{Luke: Three Years Old}

As you might remember, Luke turned three on Febrary 24th!  I am just now getting around to writing out what he has been up to.  I can't believe that he is a little boy now...definitely no longer a toddler.  We did his three year check-up with the pediatrician a couple weeks ago and all signs say he is healthy and happy guy!  Although a few weeks late, here is Luke at three years old in a nutshell:

1.  Luke is tall and heavy.  At three years old, he is about 40" (90%) and weighs 39 lbs (96%).   He is super skinny, but he is very dense, so I attribute his heavy weight to that and the few extra inches he carries around.  He wears a size 10 shoe.  Most people assume he is closer to four years old upon his appearance and height.  He is looking more and more like Chat every day. 

2.  Luke is talking up a storm!  I always thought he was a little bit behind in the verbal department and it always worried me a little bit.  He always hit the milestone marks at the pediatrician's office so the doctor always said not to worry, but I just felt his peers were speaking more than him.  He has completely caught up now!  Over the last three months, he really had an explosion in communcation.  He talks and talks and talks all the time and I just love it!  He can communicate pretty much how he is feeling, what he wants, etc all the time.  I love hearing what is on his mind!  And he is getting funny.  This is an example of a conversation at the rodeo a few weeks ago:

Volunteer at the rodeo: Hi handsome!
Luke:  I am not handsome.  I am Luke!

3.  Sleep, on the other hand, has become a bit of a problem.  He doesn't really need a nap everyday, but does at least a few times a week.  But no matter how tired he is or not, he fights pretty much every nap and every bedtime. This all started about three weeks ago out of the blue.  He cries/wines when trying to put him to bed and all of a sudden wants the door open, no sound machine and even tries to keep the light on.  That is the only one I won't budge on...he has to have the light off, but I will let his door stay open and the sound machine off.  He has a night light and one of those Dream Lite stuffed animals, so there is plenty of light in his room. He needs more milk, or more books, or just to lay with him...He throws out every excuse.

He usually goes to bed between 8:30 and 9:00 and sleeps till about 7:30 am.  If he naps, he goes down around 1:45 and will sometimes fall asleep and sleep for about an hour and a half and sometimes will never fall asleep. Sometimes we don't even try to put him down because the fight just isn't worth it.  And then if he does fall asleep, he really struggles to go to bed at a decent time.  So we are kind of in a limbo period -- doesn't need a nap, but can't really do well without one.

It took him a long time to learn how to sleep as a baby, but once he learned to sleep through the night at 10 months, he has been the perfect sleeper and napper.  He went down without any problems and would take a two to three hour nap with no issues.  Then he hit three and all of it changed.  It is becoming more and more of a problem so I am thinking we need to implement some type of sleep chart or something to motivate him to go to bed easier.  I am so tired of dreading nap/bedtime. 

4.  Luke knows all his letters and numbers up to 20 or so.  Probably more numbers, but he never has the attention span to keep going.  He loves to sing the alphabet, but it is pretty spotty. He has the tune right, but the actual letters sound funny since he runs them all together!  He also loves to sing Ring Around the Rosie...but just because he loves to fall down.  He still flings himself all over the house and furniture and is in a constant 'run' everywhere he goes.  He has more energy than I know what to do with!

5.  He still goes to school three days a week and for the most part loves school!  He also does swim lessons once a week and is making huge strides in learning to swim independently.  And Luke starts soccer on Thursday!  Although Chat is not really hoping for him to have a soccer career, we do hope he gets a lot out of this team sport, gets lots of energy out and has some fun!  He has definitely gotten into sports lately and even got to go to his first Rocket's game on Sunday.  I am not sure if it was the Skittles or the game that he liked more.  Ha!

6.  We have a potty-trained little boy!  We started potty training in the fall and just went with his cues.  By December he was pretty much pee trained. It took till about February but now he is poop trained too.  He typically has no accidents and always tells us when he needs to go.  He takes a nap in underwear as well.  We still do pull-ups at nighttime though because he goes a ton at night.  We eventually will limit liquids and try at night, but not for a very long time.  I am not in a hurry on that one!

7.  Luke is still my cuddler.  He cuddles with me every chance he gets.  He reminds me of an elephant.  He uses his arm like an elephant trunk and is constantly rubbing it on my arm or body and will wrap it around me constantly.  He wants me to lay with him and gives me tons of kisses and hugs. The best is he says "I love you" all the time and it just warms my heart.  We have a very special bond.

8.  He has gotten very in tune with his feelings.  He is constantly telling me if he is happy or sad which is sometimes a great thing, but not so much other times.  He gets his feelings hurt too.  When he gets in trouble, he really struggles when I am upset with him.

9.  It is definitely the season of the "ouchie".  I think he picked up this term as school because I always said "bo bo", but he has chosen this term.  He gets upset everytime he gets hurt and we have to look at and kiss the ouchie. He likes to tell everyone about them and they clearly are a very. big. deal.  Ahhhh!  Funny they seem to hurt sooooo bad and bring lots of tears, yet a simple kiss can make it all better.   It is also the season of "being first".  He has to be first getting out of the car, walking to the door, getting into the door, etc.

10.  His favorite toys are still trains and he plays with them every single day.  He loves to go outside and play and of course, he loves his friends.  He asks to play with them every day and recently, when he was sick for a week, he was sobbing by the end of the week to be able to see them.  He still tends to be a leader among them and has the best time.  I don't know what we would do without our friends :).

11.  TV is still one of his favorite things - ughhhh.  I try to limit it because he would watch all day long.  He loves watching Thomas, Chuggington, Mickey Mouse and other shows like that.  But he also likes a lot of the princess shows too.  He loves Princess Sofia and some of the movies like Cinderella.  It doesn't bother me and Chat, and I actually like watching Tangled over Jake and the Neverland Pirates any day! 

12.  This boy is an animal lover!  Chat takes the boys on a walk almost every day to go visit all the dogs on our block.  He gives Chloe and Trudy hugs and kisses all the times (and the occasional body slam - yikes!).  I think he definitely has gotten both Chat's and my love for animals.

13.  The tantrums are still present, but are much more managable and less often.  I am thinking that three will be a much less emotional year than two was.  And for this, I am super thankful.

I can't wait to see how he changes over this year and continues to grow into a sweet, special little guy.  We constantly work with him on things and let him work through things on his own. We have our ups and downs, but overall we have a pretty good thing going lately.  I hope that doesn't change since I put it in writing because one thing I know, the only constant about children is that they are constantly changing :).