3 1/2 Years Old!

Parker Alexander Wise, you are 3 1/2 years old! You have grown up so much in this half year! The biggest change is in your speech. You are still quiet in public and sometimes at school but you're a chatterbox at home! You LOVE to reenact. Misty Island Rescue (Thomas the Train) is your favorite movie and you have to watch it with all of your trains in tow. Once the movie is over you run to your train table and word for word recite the movie. Your memory is impeccable. You remind me of myself when I was in school. I think you'll easily take to Bible memory, spelling words (through memorization, not phonics), remembering what you've read and will probably be a pit of useless facts you've seen. This will be great in school but if you're like me, you'll struggle in college to actually learn instead of memorize. 

Your best friends are Max, Cameron, Jonathan (who you call Jon-a-pa-than), Colby and James. You're happy to play with just about anyone but those are the people you talk about most.  You're a gentle friend and I can't remember the last time you were nasty to a friend (excluding your sister, of course!.

You really love school now and your teacher, Ms. Monica, is very patient with you. Together we're working on your fine motor skills and overcoming some of your tactile issues. You know all your colors, numbers to 30, alphabet and can identify them all, shapes and you're learning to write with purpose. You're not really into art right now but when I give you a crayon, you usually just make crazy "circles." We're working on straight lines to prepare you for letters. 

When asked what you want to be when you grow up, you still answer "cow" like you did on the 1st day of school. You like animals and really enjoy the zoo. While you still like zebras, giraffes (girappes as you call them) are your favorite now. 

You really like to walk the dogs and insist on holding Moses' leash. You don't ever drop it which is nice. You're back into Thomas the Train and pretty much don't play with anything else except your train sets and climbing mountain. I'm hoping you get back into Buzz Lightyear before Halloween because we already have that costume! I am happy; however, to have a break from Toy Story movies. There are a lot more Thomas the Train videos than Toy Story for mama's sanity. 

Like most 3 year olds, you're in a bit of a food rut. You still love fruit snacks and milk but we've weaned you a bit from both. You like apples, blueberries, grapes, strawberries and watermelons. The rest of your diet consist of things I'm not so proud of like chicken nuggets and mac n cheese. You'll eat a peanut butter or cheese sandwich but only if it's cut with a cookie cutter in the shape of a duck. 

Speaking of odd quirks, you've got a few but we love you anyways. You're a freak about dirt. You'll get dirty but want to be clean immediately. You request to be washed probably 8 times a day. If your crocs are dirty, you whine until I wash your crocs and your feet.... so lately I've been making you wear tennis shoes.  You insist that I need to take a shower because my moles and freckles are "dirty."  We struggle with public bathrooms because until Wednesday, air dryers scare you and you cannot use the bathroom if one is blowing. Certain textures wig you out and lately you've requested most tags to be removed. I've started buying t-shirts without tags. You're terrified of construction equipment, motorcycles, most lawn equipment and anything that makes loud noises (including real trains that actually toot). You're extremely cautious in public and don't like to try new things if it seems like an unnecessary risk. (like your mama). When you get hurt, you want a bandaid but you just carry it around. You won't wear it (neither would I as a kid). When you hurt your hand, you held it in the air for 3 days. By the time you quit, the scratch had healed. You will not eat "broken food."  If I break a nutrigrain bar in half to share with your sister, you won't eat it. When I send pretzels to school, you only eat the whole ones and the "broken" ones are returned for your sister to eat. It's a bit frustrating sometimes but we love you in spite of your quirks. We're working on them. :)

You've grown up so much but the thing that still makes you seem little to me is how you twirl your hair. At my 16 week ultrasound, you had your hand on your head and every ultrasound afterwards you were playing with your head. Since birth you have patted your head or twirled your hair to fall asleep. It's my tell tell sign that you're sleepy. You sleep from 7:30 at night to usually 7-8 in the morning. Every now and then you have nightmares but for the most part you sleep straight through the night. For a while we woke you up at 10:30pm to use the bathroom but now we don't and you're still accident free! :)

You're a sweet big brother unless Avery is messing up your train tracks. You will tell me "Avery is tired. Please put her in her crib." What that really means is "Avery is annoying the snot out of me. Please remove her from my presence."  Your favorite things to do together are climb on the mountain, take wagon rides (you dictate who sits where), wrestle and blow raspberries on my bed, take bed sheet rides across the carpet and play trains when she's any train except Thomas. You usually give her some obscure train I've never heard of and am not sure where we acquired it but she doesn't know the difference yet so it works out. Avery adores you and gets so excited to pick you up from school or wake you up in the morning!

I love that you're still snugly. It's true that boys love their mamas. You love for me to lay in bed with you and twirl your hair. You must love me a lot because you let me be Percy and sometimes Thomas when we play trains! When I pick you up from school you always ask me "Did you have fun at school today mommy?" It makes my heart smile. You're so thoughtful. 

You are such a joy to your father and I. We love watching you grow and become the sweetest little boy. I look forward every night to your sweet prayers. You sing "God our Father" at each meal and your sister is learning it from you. We love watching you be a good example for her. I think it's precious when I hear you say "Thomas is going to church!" and then you chuff him to "church" and sing "My God is so Big!"  We feel so blessed that you go to a Christian preschool where you learn about Jesus. You also enjoy church now which makes taking you so fun! If only your sister felt the same! We love you SO much and are SOOO proud to call you our son, Parker Wise!