Category / Family

I went back and forth about whether or not to continue blogging in the new year…while I have always done it first and foremost for my own record keeping, there’s always a pressure to “keep it up”. TBD on that decision, but in the meantime, a little life update:

While I’m no longer at my day job (big life change #1), my side hustle kept me quite busy all through the fall and into December. The change in seasons also brought a big career move for Page (big life change #2). Now that the holidays are behind us and the winter lull is starting to set in…it’s only a couple short months until life’s pace picks up yet again…this time, with the arrival of a fourth family member (do you see a pattern here??).

photo credit: April + August Photography

April will bring a baby sister to round out our clan, followed soon after by another milestone change when Crew climbs on a big yellow bus and starts kindergarten (what?!) this fall. It’s an exciting time in our family life that seems to be both much of the same day to day, but also busily speeds forward the moment we blink.

So please excuse the infrequency of the posts here while I figure out if blogging makes the priority list this year. I’ll leave you with a couple more shots of the (very much in progress!) room updates for our little lady. Happy new year, friends!

All traces of toddlerhood are long gone — full on kid mode is here. FOUR.

We kept your birthday low-key this year, having a couple friends over for pizza and cake, then heading to the nearby bowling alley.

The celebration was small, but this personality is not. Happy FOUR to our main man!

Four years have both flown by and lasted forever. Our happy, articulate, goofy, energetic, kind-hearted, friendly-to-a-fault guy has been on the earth for 48 months and counting.

The consistency in writing your name on one line (not in a loop) continues to improve (you signed all your own thank you notes for Christmas and your birthday!). You can count to 39 but need to be reminded of “Forty…Forty-one…” to keep going. You are quickly grasping the concept of sounding out letters you recognize and with (a lot of) help, are reading a few simple sight words.

Your drawing has evolved in a huge way — you actually dissect what you’re trying to draw and recreate it in your own way (a circle and eight lines to be a spider and eight legs, instead of not so long ago, a circle scribble several times over and done). People have eyes and arms and legs in your drawings. I find it so interesting to watch this particular area of development, because it’s such a big glimpse into how you think. You drew a “favorite food” the other day and started with toppings for a pizza, then drew the triangle slice AROUND the toppings, instead of what I would have done — draw a triangle first then fill it in with details. Your different perspective is so fun to see.

You’ve become much more interested in full-length movies (and parent shamers beware, you’ve seen –and been relatively unscathed by– all of the Jurassic Park movies). You saw your first movie in a theater with all of us over Thanksgiving (the new Grinch film) and LOVED every second of it. Dinosaurs are high on the list of current interests, along with a soft spot (still!) for garbage trucks, and any kind of gun/blaster/sword/weapon in general. You’re on the right team at least — you’re always playing some version of “get the bad guys”. Outer space, reading, painting, and just about any project with Dad all rank high on your list of favorite things.

The holidays were especially magical this year as you FULLY grasped the concept of Santa (you had MANY questions for him when you met him) and yet were very engaged and excited about shopping, wrapping, and giving on behalf of everyone else, taking particular care this year not to spoil surprises.

You’re still pretty easy to please in terms of gifts and bang for our buck — when people ask what you got from Santa you most often reference the “giant lolly” of all things (a five dollar piece of plastic filled with ten Dum Dums inside). Sugar and candy rank high for you in general right now (but consequently, you’re trying MANY more foods now with the promise of a treat if you do so).

You were ecstatic to finally get some snow and though you’re still not a huge thrill seeker (sledding is cool only if the hill isn’t too high or fast) you LOVE snowball fights and shoveling with Dad. You’d live in jammies all day every day if we let you, only taking them off to take half hour long spa showers. Forever a spa baby! At 35 pounds and 39 inches, you rolled into four asking for a bowling date with a couple friends for your celebration. We kept things low key this year with a pending trip to Disney — The celebration continues soon at the most magical place on Earth!

Happy four years and counting to our very favorite human. You fill our hearts and make us so proud every day!

Another quarter of age 3 has flown by. More independent than ever, so many little day to day details are changing and oh so grown up. You climb up on your stool and brush your own teeth (with a double check after), bring your dishes to the sink after dinner, rarely need a reminder to try and use the restroom, get your own clothes on (depending on the shirt – those are still tricky!) – and they’re usually on the right direction 😉 More than once, you’ve woken up and come downstairs without us hearing. You grab your milk cup out of the fridge and climb onto the couch with the iPad and let us continue sleeping ha!

