?", "What are we doing after nap? And after that? And after that? And after..." Sometimes I have patience with your increased chatter, but often I have to say, "It's time to be quiet for a few minutes."

We've also noticed something a bit funny about you. When it comes to climbing and being physically adventurous around the home and playground, Ben has you beat. But when it comes to a natural environment like a hiking trail or the beach, you will scramble over, climb, and jump off of rocks like a monkey. (And equally interesting, Ben is uncharacteristically cautious and timid in these environments).

I've mentioned this in another post, but it bears repeating since we keep seeing this on a regular basis: you LOVE babies, especially ones that are 9 months and older. A calm, tender, and gentle side that we don't usually see comes out when you're around them. You're protective of them and you get so happy when you can make them smile. You also want to take them for rides in your Jeep, but we've nixed that idea.

Books: You love to be read almost any book. Your favorite books to look at by yourself are those that have simple words you can read, like The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss, and those that are about how things work. Some of your favorites are books about race cars, construction machines, trains, and how the body works. A steady favorite is anything by Richard Scarry.


Shows: You're really into trains lately, so we've revived a few old favorites like Thomas the Tank Engine and I Love Toy Trains. In general though, you only watch a few shows a week.


Toys: These days, you spend most of your time outdoors playing made up games with your brother. Today I saw you boys playing "Crash the race car", where you zoomed your bikes around the deck and pretended to crash each other and other imaginary cars. As for inside toys, Legos are your current favorite. Unsurprisingly, your favorite things to build are cars and trucks. 


Activities & Skills: The other day we did our sand-writing activity and I was surprised to see that you know how to write almost all your uppercase letters. There are a few complex ones that you don't yet know how to write, like G and R. 

I've noticed that you learn best when you can figure things out for yourself. For example, with reading, you will show interest in a certain sound combination (say, the "-er" combination), so I'll spend five minutes working with you on learning how to read it and listing out words that use that sound. After five minutes your attention span is spent, so you'll move on to another activity. Then a week later you'll surprise me by randomly pointing out a word with -er that I think you don't know and reading it to me.

You're also more interested than ever in learning your catechism. It's been amazing to see how much you can remember. You seem to be happy with yourself when you can remember all of your questions (you're up to 45 questions now!)

Behavior: Ever since you were about two, we've noted that you go through cycles of good and challenging behavior: you'll be a well-behaved angel for about four months and then go through a short period of very challenging behavior for a few weeks. Right now you're in the midst of an angelic period. I know it's going to come to an end soon, but for right now I'm really enjoying it.


One aspect of your good behavior recently is that you have periods of being very eager to help around the house and learn how to do new things. You're actually becoming pretty helpful. You (sometimes) get excited when it's time to fold your laundry because you (sometimes) like to help me fold things. You're getting really good at folding your pants, and so I set them aside in a pile according to owner and you fold and stack. Honestly, sometimes I'm the one who gets excited because I think laundry folding time will be cut in half for me, only to find out that you're not interested in helping at the moment. But when you are interested, it's a huge help. 


You're also able to put dishes from the dishwasher away. I recently heard a speaker at my moms' group talk about how she rearranged her kitchen cabinets so her small children could help put the dishes away. This sounded good to me, so I tried it that afternoon and was surprised to see that you were able to empty the dishwasher and put almost everything away by yourself! Makes me wonder what else you're capable of...

Quotes: One day we had pot stickers with our dinner. I mistakenly called them dumplings and Daddy corrected me and said they were 'pot stickers'. We kept using both words interchangeably. Finally you declared, "I know! Let's call them Dump Stickers!" We all thought that was pretty funny. 


When talking about how to write letters, you decided, "Mommy, I think that the letter R is kind of like a B, except it only has one bump and then a slide."


While grocery shopping with me, you asked me what the red onions were. I told you they were called 'red onions'. You looked confused and said, "But Mommy, they're purple. They should be called 'purple onions'." A nearby shopper overheard you and said, "Heh, the kid's right!"


