Forest's 3 year Summary

I remember when Forest had just turned one and we went to a friend’s house for a BBQ/birthday party for her 3 year old son. Back then 3 seemed impossibly big and forever away, and yet I blinked my eyes and here we are. Forest’s "2s" were not as terrible as public opinion led me to believe. Sure, there were moments where I dissolved into tears and felt out of my league and unequipped to guide the budding person before me, but in general , with the rapid acquisition of language skills, I felt like a 2 year old was a big improvement from a 1 year old. However, I’m a little bit scared of the whole ‘3 year old’ thing. 

For some reason I had this expectation that once we got to 3 it would be smooth sailing. Apparently not. Apparently 3 is the most challenging year of development so far and it’s not til 4 that well be able to hit cruise control on this parenting thing (and that only depends on how well we navigate the tricky seas of the 3s). Anyhoos, here’s just a little snapshot of life at 36 months! 

Favorite Book: He’s still such a book worm. I’d say officially, this award goes to Go Dog Go but he also loves The Little Engine that Could and countless others. 

Favorite TV show/Movie: This hasn’t changed much. He still loves Cars but now he’s also obsessed with Thomas and Friends. When given the Sophie’s choice of Lightning McQueen vs Thomas, he says he loves Thomas more. It’s the end of an era. I feel like it’s Woody vs Buzz all over again. 

He still loves watching Curious George too, and I love watching him watch Curious George because the fits of laughter are the cutest thing ever. 

That's a funny monkey, bruh. 
 
Favorite toy: He’s back to loving his train tracks and got a new wooden Percy and Thomas for his birthday and he plays with them for hours on end. I am told that sometime before his 4^th birthday, this train phase will likely end and I’m really sad thinking about it. 

Favorite foods: Bacon, Yogurt, cheese, edamame, strawberries, carrots and turkey sandwiches. He’s a decent eater but doesn’t like foods that are too spicy. 

Language development: Holy moly. His language has skyrocketed recently. He has always been a pretty good talker but now his speech is just so much more complex. He still doesn’t talk much just because he’s a quiet little dude, but he certainly isn’t bashful around us. 

Cutest sayings: Oh gosh, so much! I taught him about the earth spinning on it’s axis and how that leads to night vs day and now when it’s getting light or dark outside he exclaims: ‘The earth! It’s spinning!!’ Also, we’ve been purging his closets and toys to donate recently and I tell him we’re giving things to ‘the babies’ so now if he can’t find something he will say something like ‘Mom, where is my blue car? Did we give it to the babies?’  

Skills: Forest can swim! I mean, he’s not 100% water safe by any means but he can come up for breaths and use his arms and legs to swim the length of our pool. He hasn’t been in formal lessons recently but I plan to start him again soon. 

He can also spell and sound out simple words (cat, mom, fox, etc). He’s starting to write a few more letters but doesn’t quite have ‘Forest’ down yet. He is counting to 30. He can read several sight words, knows 20 US states and several countries on the world map. 

He got a pedal bike for his birthday but still seems a long way off from being able to ride it. He has the balance thing down and the pedaling thing down but can’t seem to combine them. 

He can swing himself on the big boy swings and is climbing playground equipment really well. 

Stats: He’s 39.75 inches (91%) and 35 lbs (84%). His growth has slowed down significantly and dropped a few percentile points in height over the past 6 months. I don’t feel like he’s  that much drastically taller than his peers like he was from 18-30 months. He’s definitely the tallest in his preschool class but he’s also the 2^nd oldest. He’s mostly wearing 4T pants and PJs, 3T or 4T shirts, and size 9.5 shoe. 