Summer was oh so good to us. There was SO much swimming and trampoline jumping and running around with the neighbor kids. Again, new levels of independence as you’ve been allowed a yard or two over – I won’t lie, we’ve enjoyed it, too, able to have a glass of wine on the patio or grill dinner while having an uninterrupted conversation. 🙂

Your vocabulary and complex thoughts continue to amaze us. Just today at the park you told me you could do something that was a “big kid skill (skill?!) and I can do it because I’m a big kid because I’m almost four”.

We are equally as entertained by the mix-ups that still happen. As of late, you replace the word “respect” for when you mean “expect”. So instead of “that’s what I expected to happen” it comes out more like, “that’s what I’m respectin!” (You still rarely put a -g on the end of any word that ends in -ing. It’s all “pizza toppins” and “jumpin” and “roarin”.)

Speaking of roaring, the Jurassic Park love is real and you will sit through a good bit of any of the movies, captivated. You can name many of the kinds of dinosaurs and often impersonate them for us. The planets and stars are a new thing in your world and you ask almost nightly if you and Dad can go outside and look for them, after rockstar Dad showed you an app on his phone that lets you point it at the sky and learn what’s what. I do love that you’ll still enthusiastically take on some art projects with me – painting continues to be your favorite. You still want to clarify on Thursdays that it’s garbage day, but the need to run outside every Thursday is dwindling. How funny is it that I can’t quite type that fact without a little eye-watering. 🙂

You love to do your version of break-dancing, and your favorite jams vacillate between “Ice Ice Baby” and “I Wish (I Was A Little Bit Taller)”. You’re obsessed with the idea of Easter and desperately are trying to grasp the concept of weeks and months to get a grip on just when that bunny will show up again with eggs.

Breadsticks are probably your favorite food at the moment, and you can take down nearly a whole slice of Costco pizza in one sitting. Donuts still rank high for you, but you still won’t touch chocolate milk. You’ll eat a handful of various vegetables but if we make a salad, you’re disgusted that we’re “eatin’ leaves!”. A lot of play revolves around pretend food and food prep — you still love to play restaurant or food truck with your tent or kitchen and take orders and deliver them. Maybe a restaurant career in your future?

Letters and sounds and early reading is clicking for you at a rapid rate. They’re in no linear order, but you can write each letter of your name without having to look at an example. It’s hit or miss but you can often tell us which letter a word starts with, and vice versa if we name a letter, you can (usually) come up with a word that begins with it. You’re sounding things out and you like to follow printed words and make up what they say, but sound as if you’re really reading them carefully. Long story short – you’re pretty desperate to be a reader, and soon.

Like any kid, you have a couple “hard no” things that you’re afraid of (tunnel slides are still one!) but when it comes to people, you are so certain of yourself. You’re always the first to initiate a new friendship, walking up and starting the conversation, and I can actually SEE you match pace with another child as a way to get closer to them — if they’re into something specific, you match their interest in it, or ask questions, or laugh at something silly they’re doing as a way to engage. You are sometimes annoyed if I jump in to the conversation — like if you could, you’d say, “Mom get OUT of here, you’re ruining my cool factor”. 🙂

You’re high on life, that’s for certain. You love as fiercely as ever and tell us as much all the time without any kind of prompt. I hear you repeat things we say to you, but you MEAN them when you say them — “Oh Dad, I’m so proud of you for moving that big box all by yourself you must be so strong” or “Mom it makes me really happy that you brought me that snack, I’ll give you a hug because I know you love hugs”. <3

You can stall bedtime, be the most selective listener, and (annoyingly) pout and cringe at meals we put in front of you, but you make up for it all with a huge heart, great manners (most of the time), the silliest sense of humor, and an attitude that is all-in for any kind of adventure. We’re so crazy proud of the little person you’re becoming as you transition out of these toddler times and join the ranks of truly being a “kid”.

Love you fiercely.

Mom

It’s the summer your freckles arrived. <3 Just in time for Three and a Half.

Let’s jump right in!

We got a SLOWWWW start to spring (snow through April!), but we managed to tough out plenty of adventures while we waited for the warmer temps to show up.

It helped that you’re getting more and more content to play with one activity at a time, for a longer period of time. Water beads and this science kit have been a serious win lately!

Some of the latest details about you and your world…

You detest stickers, but love stamps and temporary tattoos.You’re clocking in at 37 pounds and change, and stand about 39″ tall on a good day.