"Mommy, I love God more than anything! Even more than you!" (Music to my ears, son!)


"Mrs. ____, I'm very curious about your house! May I see your room, please?"


Sizes:
Shirt: 5 or 6 (depending on the brand)
Pants: 5
Shoes: 11

Tommy at 4 Years

Your fourth birthday is tomorrow. I know every parent says this at some point (or many points), but it really is true that time is going by so quickly. It really seems like we brought you home from the hospital just the other day. But when I turn around, I see this big kid! Who talks to me, and says things like, "Mommy, how does gravity work?" I am amazed every day at how fast you are growing. It hits me at different moments throughout the day: sometimes while doing laundry and folding your size 5 pants and remembering that just a short time ago I was folding your tiny onesies, and sometimes when I realize that you're finally pronouncing the "th" sound when you say, "Can I have another apple?" instead of "anonner" like you've always said. I guess I'm going to have to get used to this growing up thing!

Here are some of your favorites, as deemed by me. Because we know that if I asked you, you'd say you love books about cars, shows about cars, food about cars (oh, wait...) and car toys.

Books: You love the Knuffle Bunny books. It's a good thing these happen to be your favorite, because I don't think I could tire of reading them. over. and over. Millions of Cats is also a favorite. You like to listen to books on CD in the car, and Burt Dow, Deep Water Man is so far your favorite book on CD. We've actually only read it together one time, because it's very long and has a lot of colloquialisms that I can't wrap my tongue around. But you're more than happy to listen to the story on CD for the whole fifteen minutes it takes to read through.

Shows: Cars still holds a special place in your heart, as does Wall-e. You also enjoy watching Little Einsteins--we only own three episodes (via iTunes), but you're content to watch those over and over. You really love our family movie nights. Daddy makes his homemade popcorn and we all watch a new movie together. So far your favorite movies have been Toy Story and The Sword in the Stone. 

Food: You love veggies, as always, and still dislike meat. We've been eating salad with dinner a few times a week, and I've been surprised to see that you actually love salad! For some reason I thought that children wouldn't like to eat lettuce, but you commonly empty your salad bowl. One new development in the past six months is the quantity of food you've been eating. You commonly eat as much or more than I do at meals, and you frequently need snacks in between meals. It's customary to hear, "Mommy, I'm hungry more!" an hour minutes after you've just eaten a meal. 

Toys: You're really into Legos, particularly building Lego vehicles. Besides Legos, you really only play with vehicles of one type or another. You play with your dump trucks and construction vehicles in the sand box and in the dirt, you race your matchbox cars on the floor, and turn your Lego cars into roller coasters and race them across the kitchen counter. It's amazing that your love for cars started when you were as young as nine months old and has continued. Makes me wonder if you'll be a car enthusiast when you're older. 

New things: We're very excited that you're beginning to read. You can read simple words like "cat", "hat", "the", and some words in the "oo", "or", "ch", "ar" families. Daddy was very impressed when he took you with him on an errand the other day and you read a sign that said, "Wet Floor"! I've realized that they way you've been learning to read is mostly on your own. I'll give you a mini-lesson when you seem interested in how to read a word that has a certain sound, like "book", but then later we'll overhear you reading words on your own and trying to sound them out.

We are beginning to see some new aspects of your personality. You are a rule-follower and enjoy telling Ben what he should do and what he shouldn't do. You are growing into your masculine tendency towards protection and often tell us, "Mommy, I'm the one that will protect you!" when we go on walks and there is the potential of a...lizard attack.

Your behavior has been uncannily good lately. We went though a few rough months this summer of serious heart training with you and it looks like we are enjoying the fruits of that...for now...until the next phase that we have to learn how to respond to. But for now we are enjoying a very polite, (relatively) respectful, joyful little boy who is a pleasure to be around.

