Titus: 3 Years!

Dear Titus,

At 3 years...

• You weigh 28 pounds and are just shy of 3ft tall 
• You wear 2T shirts and still wear mostly 24 month pants because your legs are short and your waist is small
• You are still in diapers (you have yet to seem very interested in potty training) but we are planning on potty training this month
• You have been in your big boy bed for a couple of months now and you love it! You've only fallen out a couple of times and you have never crawled out in the middle of the night (I think you are too scared to get out of bed in the dark)
• You love to pretend. We do a lot of pretending to blow bubbles, or throw balls, or eat pretend food.
• You are generally very sweet and kind to your baby sister, but when you take a toy from her or hit her I often come back in the room to see her crying and you in timeout, where you PUT YOURSELF for hurting her.
• Your favorite foods are stir fry veggies, cheeseburgers (with LOTS of pickles), yogurt, "special tweats" (usually a hershey's kiss), sandwiches, hot dogs, most berries, mandarin oranges, carrots, pizza, popsicles...
• You don't want to try new foods ("I DON'T WIKE IT!!!") but our rule is you have to have one bite, and then you usually end up eating all of it anyway
• You are in a phase where you love to tell stories and are always asking everyone else to tell you a story. All of your stories involve throwing fireballs.
• You respond to almost everything with, "why?"
• You are obsessed with patterns, measuring, counting, and spelling
• You are always spelling "words" on your etch-a-sketch pad and then ask me what it spells (which really means you just want me to say, "I don't know Titus, what does it spell?" and then you tell me the gibberish word you spelled)
• Calculators are one of your favorite "toys"
• You are also on a geography kick, so you want to look at maps and talk about countries all the time. Your favorite country is Turkey, you can find it on almost any map along with about 10 other countries
• You love the solar system and reading books about planets
• You have learned a little about flags and now anytime you see the American flag you say, "Wook! It's our flag! U S A! U S A!" (your Daddy taught you that chant). The other day you saw the USA flag and said, "it is big and it is stwong!"
• You still go down crying for most of your naps and frequently wake up from your nap crying. Naps are not your favorite thing.
• You are so very, very dramatic. You throw yourself on the floor in a fit at least 3 times a day. When you get sent to timeout I can often hear you wailing and saying, "Whhhhyyyyyy??? Whhhyyyyyy I throw the boooooook??" Like you are bemoaning yourself for disobeying
• You have become so independent. You let yourself in and out of the backyard screen door, you climb into the car and in your carseat by yourself, and you often get your own food out of the fridge.
• When daddy goes to take a shower you have a meltdown if you can't go with him and shower too
• On the weekends you LOVE waking daddy up at nine "way-ro- way-ro" (zero zero). You love clocks and telling time in general!

Titus James, you are my firstborn and I will always love you in such a special way because of that! No one will ever be able to make me feel like you do when you look in my eyes and smile at me and give me a big hug. You are sweet to other kids (especially babies) but you definitely don't want them in your space bubble. If you start to feel upset you often need to take some quiet time in your room by yourself and get out of a crowded area. Once you cool off you are so much better!We are also laughing at you ALL THE TIME! You are so funny and you KNOW you are funny. The more people laugh at you the sillier you act. You also think a lot of nerdy things are funny, like when we ask you to point to what country you live in on the globe you will point to Mexico and then laugh so hard, knowing that you intentionally picked the wrong country. Not only are you smart, but you are definitely an energetic little boy! You love jumping, running, yelling, and generally being a little spastic. Not a day goes by that I don't feel so lucky to have you in my life. Even when you are throwing fits or disobeying, I am grateful (sometimes only after you've gone to bed, ha!) that I have you as my son. We love you to the moon and back, to infinity and beyond, forever and ever.