You love nothing more than when it’s “daddy, mommy and me — ALL of us!” doing something together, even better if the family is extended beyond just us.

You truly hate to disappoint us or be in trouble, and I’ve gotten a much better understanding of the term “threenager” this quarter — lots of dramatic emotion when you’re sad/upset and you can well up with real tears at the drop of the hat!

This seems to be especially true on days you skip a nap — which is why we’re keeping them for now! You fall asleep around 9 most nights, still often end up in our bed somewhere after midnight, and are up at 7 or so, still napping 1.5 to 2 hours most days.

Your eating habits continue to improve…your yes category is still significantly smaller than your no category, but you’ve expanded which veggies you’ll eat, you’ll try a taste of most things with coaxing, and you blew my mind when my HARD NO TO PASTA kid asked for spaghetti for dinner. We ordered some, assuming it would be our next day lunch for work, but you proceeded to eat a ton of it. Now if you would just give mac ‘n’ cheese a chance….it would change your life.

You’re trying really hard to grasp the concept of time – minutes, hours, months, and annually occurring events like holidays and birthdays. “How many minutes?” “What comes after Easter?” and “after I wake up from bedtime?” are common questions as you try to piece it all together. Even if it’s still months away, every week it’s something new you want to be for Halloween (most recently an acorn, before that a butterfly, before that a ghostbuster). Good thing you have some time. 😉

We took our first vacation in over a year that was more than a quick overnight road trip, back in May. Let’s just say you were born to vacate — you ask weekly to go somewhere new again. It was such a treat to unplug for a few days and just be super present with little itinerary. I think you picked up on our lack of stress and distraction — in short, we had FUN!

Your coordination and bravery are increasing — we opted for a Ziggle for a new outdoor toy lately and it did not take you long to figure out how to propel yourself around and spin out in circles!

By far a highlight this quarter was a trip to the McNeilus plant on our way to a Twin Cities weekend with friends. After your news segment about loving garbage trucks went viral, the incredible team at McNeilus invited you to come tour the campus where they manufacture trucks for, among others, Waste Management. To say you were in heaven is putting it mildly! 😉

We were so touched by the generosity of this company – they gave up their afternoon to show you around, let you test drive some of the trucks that were ready to ship out, and sent you with so much swag to take home!

The same trip took us to catch up with good friends who moved out of town, and they showed us around their new digs including the Minnesota Childrens Museum, and some other favorite kiddo haunts around town. The shot above doesn’t do this museum justice — you were literally bouncing about four floors up and surrounded by windows, among the St. Paul skyline!

You live for trips to the pool and are all about swimming independently as much as you can — you’re at that tipping point of being able to swim independently, but you aren’t nearly as good as you THINK you are — so we are watching you like a hawk, and when we want a little backup, we still bust out the puddlejumper. 🙂

Three, just like every other age, is proving to be oh so fun. And as much as you love to tell us we’re “your favorite mommy and daddy” — you are OUR favorite, through and through, Little Man.

Keep spreading your magic.

Love,
Mom

And just like that, we’re a quarter of the way through three already.

So many sound effects, super powers, gruff lower-octave tough-guy talking. “I can do ANYTHING!” attitude and frequent mention of “protecting” people and “saving the day”. Lots of live action pretending to be the PJ Masks, the ghostbusters, and a T-Rex. You are ALL. IN. when it comes to the world of imagination. And you have BIG reactions to things right now, often with catch phrases you’ve memorized from characters you love.

All letters. All the time. You want to read so badly — you insist on “reading” (memorized) books and you stop at every sign, shirt, etc. to spell out the letters. You ask what signs say or make up what they say, speaking in a dialect that suggests you are sounding out whatever the (made up) text reads. You are starting to connect letters and the sounds they make, and words with the same sound. Several times when reading a book with you, you will go through a whole page of text and name each letter. You’re trying to tell time and you can correctly count up to thirty and are so much better at tracking items that you’re counting (you rarely skip or double-count something anymore).

Your eating habits are slowly loosening up. Several times you’ve tried a bite of something new without so much as a second ask by us (or something even a first!) and while I’d still absolutely categorize you as a picky eater, we can find something on just about any menu that you will happily eat now. Phew. (Although noodles of any kind are still a hard pass!) We continue to get the reports from school that you are a “really good eater” now (?!) and will try just about anything they put in front of you. I chalk it up to peer pressure from your friends!