You're remembering your dreams a lot lately. It seems that you mostly dream about typical little boy subjects, like submarines, trains, rocket ships, and race cars. One particular dream you recounted to us went something like this: "Mommy, last night I dreamed about a rocket ship! There weren't any windows. There were people inside that were yelling because they wanted to get out. And the rocket was on fire!" I was horrified, and thinking of the Apollo 1 fire asked, "Did the dream make you sad? (trying to figure out if it was a nightmare). You answered, "No, it wasn't a nightmare. The people weren't sad. They were just trying to get out." I was really confused at this point, but moved on to another topic.

You are becoming such a fun conversationalist. I genuinely love spending time with you, especially when it's one-on-one time and we can really talk. I'm looking forward to watching you grow out of toddlerhood and into little boy-hood.

Ben Update - 2 years, 6 months

You turned two-and-a-half this month. You are as cute as ever and have a never-ending supply of funny sayings and faces. The latest face is one we call "Pouty Monkey" face, because you stick out your chin and bottom lip and furrow your brow when something doesn't go your way. Except now that we've given it a name and laugh every time you do it, it doesn't have your desired effect.

Tommy is your best friend and favorite playmate. You seem to be lost without your brother, and on the rare occasion when he's not around you just walk around the house moping. You boys love to chase each other around, play hide-and-seek, and a game called "Bad Guys" (we think you picked this up from children at the playground), where you chase each other around and pretend to shoot each other with any object that is vaguely gun-like.

You are warming up to Daddy. We struggled a few months ago because you never wanted to be comforted by him and only wanted me to comfort you (after an injury or discipline). You started having Saturday morning 'dates' with Daddy and we purposed to have you spend one-on-one time with him at other times, and that has helped your relationship tremendously. Now you love to be with Daddy.


Some of your favorites:

Books: We read together as a family, so you and Tommy listen to me read the same books. Some of your favorites are Caps for Sale, Curious George, anything by Lois Ehlert, and you still very much love Goodnight Moon. 

Shows: Wall-E and Bambi are still your solid favorites. You've also become interested in Thomas the Tank Engine.
Food: You are a great eater and you'll eat pretty much anything that isn't a vegetable. We've made some progress with you, in that you'll at least choke down a carrot or piece of broccoli when we ask you to, but overall you try to avoid veggies.
Toys: You like to play with anything Tommy plays with. Your favorites are Legos, your bike, and of course, Matchbox cars.

New things: You are finally telling us when you need to go potty! This is a huge milestone for me, since I've been taking you to the bathroom every two hours for the last six months. Something just clicked in the past few days and you've stopped having accidents, and I've stopped taking you to the toilet. Sweet!

Also in the past few days you've learned to ride your two wheeler bike with pedals! We didn't even bother with training wheels with you (like we did for Tommy) - we just put you on the bike, gave you a big push, and off you went. You're still a bit wobbly, but you're learning quickly. I credit your balance bike with helping you learn how to ride a pedal bike so early and so quickly.

Other: You are very social. You have a habit of walking up to strangers, even adults, and striking up a conversation, just by asking them what they're doing or telling them that you just got a haircut and that you got a lollipop for sitting still. It's so funny to watch, particularly since you couldn't be more opposite from my personality. I am so looking forward to seeing how you grow up and what kind of boy you become as you get older.

Tommy - 3 years, 7 months

It's been quite awhile since I've written an update about you! Life has been very busy for our family in the past two months, so our normal routine of library and playground visits, play-dates, family walks, and puttering around the house has been upended. 


I've heard a lot of frightening things about the age of three, that it makes the Terrible Twos look like a day at park. So far I haven't found this to be true with you. You do have some emotional issues that we are consistently working through (like whining and crying at inappropriate times), but you're generally as obedient as anyone could expect a 3 year old to be.


Your gentle personality is shining more and more as you grow. You share your prized possessions with your brother spontaneously and frequently: one day you got two M&Ms as a potty reward and you said, "Mommy, I want to give one to Benji, because that would make him happy!" (melt my heart). Another time, you gave Ben half of your bread at dinnertime, which is very special because you love bread.

