Birthday Letter from Mommy

To Holden Jay: My dear, sweet, funny, persistent, independent, strong-willed, adorable, potty-training, truck-loving, pizza eating three-year-old:
You are three years old tomorrow, March 24th, 2010. How can that be possible? I can still recall vividly your arrival on this same date in 2007. So like you to push the envelope-a month and a day early, ready to greet the world. You have always done things in your own time and your own way. Daddy and I love you more every day. You are such a special little boy!

At age three:
-You are all boy. You are fascinated with trucks and trains and vehicles. You love watching for the garbage truck each Friday, and are thrilled if the “claw truck” accompanies it to pick up large items. Any time you hear a siren, you run to the back sliding glass door as fast as your little legs will carry you, then announce as it passes if it is a fire truck, ambulance, police car, or combination of these vehicles. You know the difference between diggers, bulldozers, dump trucks, tractors, etc. and will point them out to us as you spot them. Our home is overrun with miniature replicas of the real thing in all shapes and sizes, and on an average day at any given point, we can hear your little voice saying, “Vroom! Vroom!” or “Choo choo!” You know that the train station is behind the Discovery Museum, and you love when a train is leaving or pulling in so we can watch it. If we hear a train while outside, you will say, “Oh, that must be at the “Discovery Oseum!” (your version of museum.)

You also think motorcycles are way cool, much to Daddy’s dismay! He sees too many accident scenes involving them-at least he has taught you to look to see if the rider is wearing a helmet. If not, you will often shake your head and say, “Dey are not being smart. Dey’re not wearing dere helmet!”

-You are very articulate and talk up a storm. People have commented since age 2 at how well you can talk and communicate; I’m not really surprised since you come by it naturally from your Big Mouthed Mommy! You do still say a lot of words incorrectly, but close enough to the real thing that people understand you. Some cute things that you say differently are: “Grink” for drink, “I’m DIRSTY!” for thirsty, “Oseum” for museum, “Dat” for “that,” “Dere” for there, “Sink” for “think,” “feel me better” instead of “help me feel better” (ex: “Dat grink feel me all better!”) "Ganks," for thanks, "Dench Fry" for french fry, and our personal favorite, “Hotown” for “hotel,” which cracks us up. You can make the “r” sound, but a lot of times your w’s become r’s, such as saying “Gween” for “Green.”

You are the king of questions. You want to know everything about what is going on around you. I have to actually make up names for the people in vehicles around us when we drive, because you will persist and persist until I give you an answer. You must think I know everyone! If you ask us an answer and we say, “I don’t know,” you will not accept that. You will say, “You tell me, Mommy?” until I give you one. You can keep stretching “WHY???” into every answer we give. Ex: “Mommy, where is that truck going?” “I don’t know, buddy.” “Mommy, you tell me?” “Maybe it’s going to Target.” “Oh, I like Target. Why it going there, Mommy?” “Well, maybe to deliver some toys.” “Why?” “So people can buy them.” “Why they want to buy them?” “To play with.” “Why they like to play with them, Mommy? You tell me?” “Playing with toys is fun.” “Why is it fun, Mommy?” “It gives us something to do.” “Why??” Until finally I will start laughing, roll my eyes, and say, “You tell ME, buddy!” Usually then you will laugh and give me some sort of answer.

You crack people up with some of your funny thoughts and quotes. Here are a few recent examples:
“Mommy, we have a BIG PROBLEM!” I come running, thinking you have had a potty training accident or spilled something. “I don’t have a microphone and I NEED to sing! Tell Memaw to buy me one!”

While playing your little farm game, in which you roll a die that has animals on it, you rolled a rooster. You smiled and said, “Ooh! I got a cock-a-doodle!”

This past week, you insisted on wearing your orange safety goggles from your tool bench out to feed the ducks, into the gas station, and to the park. You looked hilarious, and you thought you were so cool. While feeding the ducks, a man in extremely short shorts was jogging. You burst into giggles, pointed, and quite loudly said, “Dat man isn’t wearing any PANTS!!”

“Mommy, you need to do somethin’ with your hair. It’s black on top and under dere.” Nothing like a tiny child noticing your roots!

You love to lay your head on my ever-expanding tummy while we are watching TV. The other night, Hunter kicked pretty hard, and I waited for you to scold him. Usually you’ll say something like, “Hunter, we don’t kick!” On this night, you smiled and said, “Hey, little fella!” We don’t even know where you learned that phrase. So cute!

We recently encountered some obnoxious teenagers when we took you to a movie. They were very disruptive, and afterwards Daddy said, “Holden, don’t act like them when you grow up.” You turned to him and said, “No, Daddy, I am going to drive a red choo choo, and you can climb aboard, okay?”

We had a power outage one night due to an accident on the street near our home. The power came back on once, only to immediately go out again. I was complaining about the power company, (“If they can get it on, why can’t they keep it on?!”) and you sighed like an old soul and said, “Mommy, you have to be PATIENT!” That humbled me a bit!

When you want something, you try to butter us up…like the time you told me, “Mommy, you have cute eyes.” I said, “Thanks, buddy, I like your eyes, too.” Then you said, “Yeah, they’re really cute…you wanna give me some candy, Mommy?” I told you it was too close to bedtime. Then I asked if my eyes were still cute. Your response? “NOPE!”

