3-Year-Old James

Our boy is pretty nice.

Lately...

...He LOVES to sing. His favorites are Primary songs like "Follow the Prophet" (which he was heard singing the other day as he ran around the house naked........we are potty training....), "I am a Child of God" and his new favorite "Pioneer Children Sang as they Walked." Every single time we sing it he says, "Why did they wash in streams??" He also loves the Inchworm song and therefore is pretty good at his math (well, at least he knows that 2 and 2 are 4, 4 and 4 are 8, 8 and 8 are 16 and that 16 and 16 are 32!)

...He loves to come up with fun ideas to do. And there are always ten ideas in his list. Because he has ten fingers. He is often seen walking around holding up his ten fingers, all ready to do his ideas. Here is a sample list of James' ideas:

1. Play Duck Duck Goose

2. Play Patty Cake

3. Eat sandwiches

4. Do stuff

5. Eat sandwiches

6. Do stuff

7. Take a bath

8. Play with Daddy when he gets home

9. Check out more books

10. Then PLAY!!

After we complete an idea he puts the corresponding finger down with a resounding, "CHECK!"

...He loves eating breakfast in the morning with Daddy before school. And Mommy loves that he loves eating breakfast with Daddy before school because that means she gets a few more minutes of sleep! I also love that I can lay there in bed and say, "ok, go potty" and he can go all by himself. Most of the time.

...He has to have his room immaculately clean before going to bed each night, or else "the scary dreams will come!" We have to put away anything that is out, and we have to clean up everything in the bathroom, including all of the bath toys that may be in the tub. 

One night last week we had a late night and he fell asleep on my lap. I was too tired to clean up and didn't want to wake him, so I just tucked him in bed and went to sleep myself. In the middle of the night there was a frantic boy yelling, "Mommy! We forgot to clean my room!!" So we cleaned it right then and there.

...He loves Dr. Seuss. We have a big book with thirteen Dr. Seuss books in it, and the other day Jonathan read almost the entire book to him in one sitting. It took over an hour.

...He is (finally) getting pretty good at eating his dinner! He likes to pick a number of bites he thinks he can take, and then he usually takes all of them (even when he picks 27!). Last night he ate an entire baked potato. Later when I tried to put him to bed he was super tired but frantically trying to think of a way to get out of going to bed.

All of a sudden he said, "I just realized I ever finished my dinner!!" (Which really means I never finished my dinner.) I told him that actually yes, he ate a lot of dinner and it was time for bed, but he kept protesting, "I ever finished my dinner!!" Finally in a sad voice he said, "Trust me!! I ever finished my dinner!" What a convincing boy!

By the way, do you notice the dirty sleeves in these pictures? Despite our best attempts, he lately has a permanent stain on his right shoulder from wiping his face at meal time.....