Sam at 3 1/2

Sam -- you are THREE AND A HALF YEARS OLD!

 

You are 33 pounds (according to the doctor's scale) and 3' 3 1/3" tall. That's a lot of three for a three year old! You wear a size 4 disposable diapers and most of your clothes are 3T with some 4T thrown in. Except you are still wearing some 2T pants. I got rid of all your 2T shorts before we moved in the spring and then I had to go out and buy you some more because the 3T ones were too big for you! You have started to pee on the potty more (maybe once a day???) but you are still resisting toilet training so we just aren't pushing you on it.

You got to bed around 9:00 and you sleep until 7:30 or 8 most days. You sleep very well once we can convince you to go to bed but you resist going to bed like nobody's business. You are very determined. You like having stories read to you but you don't listen to music before you fall asleep anymore. You did awesome at the transition to a big boy bed when we moved to Ontario. I was scared about how it would go but you loved it from the start. You used to sleep with Tigger and Lobster and Fish but now you don't even go to sleep with stuffed animals anymore. You do like to fall asleep reading a book though, just like Mommy and Daddy! Ha ha ha!

You take an afternoon nap about once every three days now. Other than that you have a lot of quiet time in your room in the afternoons. You play pretty quietly or you read some books. You still need the downtime even when you don't nap.

 

You still don't have the world's biggest appetite. You eat pretty well at breakfast -- usually one or two yogurts and some orange juice. Lately you have really enjoyed having "granoler bars" (as you call them) but before that you usually ate toast. You LOVE peanut butter and jam sandwiches for lunch cut into shapes "squares, triangles and parallelograms!" I am a little worried about what I will make you next year when you start school and I can send peanut butter with you. For supper you really like eggs on toast, tuna noodle casserole and pizza "with macaroni and olives." But you usually eat a few bites of whatever we offer you. Except potatoes -- you really don't like them except in french fry form! You drink out of a cup without a lid all the time now and rarely spill. You still prefer water over anything else and sometimes you have milk. You only have a little juice at breakfast when you have orange juice.

You really like getting your own food as much as possible -- granola bars out of the cupboard, yogurts out of the fridge, and spreading peanut butter on your bread. You want things "big" and not cut up at all. You also like putting your leftovers in the fridge for later. And you usually eat them so I'm okay with that.

Before supper each night we say one thing we are thankful for and you usually have something to say. You like to determine what order we go in and sometimes you say, "I'm not thankful for anything!"

Sam, you are an excellent big brother. You play so nicely with Rachel, share your toys with her, LOVE having her play in your room, and rarely get mad at or frustrated with her. She adores you and with good reason. I love watching the two of you together. You can make her laugh so much. I am just so proud of how great you are with her and how well the two of you get along.

You are three and a half which means you smile for the camera as in the picture above, don't always cooperate with or listen to Mommy and Daddy and you definitely have your own opinions and are mad when you can't get what you want. You like to make messes and not clean them up and you and Mommy sometimes get sooooo frustrated with each other.

Most of the time though you are really sweet, helpful and fun to be around and I know the rest of it is just a stage. You are so creative. You like to play and play and play and you make up games which keep you entertained for hours. You like playing outside, especially in the sandbox, and like to help rake leaves or put yard waste in the bin. You love letters, know all the sounds and are starting to sound out words, with help. You love books and can look at them for hours. We don't have a TV so you don't watch it but once in awhile we get "Mighty Machines" videos from the library and you LOVE those. Then they get incorporated into your daily play.

You have had four major transitions/experiences in your life these past few months. First of all we moved from Edmonton to Kitchener-Waterloo. You did great with the move and have made so many new friends in KW. You are excited about all the new people you have met. Second of all you started Sunday School (and on Saturday you will start Tot Shabbat at the synagogue. (You did go to Temple Tykes in Edmonton in the winter so you've have some of that experience.)) I love hearing how your faith experiences come out in the rest of your life. Thirdly, you stayed overnight with Grandpa and Grandma while Mommy and Rachel went to Saskatoon. You spent two nights and two days, twice and did so well. And fourthly, you are going to preschool two afternoons a week. You seem to be loving it and you talk about your new friends a lot. It is both sad and happy for Mommy to see you going through all these new transitions but you are doing so well with them.

Here are a few things you say which I just don't want to forget:
You always say "tell" when you mean "ask" as in, "I will tell my teachers what we are doing today." You say "granoler bar" instead of "granola bar," "macaroni pizza" instead of "pepperoni pizza," "aminals" and "lellow" instead of "animals" and "yellow." You visit on the phone with Oma and Opa and are quite the conversationalist -- "How are you today?" "What are you doing?" "What are you doing after that?" It makes me laugh!

Your favourite colour is green, your favourite song is "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,"and your good friends are Seth and Harry and Lucy and Caleb and Willem and Tessa. You love going to LOGOS and running around afterwards, you love all things relating to construction vehicles and emergency vehicles. And you love Skyping with Oma and Opa, as long as you get to press the buttons to call and hang up. And you always ask, "Where are we going to go today?"

Well Sam this is you at three and a half. I am half sad that you seem to be growing up so quickly and half excited to see what changes are in our future. It is so fun to watch you learn new things and have new experiences. We love you so much Sam-Sam-Sam!