my favorite things about three (so far)

I was completely bummed when B outgrew the awesome two year old scene but he's hit his groove with three and it's looking pretty awesome so far too.

Some of my favorite things about him right this minute:

He asks for kisses in his hand to save for later. He stores them in his pockets and under his pillow and sometimes sneaks them onto his cheek and convinces mama to give him a spare. He likes to give us kisses in our hands to save for later too.

He tells us all about how Jesus lives in his heart (because 'Jesus told me that He does!'). He tells us about how Jesus helps him to not be scared and to be strong. And he tells us about how Jesus likes juice (mostly red hawaiian punch) and ice cream too if we could please give him more of those things. :)

His prayers these days are usually something like, "Thank you for all the food. Thank you for all my rest. Thank you for naps and all of my blessings. AAAAA!!! Men!" Tonight's bedtime prayer was, "Dear Jesus thank you for all of the animals. A! Men!" He typically requests to say mealtime prayers because he knows his are short and sweet. He's even been asking to do it in front of other people these days which has been a huge step of bravery for the little guy.

He started watching non-animated shows this week (Chalotte's Web and Beethoven) and all of a sudden I stopped hating screen time. (Daniel Tiger, Mickey Mouse, Bob The Builder, Clifford, Jake, etc etc aren't all that bad…. until you've seen them all a million times.) And he's actually been doing way less screen time this winter than last. (We're saving up on screen time binging for when the baby arrives.) ;)

His play has just been so awesome to see lately. He is loving hoops now. He cooks in his restaurant all the time. He loves his corn pool (his 'orchard' as he calls it). He pretends all sorts of crazy things. He loves a good dance party (courtesy of DJ B, of course). And we've started playing family games. He even knows (and mostly follows) the rules of memory now. He generally wins. (And we don't let him.)  We've done a lot less art projects and sitting to learning work lately but occasionally he asks to play school and we work on his 'flashcard puzzles' while he plays school.

He's becoming quite the little man at the basketball games these days. Earlier this week he even went to the concession stand and ordered and paid for his snack ALL BY HIMSELF. I stood on the other side of the lunchroom and watched him and it kinda broke my heart a little bit that he didn't look back even once. :(

He's mostly set to entertain himself for games. He has a few bleacher buddies he likes to play with and he does pretty good staying entertained with his bag of toys and occasionally the iPad. If those fail, he's super content to organize the med-kit for daddy and help the managers in the training room. He's a huge help to them, I'm sure. ;) He talks about the high school kids all the time and the other day he was looking at the pictures on the service wall and was telling me who some of them were and how much he likes them. So fun to see! He's also big into playing 'up high, down low' with them. ;)

Speaking of… that's his favorite trick these days. Anyone that will give him time gets the 'up high, on the side, on the other side, down low' pulled on them. If you happen to get the down low too fast for him, be prepared for the game to never end. It's also his favorite joke…. 'Knock knock, (who's there?) Up high…. " He thinks he's pretty hilarious.  I do too. ;)

Every morning he wakes up and needs squeezy hugs and kisses from mommy (and then the same for sister). Some mornings he wakes up and just starts listing all the people he loves. It's pretty cute.

He always asks to hide with [sister] and climbs under the blanket with her. He starts whispering secrets to her and doesn't want mommy and daddy to interrupt. (I'm not sure this is a fave thing or not… maybe I should be scared of what he's telling her!) ;)

He builds random things out of random things and tells us he's going to be an engineer (we don't' even know where he got the word engineer but we're impressed with his work).

I love how he makes up his own words… Two of my faves: He enjoys 'nakeyin' around and he likes to play in the 'picturin' room.

He's super sweet and loving and always gives back rubs, hugs, kisses and random 'I love yous.'

I really couldn't ask for a sweeter three year old. We're so blessed!