Emerson at 3.

On November 9th Emerson turned 3. I cannot believe this child is so old, but at the same time I think how much our lives have changed in the past 3 years and it seems like a long time has passed!

I’d love to remember my children at each year of their lives. Emerson at 3:

- Loves to run (nothing new here) and his newfound joy is wrestling and roughhousing with friends. His best little friend Tanner and he are always playing so rough we think they’re fighting, but they always seem to be laughing. Boys are so different than girls.

- Loves his fruits and veggies—it’s still like pulling teeth to get him to eat a grilled cheese or quesadilla. His favorite foods are broccoli, green beans, apples, oranges, grapes, bananas, smoothies, yogurt, and ice cream. He definitely has a sweet tooth like his parents though. He loves cookies and most kind of treats. He always orders or asks for vanilla when we have ice cream and really doesn’t love chocolate by itself.

- Creates forts and obstacle courses all around the house. He loves to jump from the couch to the ottoman and back to the chairs. He sets up all the dining room chairs and drapes blankets over them to make a fort. He goes in the office and closes the door to practice his samurai sword (His plastic sword.)

- Favorite toys are cars, flashlights, trains, helicopters, and anything that goes. He loves his scoot bike and scooter. Every time he gets a new toy he says, “this is my favorite toy mom.” Haha this kid is good. Already sucking up to me.

- Whenever Genevieve is sad he sings “I am Child of God” to her or he sings this little song that we made up to her: “Genevieve Claire is so fair.”

- He is helpful, always running to get me wipes or milk or a towel or whatever I might need for the baby, especially when I’m changing her diaper or feeding her. He is generally a very obedient child though he definitely has his moments of “no I will NOT… eat this cheese, clean my room, etc.” Whenever he talks back I tell him to go right to timeout and he has thus far obeyed. He goes and sits in his timeout corner. I make him count or sing his ABCs until he’s ready to say sorry.

- Loves going to school. He’s been doing joy school on Tuesday mornings and preschool on Wednesday mornings. He loves seeing his friends and every time he has to go home he says, “mom, I miss my friends.” He amazes me sometimes with the things he learns and knows. It is strange having him learn outside the home because sometimes he’ll say something I’ve never taught him and I’ll think how does he know that? Every morning we do school time at home and he loves telling me the month, the day, and the weather. He has known all his letters and sounds for some time so we are working on sounding out words. Not sure if he gets it with harder words yet, but he can do easy ones like “Boo.”

- Loves to play in the bath and always petitions to extend bath time when we tell him it’s time to get out.

- Is very caring of others. If anyone gets hurt or is sad, he’ll go up to them and say “Are you okay?” and pat them on the back. If I’m ever sad he’ll come up to me and give me a kiss and a hug.

- He wakes up at 6:30am completely ready to party each day, and usually crashes for the night around 7pm.

-Will not let anyone say the prayer at dinnertime! And closes his eyes so tight it looks like he’s going to hurt himself. His typical prayer goes like this: “Heh-an-ly Fad-er, thankfuwl for dis day, thankfuwl for mommy, thankfuwl for daddy, thankfuwl for Genevieve Claire, thankful for (cars/rockets/ketchup/playground/some random thing from the day), bwess this food, in the name Jesus Christ, aaaa-men.” It is so sweet.

- Favorite sayings: “Go to sleep mommy!”, “Brrrrr, it’s so cold in there,” “Shhhh, what’s that? It’s a monster!”, “Let’s go get Genevieve Claire!”, “Oh oh okay,” “Quick let’s go hide!”, “Mommy, you tired mom?”, “Let’s go find daddy on the map.” And probably many more I can’t quite remember because of my pregnant brain.

- Every morning helps me put his dirty clothes in the washing machine and clean up his room, but it’s usually trashed again by 9am! He loves to get out all his toys when he plays.

We love this boy so much. More to come soon on his rocket party…