Zane, 3.5

"I not three anymore. I three and a haaalf. I got new shoes and they make me real fast." This is what he told one of the caregivers at the gym this morning. And several people at the grocery store. And anyone else willing to listen. He's three and a half. And proud of it.

What makes you so fast?

"See those bwack things on my shoes? They make me fast!"

He's still a cowboy. He's a great helper and likes to ask, "I doing a great job?"

Lately, he's been all about superheroes. Superman, Batman, Spiderman. He loves wearing capes. He told me, "Costumes are for morning time." I don't even know how he knows about superheroes. I guess it's just a gene that little boys are born with.

He still takes an afternoon nap. Anywhere from 1.5 to 4 hours long! Typically it's around 2 hours, but I know he's not ready to drop his nap. Neither am I. I've actually gotten both kids down for naps at the exact.same.time the past two days. Toot Toot! (That was me tooting my own horn.)

It gets dark really late here. Like, almost 10 o'clock. So after bathtime, he puts on his "man lotion" and his jammies (or his boxers or 'nunnerwears', like a mans) and gets in our bed to play on the ipad for a little while. It's dark in our room, so he doesn't realize he's going to bed when it's still 'morning time'. According to him, anytime the sun is up is morning time. After he 'plays ipad' for awhile, he'll lay with us for a minute, and then he'll say, "I wanna go to my bed now."

A few of my favorite quotes:

"That is a TEH-wibble i-dee-uh."

"That DEFinitely won't work."

"No, that too dangerwous."

He still says he's from "Missconsin", but knows that his old house is in Ah-kansas. He asked if it was in DeeDee's Ah-kansas or Nana's Ah-kansas. Sometimes when we're driving, he'll ask me what Missconsin we in now? Which means 'what town are we in?'.

He's still a fantastic big brother. He's amazed that Baby Hollin now has two teeth. He asked, "Can her walk now? Can her pway?"

I love this kid. He's so sweet. And so funny. And big. He's three and a haaalf!

 

my three year old

 

                                 Newborn baby boy                               One year old                              Two years old                              Three years old!

My three year old. Everyone talks about the ‘terrible twos’. I would label Zane’s past year as the ‘terrific twos’. But I fear that we are seeing a bit of the terrible threes.This past year I was blessed with the best two year old I know! He finally started talking around 26 months and now he never stops. He seriously sounds like a teenager most of the time. He’s funny and sweet and has a really tender heart. He loves his baby sister. I mean, we really rocked this kid’s world this year and he survived. I think he’s actually going to make it without any permanent damage! We moved him from the only home he’s ever known. Moved him from Arkansas to Wisconsin. He had always stayed with family (mostly our moms) and is now going to an in-home daycare. And then the big one: a sibling. And he handled it all really well. Especially, the sister part. He has NEVER been ugly to her. He just wants to hold her, kiss her, talk to her. When we ask him if she can go home with some else he always says, “Noooooo!”I think I can finally say (without jinxing anything) that he’s officially potty-trained! He’s been in big boy undies exclusively for about two weeks now with no accidents! He has even woken us up a few times at night because he needs to teetee. His biggest hold-up was (I think) a fear of pooping in the potty. Once he got over that (read: bribed with MANY toys), he’s become a pooping machine! And still asks, “What I get for pooping in the potty?”

Just a few things that he currently says/does that I want to remember:

*Matt usually does bath time and every time Matt washes his hair he says, “Noooo, don’t do it!” in a really high-pitched voice.

*When Hollin wakes up he says, “Her taked a pretty good nap?” and talks baby-talk to her, including “hey baby ha-yin, you a pretty sweet guhl”

*Calls Matt “Dada Matt Bell” or “Dada Matt Schnell” and has started calling me “mommy” instead of mama.

*“I make you funny?” means ‘did i make you laugh?’

*He says that we live in ‘Missconsin’. And I think we’ve really confused him in the sports department. He’ll say, “Go Bad-guhs. Pig Sooie.”

*I mentioned the terrible threes….well, he’s started throwing some really big tantrums lately and he does this thing where he growls during the fits. Matt and I say he’s ‘getting his demons out’.

*When we ask him to hug us he does (very briefly) and then says, “I let you neck go now.”

We are so thankful for a healthy, happy, funny, energetic (wild), sweet three year old.

twenty-five months and discovering little people

 Someone challenged me to take Zane’s monthly picture until he is 20 years old. I said I would do my best at chasing him around his college campus with a camera on the 27th of each month, but also made the correction that he would not be 20 years old, but 240 MONTHs.Today he is 25 months and actually wanted his picture taken. No, really. He pointed to my camera and said, “Cheese, Mama!”  So, I quickly jumped at the opportunity!And by ‘little people’ I mean Fisher-Price.  Zane got a Fisher-Price farm set for his birthday and it came with a free DVD called Discovering Animals. I really didn’t think much about it until I found it in a drawer in his room on Sunday.

We just might start referring to life in terms of Pre- and Post-Little People.  It’s a 25 minute video, consisting of 5 short episodes. IN CLAYMATION!, which totally creeps me out! I don’t even like the Rudolph movie because claymation is creepy! Back to the LP. The episodes have the little people characters…….If you’ve ever wondered, their names are Michael, Maggie, Sonya Lee, Farmer Jed, Sarah Lynn and Eddie. Zane watches it over and over and over! It seriously haunts my dreams. And, get this, Aaron Neville sings the theme song and an intro about the main character in each episode. Youtube it. See what Zane’s obsessed with.He refused a nap today. He REALLY needed a nap. I REALLY needed him to nap. When naptime comes and goes and he’s still awake…..uh, he turns into this:A devil in disguise?  I dunno what happens in his little head, but he starts whining and crying and pointing but never using words and i have no idea what he wants or what’s wrong with him and it drives me crazy! And then he becomes so clumsy. It’s like he forgets how to walk, trips over things, flips his rocking chair over and falls out, etc.