Schedule: This has been a hard quarter for sleep in our house. Forest is having a hard time sleeping in and napping. We’ve tweaked a few things that seem to have helped but with all the visitors, traveling, and cursed time change he’s pretty whack-a-do right now. Bedtime is 7:30 and he mostly goes to sleep pretty quickly. He wakes up between 5:45-7:30. It’s a grab bag. If he sleeps 12 hours, he usually has a hard time taking a nap (we still put him down for quiet time but he just never actually nods off). If he sleeps 10-11 hours at night he generally will take a 1-1.5 hour nap around 1:30. He’s averaging about 12 hours of sleep per 24 hours either way you slice it. 

Other Observations: Forest is very wary and shy around strangers. He doesn’t like to perform either. If you ask him a question, he won’t answer but usually curls himself around my leg and buries his face. Same thing when I try to get anything on film. People’s first impression of him is that he is shy and timid which is totally opposite once he warms up. He goes from being really reserved to being Mr. Personality very quickly. 

He is starting to have some strong fears, mostly of the dark and monsters. 

He is very smart in very specific ways. He picked up letters and basic reading almost effortlessly. He constantly amazes me by pointing out different words all around him. 

Yet he is such an airhead about such common sense things. We joke that he’s all book smarts, no street smarts. He just loves academic stuff and absorbs it so easily. 

His energy is insatiable. I’ve never seen a kid who moves so much. But it’s not like a hyper, scatter brained energy. His ability to focus has eased our qualms about ADHD. From before he was 2 he would sit and listen to book after book and he still will draw in his sketch pad or do 48 piece jigsaw puzzles with the utmost concentration. 

But yet he just has boundless physical energy and often needs an outlet to get his sillies out. He is a big gross motor guy and loves to run, swim, or ride his bike. I think those 'Run Forrest Run" jokes are going to be relentless and right on the money.

He doesn’t seem interested in organized sports yet but to be fair we don’t really work with him on them. We don’t plan to put him in anything other than swim until he’s 5 or 6. 

He is a huge momma’s boy. I think Jonathan working 28/28 has made it worse. It’s just me and him for a month at a time so we have a big bond. He mostly wants momma to hold his hand, put him to bed, kiss his boo-boos, etc. Whenever he has a bad day at preschool or church I’ll ask what happened and he’ll say ‘I missed you mommy. You weren’t there!’. Breaks and warms my heart at the same time. 

He’s been doing awesome at school though! He loves his teacher and his classmates and comes home raving about everything he did there. He is really thriving. I had my first parent-teacher conference the other week and I was super nervous about the teacher’s report. But she assured me he’s bright and cooperative and the most joyful kid in class. He comes in with a smile plastered on his face and it stays that way all day. She did say he  has A LOT of energy and that her first impression that he’d be on the shy side was dead wrong and that he’s Mr. Confident and has lots of friends. 

That’s basically it in a nutshell. He’s slow to warm up but eventually his fun-loving personality shines through. 

My biggest struggles: It’s the never ending story but his schedule still drives me nuts. Some days he naps no problem and sleeps well at night and then sometimes he gets in these cycles when he just can’t seem to turn his little brain off and sleep. 

Now that he’s 3 he’s definitely displaying those famous three-nager behaviors like being bossy, particular and stubborn and the epic tantrums have returned. He has a very specific opinion about every single detail of his life and sometimes fights me on just about everything. When Jon is gone for a month at a time it really wears on me and I’ve been struggling with my temper a lot. 

I think 3 years olds are supposed to test boundaries and rules but when Forest goes from having 2 on 1 parental coverage to just a tired momma telling him what to do, he really goes full throttle on the whole ‘strong-willed child’ thing. Not easy. Add in a skipped nap or two and everybody is cranky pants.

My biggest rewards: Forest is such a joyful kid. It’s hard to stay mad at him because he is constantly smiling and trying to make everyone laugh. He has such a developed sense of humor for his age. If I ask him something like, ‘Do you want to go to the park or what?’, he’ll say ‘WHAT!’ and laugh his little micheveous giggle. He’s so stinking adorable I can’t stand it sometimes. But don’t tell him he’s adorable. If you do he will say ‘No I’m not adorable. I’m handsome.’ I can’t argue with him there.