Finally, Lewis’ 3 year post!

My first baby is threeeeeee years old. Someone save me! This can’t be real!

Today we hit the doctor for Lewis’ 3 year checkup, and I was relieved to find out that he is perfectly average! He is still taller than he is heavy, but at 31+ lbs and 3ft 2in, he is healthy as can be. Proud mama!

We celebrated him over the weekend, and it was as special as he deserved. Friday included a party at daycare with a clown and cupcakes, which the kids seemed to love. Lewis has been asking before school this week if the clown will be there again – so cute!

Saturday – kiddo’s actual birthday – we had a party for friends and family. We have a lot of friends and family, so it ended up being quite a big party, but our house held the people well, and catered food and self-serve beverages saved the day.

Before bed on Saturday, Lewis said sleepily to Kyle, “it was nice to see all those people for my birthday”. When Kyle told me about that, I wept a little bit, because at three years old, Lewis focused on the people and not on the presents… wow. What a sweet soul he has.

The following morning, I asked him what his favorite part of his birthday was, and he practically shouted, “MY GREEN FROSTING! AND MY RED CAKE!”

Yes, you read that right. Lewis asked my mom’s friend (who baked the cake for us!) to make him a red cake with broccoli frosting, and she delivered. Lewis’ birthday wish came true, and that cake made him so, so happy.

After the last week and all its craziness, I’m glad to go back to our normal lives with fewer visitors and fewer parties. It was so much fun – the happy kind of chaos – but I am exhausted. All the mayhem of birthdays and easter on top of Ellen’s poor sleep habits have got me absolutely beat down into the ground!

A brief report on Lewis in general:

He is super verbal. From normal speech to his own made up language (hi. He must be my kid!), Lewis is constantly talking. He intentionally makes up words all the time, but he also accidentally mispronounces some words/phrases that make me laugh. Below is a list of some of my favorites.

• “Magic station” for imagination
• Hello-doctor for helicopter
• Bang-kick for blanket
• Woopsie spaghetti-toes for “uh oh spaghetti-o’s”

Physically, Lewis is super active and all over the place. He loves to run from one end of the house to the other (or through Target!), he jumps off of everything (even though he knows he isn’t supposed to!), he flexes his muscles, loves to dance (starts dance class next week!), kicks his soccer ball all over the house, and learned to pedal his big boy bike. Gravity still gets the better of him a lot, so he is usually scraped and bruised somewhere. But that doesn’t stop him! Unless there is blood or a faceplant, he’ll usually pop right back up and announce, “I’M OKAY!”

Lewis is mostly potty trained, although we still have him in diapers at night time, even if he doesn’t usually need them and will wake up to go potty at night sometimes too. He does still have accidents during the day if he isn’t reminded to go when he is doing something super fun – but only pee accidents, never poop!

Lewis’ kind, sweet, gentle nature still prevails, demonstrated by his inclination to share and his love of making Ellen smile. If she starts to cry, he’ll do something outrageous or he’ll sing, and her mood will flip instantly (melt my mama-heart!).

Besides making Ellen smile, his other favorite thing to do seems to be changing his clothes a million times a day. I swear, that kid goes through 4-5 outfits a day. Sometimes just for fun, and sometimes because his clothes are “dirty” or he is “sweaty” or “cold”.

Our biggest challenges with Lewis at the moment are his choice not to listen and his inability to take “no” for an answer, and the ensuing tantrums that come along with us persisting/standing our ground. The screaming and awful tantrums happen several times a day, and it can really wear on Kyle and me, but we are getting better at avoiding the tantrums by warning Lewis when transitions are coming. And Lewis is getting better at calming down quicker.

When we don’t avoid a tantrum, we usually try to get his attention, have him stay still, look at us, and take deep breaths, and then tell us what he is feeling/why he is sad/angry. Oftentimes he’ll flare back up when he still doesn’t get what he wants, but we try to find compromises where we can, and make him understand why the answer is no when we can’t compromise. Sometimes it seems to help him just to be heard.

The tantrum thing will be a years-long work-in-progress, I’m sure. But I’m proud of his ability to express himself, and his willingness to calm down and listen for now.

Overall, the jackpot was won when we got Lewis 3 years ago. I can’t believe how wonderful these years have been, even through all the challenges and sleep deprivation. Can’t wait to see what our little dude does next!