When everything else fails….bring out the Little People! I was looking at the cover of the DVD and realized it said ‘Volume 3’. Ah ha! That means there are more of these creepy things out there! I decided to get online and try to find the other videos but kept getting interrupted with, “Mama, UP! Ane’s room. Mama, MAma, MAAAAma, MaMAAAA, MAMAAAAAAA!”

So I  Youtubed it and sat him on the couch.  I think it worked a little toooo well. Because now it’s 5:30pm. Too late for a nap, too early for bed, and he’s asleep. Now what???

He looks so cozy. And he totally uses the fact that he’s so darn cute as a defense mechanism. Cause watching this little angel (that’s right, no longer a devil) sleep melts my heart.

my two year old

               It’s hard to believe that it was just two years ago that Baby Zane came into our lives.  While his ‘birth’ day played out totally different than I had ever imagined it would, the result was the most beautiful baby boy that I had ever laid eyes on. I fell instantly in love with those big brown eyes.   

His first birthday was a definite milestone, for him and me! It was the hardest, most challenging, sleepless, yet rewarding year of my life.  

So, here we are….two years old! At first I didn’t want to accept that he isn’t a baby anymore.  And then I decided to EMBRACE it! Two year old Zane is so much easier and more fun than Baby Zane.

When I think back to Baby Zane, I remind myself that he was SO unbelievably cute and sweet and perfect. And cranky. And cried 90% of the time. And never let me put him down. And NEVER slept. And that I had to do everything I possibly could to get that kid to crack a smile. And NEVER slept. Did I mention that he never slept?

On a good night, Zane fell asleep in the car or the swing and was successfully transferred to his bed.  And, not to beat a dead horse, but he was up every 2 hours. At least.

On a bad night, I would rock him, sing to him, walk up and down the hall bouncing him for HOURS while he fussed and cried. He would eventually crash around 11.  It really seemed like fiction when I would hear other parents mention watching a TV show or movie, or doing housework after their baby went to bed. I couldn’t run to bed fast enough when Baby Zane went to sleep!  I had to hurry and get my ‘nap’ started!

Let’s compare that to Two year old Zane.  He’s happy. He’s funny. He’s smart.  He’s still unbelievably cute. And he sleeps!  While still not the most consistent sleeper….I’m not walking a hole in the floor at night anymore.

The other night I got home at 10pm. We thought he was asleep….until we turned on the monitor.  He was sitting up in bed playing. I went in his room to tell him good night. He said, “Hi Mama! Up, Mama?”  So I picked him up. “Mama room?”  And, well, Matt was working all night, and while Zane never sleeps with us, I thought it couldn’t hurt just this once.  “Mama, TV?” 

Oh, alright.  So, he was up late.  But we were snuggled in bed watching cartoons. And he would occasionally reach over with his little hand and rub my cheek or my arm and say, “Oh, mama.  Hi Mama.  Ooohwah, Mama.” He is my bestest little friend.

twenty-three months

 

So cute. With eyelashes that could star in a Latisse commercial. Not sure it would be possible for us to have another kid this cute. I mean, he must have gotten the very best of both of our features, and none of the bad. His ears don’t even stick out like mine. But then again, I’m his mom and probably a tad bit partial. Twenty-three months, twenty-three pictures….and he is sitting in the chair by the monkey in none of them….   

twenty-two months

What I love about each picture…

My sweet twenty-two month old

The way he pokes his lips out when he says, “shushu”. Shushu=tractor. We are in a huge tractor phase!

He’s “reading” his favorite book, The Red Tractor. (and his lips again)

Those cheeks!

Sorry, but it’s those lips again!

And one more time.

I hear his laugh everytime I look at this picture. Best sound on Earth.

He’s blowing me a kiss.

He’s all boy.

He is studying that shushu book.

At 22 months, Zane is LOVING any and all things tractor! He plays with tractors, looks at tractor books, even sleeps with tractors. For some reason he calls them all “shushu”s and it’s hilarious. He’s talking a little more, but it is definitely his own little language. Example: “Eeee, ah-ha, shushu” translates to “Skeet, outside, tractor”. And that’s a command! When he looks at the tractor book, he points to pictures and says, “Lola, shushu, bah-ty (bathtime), and uh-oh”.

A few other new words: Nana (he said it a thousand times when she was here), Bob, ball, and pleeeeeease.

I think Santa may need to bring him a softer shushu. Does it get any sweeter than this?

twenty-one months

 

That face has ‘mischief’ written all over it.  And his body language describes him perfectly. Busy. He never stops moving. Matt said, “Zane jumps from one place to the next. And if he can’t decide where he wants to go next, he just runs in place.”  True.

  And he’s SO sweet. Like, really really sweet. He gives hugs and kisses all the time. He gives the best hugs. He hugs with his whole body and gives a “uuuhh” at the end. He gave me no less than 25 kisses on the hand today while I was pushing him in a cart through Hobby Lobby. He randomly runs up to me during the day and kisses my leg. I got so many kisses on the leg today while brushing my teeth that it left a big ole wet spot on my pants.

I noticed today that there’s a button on my oven labeled “Stop Time”. I wish that worked today. That I could stop time and he would be this sweet little boy forever. That I could hear that sweet little voice say, “Hi Mama, Hi Dada” everyday. That he would never outgrow the age where it’s okay to kiss us on the lips. 100 times a day.