You are mastering the scooter you got from the Easter Bunny. It wipes you out, but you can rotate swimming freestyling and rolling to your back for a break when needed, back and forth until you swim the width of the pool at swim lessons. You have just enough confidence that you can get around in water, that I’m a little nervous for pool season ha! You continue to play soccer through a school program and I was impressed how much better you were when we got the net out recently, after a few months of snow.

You’re up over 3 pounds from your well check in January, and at least another inch in height. Most of your pants are suddenly too short — yet another reason we need shorts season to just start already! You’re in 2T bottoms for the most part with a few 3s mixed in, and firmly size 3T in tops. We recently had to replace all shoes in the next size up as well. All that growing is helping you sleep better — the phase that lasted ALL of fall and through the holidays where you’d come into our bed most nights somewhere after midnight, has nearly vanished. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve woken you in our bed. You’re an easy one to bunk with, but I’m okay that we have our space again. 🙂 You’ve skipped a nap a few days here and there, in particular if it’s a day you slept in that morning, but other days you can easily snooze for a couple of hours. We play it by ear anymore and I’m just grateful we’re into age three without really ever “fighting” naps when they’re needed.

You continue to love to cook (in the kitchen for real and as the chef in a restaurant in your play kitchen). You’ve branched out significantly in the toys you want to play with, but garbage trucks still have your heart, and the local news station even recently stopped by to film a segment about the love affair. When we read, you gravitate heavily toward the alphabet-based books. You are turning into quite the entertainer and like to try and make us laugh. “Guys! Watch THIS!” is also a repeat phrase right now.

You show SO much of both your dad and me in that we want to be experts in something and correction is sometimes hard to take. 🙂 But when it comes to language and learning new words, we’ve both remarked how amazed we are with how you process. We see examples like the following nearly daily: you were making a comment about the grid design in our doors and said something like “look, there are five windows in this door” and your dad said “yeah, there are five panels”. “Panels? Did you say panels, dad?” “Yes buddy, panels.” “Panels. Yeah there are five PANELS.” You are just unbelievably thirsty to learn all the words, you’re determined to get them right, and it’s the one thing you will let us correct you on.

We love watching you learn and grown and figure the world out, one step at a time. I love seeing big boy traits like compassion and protection coming out more and more, and of course your unwavering enthusiasm and positive attitude about everything, just makes the day brighter. You can of course test us like any three year old can, but we’re grateful nothing seems to bum you out for very long, and you bounce back quickly. Looking forward to more of this fun year we call three.

All the love,
Mom

You turn three this week. (Excuse me while I clap for joy and choke back a lump in my throat, all at once!)

Sometimes I can’t believe this birthday is already here, and yet I often forget you’re only 36 months new in this world. You have moments where you’re already wise beyond your years, you’re a smart little cookie, and the number one thing we hear is how verbal and outgoing you are for your age. So yes, I suppose the math is right and you’re due to turn three. And yet…didn’t we just meet, in a hospital room, in the middle of the night, in a snowstorm?

Cut to three years later. You have a lot more hair and a personality that makes me burst with pride. You’re uber-friendly, love fiercely, are developing a sense of humor and like to tell us your version of a joke, then say you’re “just kidding”. You thrive around people and have never met a stranger. You’re positive and excited about any and every experience, you want to know everyone’s names, and you’re full of questions about everything.

You love to play games where we’re all together. You sing All. The. Time. (real songs and ones you make up) and get especially excited about spotting water towers when we’re in the car. You love to cook (imaginary but prefer the real deal) and mazes and magnets are high on your list of interests. It goes without saying, but this is all still secondary to garbage trucks and anything associated (the trash can aisle at Target is one of your faves). You are no happier than when you have a special job or task to do, the most popular of which is bringing all the trash cans in the house to dump into our large kitchen one — whether or not it’s trash day.

You’re freaked out by thunder, noodles, and tunnel slides. In that order. I’m happy to report that after months (seriously, since maybe September?) of you coming into our bed within a couple hours of bedtime nervous to sleep by yourself, you now make it most nights on your own until 5 or 6 before coming in, and once in a while, we don’t see you until morning. #progress

Everything that has already happened, happened “last week”. It could have been this morning, or a month ago — it was all “last week”.

Your manners have improved dramatically — way less reminders to use “please” and “thank you” — and you’ve started to say them with overly dramatic emphasis, especially with our Elf on the Shelf, Dash. (“THANK YOU for my gingerbread house, Dash!!!”)