-You have a sensitive side to you, and can be very empathetic. You will cry at movies or TV shows when someone else is sad, like when Big Bird misses his friends in “Follow That Bird,” or the dwarfs are crying about Snow White being asleep. You are quick to ask if someone is okay if they get hurt, and you can’t stand when other kids are crying or upset. Anytime we hear a baby crying at the store, you’ll ask me what’s the matter with them. I am thinking you will be a great big brother! You are very loyal to your friends and family. You are definitely Mommy’s boy, and will often defend me if Daddy is teasing me. But you idolize your Daddy, and often say “When I get big I will drive a police car like Daddy.” (When you aren’t saying you will drive a fire truck. You also like to say when you get big you will drink coffee.) J Your best buddies right now are Brady Pollett, Colin and Cade Cunningham, and Natalie Scott. You also enjoy seeing/talking about Baby Corinne Thompson, Baby Ava Cunningham, “Ky Ky” (Kylie) Pollett, Lauren Stille, and Bella, who you know through the Polletts. And you are a big fan of Hannah Fansler down the street. She is a “big kid,” and gives you lots of attention. You think she is pretty cool!

You enjoy animals and talk to them in a high-pitched voice that is quite humorous. You don’t understand why your kitties, Callie and Tiggy, won’t let you get closer to them. You have a love/hate relationship with Memaw and Pepaw’s lab, Maggie. She loves to lick you which irritates you to no end, and her wagging tail often whacks you somewhere. Sometimes you pet her and have even tried to RIDE her, and other times you scowl and scold her to leave you alone. I think as you get bigger you two will be fast friends. She is very protective of you!

-You continue to be a picky eater, but at least at this age you can tell us what you want, and you can (usually) be reasoned with to eat something healthy, esp. if the promise of dessert is handy. J Lately you have taken a liking to pizza, and would eat it breakfast, lunch, and dinner if we let you. This is awesome, because it includes lots of food groups and can be found just about anywhere we go if we are out to eat. You will eat it reheated, too. You also eat mac n’ cheese, chicken fingers, gogurts, apples, bananas, peanuts, and of course anything non-healthy. J You have a definite sweet-tooth and will lick every last bit of frosting off a piece of cake. You tend to enjoy fruity candies better than chocolate, though. I can’t get you to sample vegetables to save your life, so I give you a big glass of V-8 Fusion juice every day that tastes fruity, but has both fruits and veggies in it. You also take a Flinstone vitamin and love those. Somehow, you keep growing! Your favorite foods at this point are French fries, popcorn, Cheetos, and fruit snacks.

-Other interests right now:
TV shows: Scooby Doo, Yo Gabba Gabba, Dora the Explorer, Diego, Chuggington, The Wonder Pets, Max and Ruby, and Fireman Sam are all favorites. You are also into movies right now and enjoy the Disney movies, Polar Express, Stuart Little, and many others. You like to fixate on one and watch it over and over, then eventually a new one comes along. We laugh when you watch your Scooby movie with the singing rock star girls. You grab your Wiggles guitar, make one of us play your little keyboard, and jam along with them, spouting out the parts where you know the words at top volume.

Kindermusik: You go every Tues. night to the same class as Cade and Natalie. You love it! Lots of singing, dancing, and movements. You and Cade make Annie and me laugh during the “quite song,” when the lights are turned out and we are supposed to be having rest time. You two will fake snore, call out, “Nigh night!” tackle each other, and giggle hysterically. Naughty little boys! You know many of the songs by heart, and will put the CD’s on during the week at home on your little Diego CD player. You have always loved music of all kinds, so this class is right up your alley.

Swim lessons: You take lessons in the “Starfish” group every Monday at 4 Seasons. Daddy takes you during the school year. Getting your head under the water frightens you, but you are doing quite well and always tell me at night, “I go-ed under the water today, Mommy! You proud of me??” After lessons, you and Daddy stay and swim for awhile. You love to wear your floaties and swim in the big pool, or play in the baby pool with other kids. Usually you go in the hot tub to warm up at the end.

The Zoo: You love visiting the Miller Park Zoo, and have the exhibits memorized. You are a big fan of the wallabies, tiger, and sea otters. You also love to ride the carousel!

Discovery Museum: You’d go here every day if you could! At this age, you are so fun and really enjoy all of the exhibits now. It’s neat to see your interests change as you grow. Your current favorite areas are the paint wall, pizza station, Dr.’s area (you doctor the baby dolls), and of course the trucks/cars table and train table. We also go to some toddler classes there in the evenings about once a month which you enjoy.

Firefighters: You are obsessed! You love everything about them-their trucks, their cool hats, spraying the hose, etc. We do a lot of imaginative play involving things being on fire and people being in trouble, and we have to rescue them. You dictate all of the role-playing, down to what we say and where we lie down if we are hurt. J Natalie got you a firefighter outfit for your birthday, and you love to wear it when you play. A new restaurant near the Discovery Museum, “Firehouse Pizza,” combines two of your favorite things: pizza and fire fighter memorabilia! You get a little plastic fire hat to wear each time we go there, and you love to look at the photos and the real hoses hanging on the wall.

Favorite songs: “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” “Twinkle Twinkle,” “Baby Mine” (from Dumbo), “Wheels on the Bus,” “Old Macdonald,” “Where is Thumbkin,” “Jesus Loves Me”

I realize this is probably the longest blog post in history, but you are growing and changing SO very quickly, and I want to make sure I chronicle what you are like at each age. I love you so much and am so blessed to be your Mommy. I can’t wait to see what age 3 holds in store for us!