3 Years Old-I'm a Preschooler Now!

Ok, so I'm a bit late.  Blame it on a crazy work schedule followed by family illness and I'm almost a month late writing Peyton's 3 year old blog.

I know I say this every time, but I can't believe he's 3 already!  Talking in complete sentences, counting, starting to recognize letters and sounds, a puzzle whiz, and making friends like crazy.  The logic of a 3 year old is both dizzying and entertaining.  Peyton will bring up a story that happened 6 months ago like it happened yesterday and then jump to something that happened that day.  He loves to talk too.  He'll talk a blue streak for an hour straight in the car.

He's still such a boy.  He's learned how to ride a bike with training wheels and would do it for hours if we let him.  He still loves his baseball...and soccer, and football, and golf.  He's still in gymnastics, and thanks to our friends and family, will get to take classes again next fall.  He's obsessed with the typical boy things, construction equipment, cars, the movie Cars, Toy Story, dinosaurs, trains, etc.  He loves to go to the zoo and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

As I think all little boys do, he wants to be just like his Daddy.  A recent bag of hand me downs had boxer briefs in it, "like Daddy's" and he only wants to wear those.  Sometimes the only way to get him to eat is to have it be from Daddy's plate.  He also loves to help, almost to a fault.

He's a great big brother, most of the time.  He definitely has difficulty with the concept of "gentle."  Sierra has been knocked down, hit, and smacked more than once.  He does love his little sister though.

We recently changed daycare, which was initially hard on Peyton.  He'd been with Miss Lisa for so long. He's getting used to going to Miss Jamie's now and loves that there are other boys his age there.  I'm happy because she used to teach kindergarden so he often comes home with projects that they've worked on that are educational.  Plus, he's getting a nap again...thank goodness.

With how amazing this age is with the budding of a little person with a mind of their own comes the frustrations of a little person with a mind of their own.  The temper tantrums are epic.  The whining, grating on the nerves.  The inability to fully understand and express causes frustrations in both boy and parents.  The word "NO!" is yelled at least a couple dozen times a day.  Learning how to navigate this age hasn't been easy on any of us.  It's a learning process and a pretty tough one.  The newest thing is possessiveness.  Everything is "mine."

For his birthday we went to Red Robin again this year.  This year he got it.  This year he was excited it was his birthday, he told everyone.  He's three and he's proud.  We also had a "play date" at the park instead of a party with some of his friends.  He had a great time and talked about it for weeks.  Now he's excited about Daddy's and Mommy's and Sierra's birthdays, which he thinks for them all we should go to Red Robin.  Love that kid.  He's awesome and it's such a privilege to get to watch him grow up.

An Anecdote Not To Be Forgotten

I had to write this down since it will probably be forgotten and I don't want it to be.  I just had the most curious and cute exchange with Peyton.  I put him to bed and he was really good because we just started a sticker chart for going straight to bed without crying or calling for Mommy over and over.  Because Zack is out of town and I am doing all the nighttime duties myself I forgot one, going to the potty.  Peyton and I must've had a psychic connection because I realized it and he called for me almost simultaneously about 30 minutes after he went to bed.  We went in the bathroom and he began to tell me something I couldn't quite understand, but it was so cute anyway.  He got on the toilet and began telling a story about his cape and being in the wind and getting knocked down and it hurt.  I was sitting on the stool waiting for him to be done listening to this.  He told me that when he was in his room he was talking to me (pretending) and had told me this story about the cape.  When he was done he went back to bed, I tucked him back in, and he said "Thank you, Mommy for sitting on stool and listening to story about my cape while I was on toilet."  He gave a huge cheesy grin and commenced to begin pretending again in bed, but quietly, so that he can get his sticker in the morning.