Sunday, March 16, 2008

What's it like to live with a three year old.

When the screaming, yelling, pushing and hitting (that is, David hitting Julia) come to a halt for a couple of minutes there are some adorable and happy moments shared in this household. David has been able to communicate his desires to us so well that we can actually have conversations with him now. For example, last week he woke from his nap screaming, barely able to talk and holding onto his ear. Once he calmed down, he said "my ear hurt." I rushed to him to the doctor, and it turned out to be an ear infection.
Since David turned 3, he pretends he's a baby. He wants me to wrap him up in a blanket and read books to him or have Seth wrap him in a towel after his shower. Since he's had a running nose, he keeps saying "wipe me nose", but once in a while he'll drop a line "wipe baby nose." Usually I'd be worried, but since five of the eight kids on my favorite show, "Jon and Kate plus eight," went through exactly the same stage, I'm going to assume that it's perfectly normal.


He still has a love/hate relationship with his sister where he'll gets visibly concerned when she's not in the car with him (which is almost never). When I go shopping with them, he might run ahead to get himself a ball, but he'll remember to get Julia one as well. He has this bizarre older brother protective relationship with her -- while he feels that he can hit and push her, no one else can even lay a finger on her. He loved taking a photo with the Easter Bunny this weekend, but of course, Julia had to be in the picture with him.



We finally had a small family get together for David's birthday this weekend. He was so excited ordering his cake and making friends with the owner of my favorite ice cream place (yes, I am guilty of using my children... and more on this subject is coming in another blog), but eating it wasn't in his plans. Sometimes I wonder if he was switched at birth since he doesn't share my love of sweets.



For the party, we ordered David's favorite food -- pizza. Unfortunately, this is pretty much all he'll eat in bulk. He still enjoys his cereal in the morning, but I suspect this is because he usually doesn't eat any dinner nor lunch and is starving by breakfast time. I still try to make a separate meals for the kids, as crazy as it may sound, but it's all for naught as neither child will eat much for dinner.



At least the little cousins get along because Daria is very sociable and playful. Julia would be happy to be left alone, but there wasn't enough room to get away from everyone. During the get together, there were people in every part of the house; even her room was being utilized for a diaper change. Poor kid - that thumb of hers wouldn't come out of her mouth today.


Music is something that David still enjoys tremendously, so that helped determine the theme of his birthday party. When he listens to the radio, he'll identify the musical instrument that currently playing in any given song. Blowing three candles took some work though and he got help from all the cousins.


Presents this year were a huge hit. There were books, games, clothes and more clothes. Knowing how much David has been into his wardrobe lately, I wrapped a few new shirts for him. (How many other 3 year old boys do you know who changes his clothes several times a day because he likes getting dressed?) He tried them all on today!
Surprisingly, David has shown an almost obsessive interest in one of his books -- Wipe Clean : Learn to write your Letters. Without even being told what to do, he had opened the marker and was writing/tracing the letters of the alphabet. I would not have thought that David was ready for it, but obviously he is because he spent almost an hour tracing all the letters.


I am sure by the time I publish this post, David will be into something new, speaking clearer, yelling louder and mistreating his sister more than ever. Am I looking forward to him turning four? You bet -- assuming I survive his terrible threes.

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