Your drive to help around the house is kicking in too. We've been doing a lot of moving and cleaning in the past two months and you seem to really enjoy helping load up Daddy's truck and unload it into the house. You also enjoy helping me clean, do dishes, and fold laundry. It's a lot easier for me to do these tasks myself, but I'm purposing to stop and take the time to show you how to do these things. We both end up having a good time together, even if the tasks takes three times as long as it otherwise would.


You have a soft heart for animals and bugs. The other day you found a roly poly and carried him around with you for about an hour, until I told you that he would be much happier in nice bush. Full of concern for your new little friend, you took him outside right away and found a new home for him. You're also very friendly with snails.


Books: I've been making an effort to bring very good books into the house, so you've been exposed to many classics lately. Some of your recent favorites are Leo Lionni's The Biggest House in the World, Richard Scarry's What Do People Do All Day?, Dr. Seuss's Hop on Pop, and Esphyr Slobodkina's Caps for Sale.


Shows: You haven't watched much television at all since we started moving. When I do pop a DVD into the laptop for you to watch, invariably it's Wall-e or Letter Factory, since those are your dedicated favorites. 


Food: You are still very much a vegetarian. We've been eating take-out a lot these days (which means a lot of Chinese food), and you positively gobble up all the broccoli and other veggies in sight. You're open to trying new foods, but invariably fall back on your favorites: bread, fruit, and vegetables. 


Toys: Currently your favorite toys are something you call "sound gears". Daddy found them for $2 at a garage sale about a year ago and you're now just old enough to play with them on your own. You create amazing things with them, like this  design you called a "water tractor".

Activities & Skills: You like writing letters and things that you claim are sentences. You will writing a string of your favorite letters (currently H, I, O, and T) and then tell me "This says, 'I love great grandma!'". Your pictures are getting interesting. For a few days you went through a phase where you drew many variations of suns. Here is a "sun man" that  you drew:

Happy 2nd Birthday, Benji!

Happy birthday, my sweet Benji.  

Tommy at 3 Years, 2 Months

This is your second month being a three-year old.  In some ways you seem so grown up that I think you should be starting kindergarten soon (probably because you look like you're five!), and in other ways you are still very much my baby.  You are very sensitive, you startle easily, and you prefer to play on your own rather than with other kids, unless they are your brother, cousins, or other close friends.  You get easily overwhelmed in social settings (kind of like your mom), and prefer to stick close to me or Daddy in these situations.  You love helping me in the kitchen and helping Daddy in his workshop.  

You love playing with Benji and have begun making up games for the two of you to play together.  Your favorite one is a chasing game, where you boys chase each other around the house, and eventually land on the floor together in a scuffle.


Here are some of your favorites:
Books:  Anything about cars, trucks, construction vehicles, fire trucks, or people associated with any of these. Mike Mulligan and His Steam Engine and Trashy Town are your current favorite books.


Shows:  You love Bambi and any show associated with a book that you like.  You currently like the Scholastic Storybook Treasures, which are shows based on books that we read.  You generally like shows or movies that are very mellow and happy.  You scare easily with shows that have any kind of conflict or alarming images.


Food:  You are still a vegetarian at heart, and will only eat a piece of meat if it is drowned in cheese or other sauce.  Your favorite foods are waffles, pancakes, and bagels.  


Toys:  You got a big kid Lego set for Christmas that you really like to build with.  You call them "my little Legos".  


Activities:  You love riding your bike and can go very fast, and can even stand up as you pedal, which you've realized helps you go up hills easier than sitting down.  You enjoy building things.  I think what you do is randomly stack blogs or Legos together and then when you're finished, you decide what the object should be, and usually it's a truck or a boat.  You also like to draw now more than you ever have.  You can draw faces and sometimes even cars and trucks.

