3 Months Until 3 Years

(Pretend this post was written on Saturday, September 24)

I cannot believe that Jake will be 3 years old in 3 months. He is growing so fast. I have meant to write this for months weeks. Jake is changing so much so quickly, I have to be better at writing it all down. These are just such precious times, I'm so scared that I'll get too busy to stop & enjoy it & remember it. So to help jog my memory, here is where he is at, at 33 months.

•  Typical boy. LOVES cars, balls, outside, climbing, running, etc... When we were unpacking some attic boxes, we found some old matchbox cars of Robbie's. Jake has had the best time playing with them. He loves to make them crash. He will lay on the floor on his stomach playing with them for the longest time. He loves for you to throw a ball to him. He new thing is when you throw the ball, if he misses, he falls on the ground like he was tackled. Love it, already understands pass interference.

•  Loves to read. He is a very good memorizer (is that a word?). At first it was just picture books with rhyming words. But he can actually read most of his books. I'd like to proudly boast that my child can read, but he can't. He just has a very good memory when it comes to books & pictures! I feel like I need to introduce some new books to him. No wonder he can read the ones we have, because we read them all the time! Funny thing is, we actually have tons of books! (My mom was a children's librarian) We just read them all the time.

• Loves to color. He colors with the jumbo crayons or the the Crayola Mess Free Wonder Markers. (I love these things just about as much as he does! [the mess free part!])

•  We are getting back on schedule with the sleeping. He has adjusted pretty well to the new house. I've been very proud of him for napping. They are building a house right beside us. Between the noise of the hammering/sawing and their Mexican music jam fest, it is a little loud. He sleeps through it though. Usually he is so tired from school, he won't even fight me on it. Bed time is still a work in progress. He will not fall asleep unless one of us is in there with him. Laying on the floor until a toddler goes to bed is not the most comfortable thing in the world, but yet it never fails, whoever gets bedtime duty always ends up falling asleep on the floor. I've put up with it this first month, because I wanted him to adjust to being in the new house & in his new room. I'm scared we started a bad habit though. I just don't know how to keep him in his bed. As soon as we leave the room, he is out of the bed looking for us. Once he is asleep though, he is sleeping through the night. Yea! No more joining mom & dad at 3 in the morning!
• Still has very good manners. I love it when he says "excuse me" and "thank you so very much".  Other favorite things I love to hear him say are "have a good day!", "oh brother", "you found my [mommy, daddy, car, etc...]", "hold you".
• He has started singing a lot lately. He won't sing if you ask him to, you just have to catch him doing it. Usually it is when he is supposed to be sleeping. His favorites are Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, the ABC's, I've Been Working on the Railroad, BINGO & the Wheels on the Bus.
• He was doing great on the potty training. Then he relapsed. Bad. But we are back on track & almost where we were before the relapse. I would say that we are 95% potty trained when we are at home & he has to pee. 50% when we are at home & he has to poop. 0% out in public. (I'm too scared to try)
• He is completely loving his new school. The other 2 mom's day out programs we went to in Birmingham, were both very good, but he never seemed to clicked. It was never was bad enough that I felt like he should stop going, I just didn't feel like he loved it. He loves this one. I'm not sure what about it makes it different, but he loves it. I think one thing is his teacher. He loves Ms. Michelle. And she is awesome. He gets upset if she is not the one to get him out of the car in the morning. As soon as he sees her, he runs full speed up to her & gives her a huge hug. It melts my heart and makes me so happy. He loves music class & the playground. He tells me he wants to go see his friends in the morning. As soon as I pick him up, he is blabbering away about everything he did. Love it! 
• This child can talk! He will talk to anyone at anytime. Sometimes he gets to talking too fast & you can't understand him. And sometimes he gets very excited & talks super loud. But he got both of those from me, so what can I do?

So things are going really well. We of course have our moments of tantrums, pouting, brattiness, but overall, I could not have asked for a sweeter, happier little boy. I just love him to pieces & cherish all of these moments.