Lennox - 3 years old!

How can three years have passed? I cannot and don't even want to remember my life with out the joy I get from being a mom! This boy, Lennox, is such a mess. He keeps me thinking deeper, laughing harder and loving stronger than I ever have.

My niece, Avery, was in town for Lennox's birthday so we had a little family party with the grandparents. The next day, Jay and I took the kids to the water park.

Lennox is just getting into dressing himself and dressing up. For some reason, he thinks this is his uniform: a yellow hard hat, sunglasses, the wooden stick and metal triangle stick from his Melissa & Doug band, plus 2 different shoes (preferrable 2 right shoes). He puts this get-up on all of the time and sometimes I can't help but cave and let him wear it to church or the doctor's office! ha. Why inhibit who he is? :)

He is really into puzzles. He found a jigsaw floor puzzle in his closet one day and, much to my surprise, he was able to put it together on his own! I was so proud. I guess hiding the puzzles because there are lots of pieces to make a mess with is really depriving him of brain stimulating activity! I'll have to stop that. Anyway, he's up to 20 piece jigsaws. I have definitely discovered that it is worth it to pay extra for Melissa & Doug... the cheap ones just don't fit together as nicely.

Lennox likes to wipe off my kisses but that only results in extra kisses. Gosh, when is it inappropriate to kiss your child's face off? I hope not any time soon. I don't want to be THAT mom! He likes for me to give him butterfly or butterPLY kisses. Those are the only ones he doesn't wipe off.

He is starting to describe situations but he hasn't gotten to the stage where his story gets to the point. It's more like "What did you today?" "I was in dere and I lucked (looked) at you and den I turned and I lucked at the door and it closed. Then, I lucked and I saw the floor and I turned and lucked at the box..." and on and on!! ha ha. I like to ask alot of questions just so I can hear these stories! That is, if he answers me. He is an expert ignorer. He ignores about 80% of what I ask. That's a low ball estimate too. I end up asking the same questions 5 times before I make him look at me and give me an answer. The answer usually has nothing to do with what I asked but usually is a distraction or an excuse. His answers ALWAYS begin with "because...." "Because, I need to go outside." "Because, my belly hurts." "Because, I need my daddy!"

This boy has to have the last word. Gosh, where does he get this bad behavior?? Must be his father. Last night he said, "I need some milk." I said, "you want more MILK?" "Yes, more milk." So, I gave him milk and then he argued me down that he needed "apple duce." I walked away from the table and did a few things only to come back and hear him mumbling something about "I didn't say milk. I said duce." but it was all under his breath! ha. Argumentative much?

Another 3 year old boy thing is sound effects. Everything has a sound effect. He loves to "pow. pow. shoommm. shuwsh. boom! pow." all day long. He likes to "wreck" his cars because that means there are LOTS of sound effects. He also likes to see real wrecks on the road... he says, "ooh, luck! they wrecked!" I'm trying to teach him that real wrecks are no laughing matter. Maybe year 4 will bring about empathy?

Oh, another favorite of Lennox's is traffic lights. "You had to stop on red. YOu had to stop!" I pointed out that there is also a yellow light while we were on vacation. I thought telling him yellow means slow down and get ready to stop would interest him. It did but then he cried all the way home because he "just needs a yellow light!!" Sorry man, I wish I could control the traffic lights and then you would only know green means go!

At his 3 year checkup, Lennox was 36.5" (25th percentile) and 34 lbs (75th percentile... if that's the correct weight, it is hard to recall!).