New things:  You're completely potty trained now!  You wear underwear for naps and at naptime (no more pull-ups at all!), and you are able to go through the whole bathroom process completely by yourself, from pulling pants down to washing hands.  I'm so proud of you.  You are able to dress yourself on the bottom half, but don't seem to have motivation to learn how to put your shirt or jacket on.  I'm sure that will come some day.  You are enjoying wrestling with Benji more.  You used to scream every time he would tackle you, but I've been working with you on lightening up and playing more physically with Ben, and so now you invite him to jump on you and sometimes you even give him pony rides.
For reference:
Shoe size: 10
Shirt size: 5T
Pants size: 4T
Height: 41"
Weight: 39 lbs

Tommy drawing pictures

Ben at 22 Months

Photo courtesy of Tommy

You turned 22 months on December 1st; that's just two months away from your 2nd birthday!  You are developing quite a little personality and your vocabulary has exploded in the past few days.


Some of your favorites:
Color - Green.  Everything is green to you, and if I ask you what color you want in something, you'll say "Bean!"

Book - Goodnight Moon.  This has been your favorite book for months now. You also like the Gossie series by Olivier Dunrea. You won't sit through too many other books. 
Food - You still love all things meat, but you are starting to eat some vegetables. Just today at lunch you ate all the sliced baby tomatoes on your plate!
Shows - Bambi.  You only watch about 30 minutes of TV a day, a few times a week, but you are in love with Bambi right now.
Toys - Anything that builds. You enjoy Legos, wooden blocks, and anything you can stack otherwise.  Daddy thinks you're going to be an architect when you grow up.


Some new words/phrases:
"No, no, Mommy!" (I'm not liking this new phrase)
"This?" - as in, "What is this?"
"No, mine!"
"Hi, Mo-mo!" - Hi, Nemo


You are cruising slowly into the Terrific Twos and I'm happy to say that this time, I'm one step ahead of the game!  I remember from my Terrific Experience with Tommy that this is a relatively short phase that we both have to get through, so that you can be a joyful and obedient child by the time you reach your third birthday.


You are generally obedient (thanks to early training), but a few times a day you'll decide you want to do things your own way and will throw a fit, complete with red-faced kicking, screaming, and rolling around on the floor.  Case in point: The other day we were at a friend's house and you purposely spilled your juice on the floor because you didn't want to sit down on the chair to drink it like I asked.  I did what I normally do when you spill and handed you a towel to clean it up, but you refused. I gave you a few chances and minor chastisement, but still you resisted.  So we paid a visit to the bathroom for a formal chastisement and then returned to the spill. Still you resisted.  We went back to the bathroom and again returned to the spill. Finally you wiped the spill!  It was a ten minute ordeal, but well worth the effort if it meant that you learned that tantrums don't get you anywhere.


Back to happy things...you are "all boy", as some like to say.  You love to climb as high as you dare and you dare to jump off of things as high as 3 feet tall.  You are also learning to climb more challenging venues - just this morning I found you sitting on top of counter in the kitchen and I have no clue how you got there.  You can climb things on the playground that your big brother doesn't dare do yet.  You like to wrestle, though you have a hard time finding a willing partner.


You are a very social boy. You are attracted to other children, even if they are considerably older than you, and you try to talk to them and get them to play with you.  You make me smile and laugh about 128 times a day.  :)


Some boring stuff, so Mommy can reference in the future: 
Shoe size: 6.5
Shirt size: 3T
Pants size: 2T

Tommy's 3rd Birthday

Tommy turned 3 this weekend!  As in previous years, we decided to keep gift-giving to a minimum and so came up with other ways of making his day special.  On Thursday night we went to the grocery store to pick out his “Special Happy Birthday Cereal” (his words).  He chose Cap’n Crunch Berry.  Sugary cereals are a rarity in this house, so this was a huge treat to him.  When he woke up on Friday morning (his  birthday) the first thing he said was “Is it time to eat my Special Happy Birthday Cereal?”  So we got right down to business and munched away on our partially hydrogenated treat.