You would prefer to stay in jammies all day, but when you do get dressed, you still don’t fight me on whatever I want to put you in (yay!). You particularly love shoes and when a new pair appears, you ask to wear them around the house immediately. It makes it hard not to shop for you, when you seem to appreciate it almost as much as I do! I had to laugh at Thanksgiving — I had to wake you up VERY early from a nap so you were less than thrilled about anything, including getting dressed. But when you spotted yourself in the mirror wearing your bow tie and suspenders, you broke into a grin and checked yourself out. So funny!

You moved up to the three-year-old room at school this month. We talked about it beforehand but you were sad and still had a couple tears come day one as you missed your previous teacher. Two days in, you excitedly told me you were headed to the new room that day — it’s been back and forth on levels of enthusiasm and you miss your old teachers and classmates, but you are definitely thriving.

We didn’t realize just how ready you were for the move up. You are tasked with filling your own plate at meals (and we hear you are eating better, as a result!), pouring your own drinks and ditching your pacifier for naps (we followed suit at home and within a week you no longer asked for it at naptime – you love to declare now that because you’re big you only use it at nighttime). You get to enjoy new freedoms like playing on the BIG KID playground instead of the toddler one, and a whole new set of toys and activities to peruse each day. Your previous teachers (and others) have noted several times how verbal and outgoing you are. It’s been refreshing to see you be able to have more significant conversations with your peers now that you’re with this older group. You are always “that kid” giving everyone hugs and enthusiastically yelling out “hi [Name]!” to each friend. In your previous room, depending on a two-year-old’s mood, you may or may not get anything in response, and I could tell it was starting to hurt your feelings when it happened. My favorite thing about this new, older, age group is all the reciprocated conversation and enthusiasm you’re experiencing from the other kids. You play it cool, but sincerely grin at all the “Bye, Crew! See you tomorrow!”s when I pick you up now.

New favorite foods this quarter are pizza, strawberries, pancakes, and gingerbread anything. Texture is still a big thing for you. You’ve started to actually eat little hard candies (smarties, etc) that before you would just suck on and spit out, nervous to chew. You are still hit or miss on trying a bite of something new, but if we catch you in the right mood, it DOES happen. You are still an avid milk drinker, but won’t touch chocolate milk (or hot chocolate as we’ve tried a couple times this season!).

Of course, you went as a garbageman for Halloween. And I can’t wait to share a separate rundown of your “Trash Bash” 3rd birthday party! Garbage trucks are still your favorite toys — and as many as we seem to collect, they all serve a different purpose and have a spot in your heart! (They are also excellent for hauling around another little treasure — your safety coins that you earn at swim lessons!) It’s so fun to see as you grow which things become “treasures” in your world.

Speaking of swimming, you are still doing weekly lessons and making great strides. But the thing that really gets you pumped up (and frankly, out the door on Monday mornings) is the promise of soccer practice. You’ve been doing a weekly program at school with some of your classmates and you are ALL about it. You also love kicking a ball around with us at home. Thank goodness for Dad; you’ve already passed me up in dribbling skills.

You’d think all this activity would keep you needing sleep but alas, after three very grateful years of a 3.5+ hour napper (and 12 hours at night), you’re finally cutting yourself back. In part, I think because of the lack of a paci now at naptime, and I think you’re just outgrowing the need for so much sleep. A typical day is now 1.5 to maybe 2 hours, and you aren’t ready to truly fall asleep until closer to 8:30 or even 9, still sleeping until about 7:30 most mornings. (You went ONE day without a nap and promptly passed out, HARD, when we got in the car to go somewhere at 5:30 that evening, so I don’t think you’re ready to drop it altogether!)

The holiday season was especially fun this year as you could grasp more of the concepts and the real “magic” has begun to set in. We took you on a Polar Express train ride and you were SO. EXCITED. to see Santa come on board to hand out jingle bells.

You got so excited for Christmas lights on all the houses, and spent every December morning checking on Dash, our elf, to see what crazy thing he’d been up to. You make everything more fun and we’re so lucky to have known you these last three years. Our hearts burst for you when you’re excited, and ache when you’re sad, and we know there’s so much more of that to come. We can’t wait to see what is in store for you as you make your way to four.

Happy birthday week, little light. Thanks so much for picking us for this parenthood adventure.

(Shout out to  April + August for the family and lollipop photos, pictured above!)