My Big 3 Year Old

Making birthday pancakes and out for birthday lunch

My beautiful boy

After his first big boy short haircut

Birthday party fun!

Disclaimer: This post has been in the works for about 3 weeks so any "present time talk" could be a few weeks old.

I just can't believe my baby boy is three years old. Oh it makes my heart clench to think how fast he is growing and I am just so thankful the Lord gave us this precious child.

I was just looking through some photos of him at a year old and it seems like it was just the other day.

All this time I have been thinking of him as a baby and now I'm forced to realize that the chubby legs have become slender and baby babble has become full communicative sentences. I now have this talkative, loving little boy who I love so much it hurts. Ugh, it's late at night and I'm feeling emotional. I need to stop being sappy.

He's just so lovable. Not trying to be the annoying mom who thinks her kid is better than anyone else's but I do think he is fantastic :) Perfect? Of course not. But he is pretty darn special :) No matter what happens in Preston's life, I want him to always know that Mom & Dad are absolutely crazy about him and will always be there for him.

Preston is so fun and entertaining. Just since we moved in our new house in February his vocabulary blossomed and he is constantly spouting off things that just leave us laughing. As sad as it makes me to see his babyhood leaving, it makes me equally as happy and joyful to see this fun age.

He is very smart, loves to count all the time. He counts his food, each step up the stairs, pretty much anything. He counts to 12 correctly and then mixes up the rest to 20 but he's getting there. He knows his letters and we sing the ABC's together...although he doesn't have the order down pat. 

His imagination has taken off and he loves to pretend to be Buzz Lightyear or Woody. He is always running around saying, "To infinity and beyond!" or if we leave a room to do something else he likes to run off and say "to the rescue!" Makes me laugh.

Some big news from the summer is he learned to use the potty and finally gave up the paci (which was for sleeping only). Both terrified me but he did so much better than I ever anticipated. Once he finally "tee-teed" in his little potty and realized what he was actual supposed to do in there, he was trained in just a few days, honestly. He did #2 all by himself when I was in the shower. I was a bit shocked when he told me and sure enough he did! He's had maybe 3 accidents during the day since the summer but he sleeps in Pull-ups at night. He usually stays dry but every now and then he will wet in them. As for the paci, or "blah-blah" as he always called it, we explained that he was a big boy now and pacis were for babies. He was definitely upset but within a day or two it wasn't even a big deal. 

He loves to dance. I guess he gets it from his crazy mama who dances around to random music. I'm just happy that he wants to dance with me. One of our favorite songs to dance to is the Route 66 song that John Mayer sings at the end of the movie Cars. It's our favorite.

And speaking of cars, those are still our current obsession. His birthday party was Cars themed. He began his interest after watching the movie soon after we moved into our new house. We have been collecting the cars ever since then and they are his absolute favorite things to play with. Mommy might share in the collecting obsession too but I think that's okay :) His best friend Carter has the same love for Cars so that's always fun. Carter's mommy shares the collecting obsession with me so that makes me feel better, ha ha, Kim! Who knew two adult women could get so excited about finding a new toy car at the store?!?! Okay, enough Cars talk.

Another thing I love about P is his trying-to-be-serious face. If he's mad or just feeling silly he will get that serious look and look away from us. We always stare back at him with a goofy face and he just busts out laughing despite his best attempts to keep a straight face.

One of my favorite expressions is his closed mouth smile that shows off his dimples. It's just the sweetest little smile and absolutely melts my heart. Those dimples are one of the few physical traits that he got from me. Funny how I used to be embarrassed of my dimples but I'm proud to have them now and I love that my boy and I have them together.

He still loves to eat. His favorites are chicken nuggets, pizza, pancakes aka "panpakes" and waffles, grilled cheese, yogurt, pb&j or pb & banana sandwiches. He LOVES fruit, just about anything. In the summertime we devour watermelon and he also loves strawberries, grapes and bananas. As far as veggies, he likes black eyed peas, corn and green beans. And of course he has a sweet tooth like me and loves doughnuts or "dun-dunts" and anything chocolate..."chock-it". His favorite go-to candy treat is a sucker. Any kind or flavor. Loves them. He still drinks milk daily but he also likes gatorade or sweet tea.

He's so cute when he sits down to eat and says his prayer, "Thank you, Jesus, food, Amen". He will even do it alone if nobody is eating with him and it warms my soul to hear it. We're working on more detailed blessings :)

I want to list of a few more things he says to always remember so here goes.

gone gone - "jone jone"

grocery store - "food store"

spit up - "pits up"

band aid - "and baid"

motorcycle - "motorsucker"

anything that starts with a "c" is pronounced with a "t" (come here - "tum here")  

If we are out somewhere and you ask him what he wants to eat, it's ALWAYS "chicken, fry, ketchup, drink". We sometimes get a "milkshake" tacked onto the end but not every time. Geez...

I know there are more but I can't think of them right now. I'll try to update if I think of them.

He is truly one of the most thankful children. Anything he gets he always runs to Blake or I and says "I love it! Thank you Mommy/Daddy!!!" And it's no exaggeration on the excitement. He kept telling me thank you today when we put up his Christmas tree in his room.

He is such a good big brother. He loves Ella so much and tells us all the time, "I love my little sister." If she cries, he mimics me and tells her "It's okay, little baby" or "Ella, it's okay sweet girl." He usually gets up in the morning before her so when he hears her on the monitor, its "Ella's awake! Let's go get her!" I like to let him go first and watch on the monitor (video) to see what he does and he climbs up on the side so he can peek in and talk to her. It's so precious because she is just as equally excited to see him. This is what happened the other day when I took my eyes off the monitor for a few minutes...

He loves to play with her but he is getting possessive of his toys so we are working on sharing with sister. She is a big fan of his cars so I am constantly telling him to let Ella have one since he tries to sneak them all out of her reach.

And of course it's not a perfect world in our house and meltdowns and temper tantrums do take place and sometimes we want to pull our hair out...just the normal life with a preschooler :)

I wouldn't trade him for anything though.

Well, I guess that's all right now on my boy. I hope to update more often but goodness these babies keep me busy :) Ella's 7 month post is past due so hopefully I will have that one soon!