After breakfast it was time for a Mommy-Tommy date.  We went to Peet’s to get a kids’ hot chocolate and a pumpkin spice latte for Mommy, another rare treat for  both of us.  Then we went Barnes & Noble to pick out a Happy Birthday Book.  Despite many good book suggestions (dare I say ‘pleadings’), he picked out a ‘junk food’ book that contained four pages of holographic images about trucks.  Sigh.  But it was his birthday, so the book was his choice.

After the bookstore, we headed home for a hot dog and french fry lunch (Tommy’s choice of foods).  Mommysettheovenonfire* so we ended up going to a local hot dog joint instead.  Tommy got a hot dog and a WHOLE bag of chips to himself, another big treat, as the boys normally split a small bag of chips.

After a long nap time, it was time for dinner, this time pizza (Birthday Boy’s choice).  After pizza, he opened his present, which was a set of Automoblox.  To say that he loves these cars is an understatement...he is in love with them.

On Saturday we had our family party and got to celebrate Tommy’s birthday with the whole family.  Another part of his gift from us was a fire truck cake that I made.  I made it Friday afternoon and he kept asking to see it in the fridge every 30 minutes.  He was so very happy during his party when it was time to blow out his candles and eat his fire truck cake.  I think Tommy had a great time on both Friday and Saturday, and best of all (from a parent’s perspective), he felt special doing things, rather than getting things.

* The night before, I had put a few sticks of butter to warm up in the still-warm oven, then forgot about them.  So when I preheated the oven to 450 degrees, it caught the butter on fire and made our house billow smoke.  Mark was home and put the fire out with the extinguisher.  The extinguisher left a fine powder all over the house, so the Happy Birthday Parents had to spend nap time cleaning the house.

Tommy at 33 Months

You are so close to becoming a 3 year old!  In many ways, you are already there.  We’ve noticed an increase in, shall way say, challenging behavior, that lets us know the Terrific Threes are on their way.  


You just started telling stories in the past few weeks.  They go something like this:  Yesterday, I saw the farmer, and he went up the ladder, like this [imitates climbing].  And then he fell down.  And he got a big ow hurt.  And then he went up the ladder, like this, and he fell down.  And then he played trucks.  They’re so entertaining and we can definitely see a lot of your daily life in them!  


Your favorite books:  I’m Dirty!, I Stink!, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!, and Green Eggs and Ham.


Your favorite food:  You’ll eat almost anything except meat and fish.  Your favorites include strawberries, blueberries, cheese, tomatoes, and broccoli. These are things we can put on your plate, look away for 10 seconds, and find them scarfed down. Of course, you also love crackers, pizza, and hot dogs, but what kid doesn’t?


Favorite activities:  Playing legos.  You like to build “tall tall towers” and then carry it around the house to show Daddy and me, at the risk of it being knocked down by Little Brother.  You also like to color with markers and crayons.


New things in your life
We’re working on memorizing simple Bible verses and you’re very good at remembering.  This week’s verse is “Even a child is known by his deeds.”  I explain the verses as best I can in 2-year old terms and I’m hoping someday it will all sink in and help you be a good boy.  


You also have a new Habits Chart.  Each morning after breakfast and each evening before bedtime you have a series of ‘habits’ you complete on your own with very little help from me.  In the morning you clean the table after breakfast, brush  your teeth, use the potty, and then dress yourself.  You’ve always been resistant to learning to dress yourself, but lately you’ve been insisting on doing it, I think because it helps you complete your task on the chart (sounds a lot like Daddy!).  In the evening you clean up your toys throughout the house, brush teeth, use the potty, and put your PJs on.  You seem to really like following a series of ‘habits’ that you can do all on your own.  

You’re also starting to do chores.  Each day you have a chore that corresponds to my own.  While I’m dusting tall furniture, you are dusting the shorter furniture.  You also help with sorting your laundry while I’m folding.  


I can hardly believe you’re almost 3 years old!  In so many ways you still seem like a little toddler, but in many other ways you are a very big boy.  I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of a 3-year old you will be.