Austin // 3 Years

I'm fresh out of toddlers right now, folks! This awesome kid turned 3 today! We're celebrating tonight with his dinner choice of tomato soup and bread bowls, with brownies and ice cream for dessert.

I fondly read through his birth story recently, and I can remember that day almost as clearly as if it was yesterday. Ah, Austin. Thank you for your baby days, and your toddlerhood. I'm excited to watch you come into your own as a capable and smart kid.

Here are some fun tidbits about Austin:

- Now that he's 3, he claims that he's officially a big kid. When you ask him how old he is, he'll tell you, "I'm BIG!" rather than his actual age.

- He loves pretending to be a cat (that is SO like me when I was a kid) or a frog.

- He lives for garbage days because he gets to see the garbage trucks in action. He is also fond of pointing out any school buses he sees with a loud, "IT'S A SCHOOL BUUUUS!"

- He wants to be just like his big sister. If she picks a pink balloon after her haircut, then he picks a pink balloon. If she grabs an orange bracelet at the pediatrician's office, he grabs an orange bracelet. If she eats oatmeal for breakfast, then he picks oatmeal as well. She is his best buddy!

- This kid has a LOT of empathy. He's really sweet.

- He doesn't snuggle like he used to, waaaah! Once Autumn was born, he kind of stopped snuggling with me, although I can get some snuggles from him if I catch him in just the right mood.

- He loves giving big hugs, silly kisses, and high fives/fist bumps.

- He is amazing about saying "thank you" for things without prompting.

- Some favorite games he plays with Nicole: building obstacle courses, playing board games like Chutes and Ladders or Candyland, pretending that they're defeating a "boss" (Doug has been playing various Super Mario games with them), and running around with fairy wings on. Yep, both of them in fairy wings!

- He loves being silly for his baby sister. He still asks if he can hold her, gives her sweet kisses, and shares his toys with her (sometimes a little too enthusiastically).

- Fruit is his favorite food group. He will devour all the fruit on his plate before he touches anything else, even bread products or french fries. Fruit fiend! And yes, he STILL has a banana nearly every single day.

- He's a huge fan of stuffed animals. His collection has grown over the past year, mainly because he keeps snitching stuffies that are supposed to be Nicole's and claiming them as his own. For most of the past year, he slept with a huge pile of stuffed animals alongside him in bed. He stopped doing that recently, though.

- He still has the jolliest belly laugh you ever did hear. Our friend and neighbor down the street has nicknamed him "Chuckles"!

- I managed to help him break the habit of sucking his fingers during the day, so now he just sucks them at nap and bed time. (Yep, he still takes a nap! Hooray!) Finger-sucking is not my favorite habit of his, but I must admit... he sleeps like an angel because he can soothe himself so well. I rarely hear a peep from him all night long.

- He is frightened of bugs.

- He's such a brave little tank. When he got his flu shot on Monday, he stared at the needle with wide eyes and the slightest tremble in his lip, but he didn't shed a single tear. Well... perhaps it was less bravery, and more that he didn't remember what "getting a shot" entailed until it actually happened, and he was too surprised to react.

- But yes, he's a tank. His BMI is somewhere around the 93rd percentile for boys his age.

- He's process-driven. Trash needs to be thrown away. Containers need to go in their particular storage place. Etcetera.

- The "threenager" phase has started up already. He irritates more easily, and falls apart at things he didn't used to. Nicole has been out of this phase for so long that I forgot about it! All the memories are rushing back now!

- He also asks, "Whyyyyy?!?!" a lot. Sometimes in a curious way, but more often in a whiny way. Nicole never went through a "why" phase, and I must say, I'm quickly discovering that it's not my favorite kid quirk. Haha!

- He's very curious when we're out in nature. He loves to run around, climb on rocks, and find interesting things in the dirt.


Ugh, where did my baby boy go??? Stop growing, kid! Love ya forever and always!