Evan: Three years old!

So now that Evan is three years old, is he still really a toddler?  I don't think so.  It's hard for me to imagine that he's entered the age that bears the label preschooler, especially because we aren't putting him in a formal preschool yet.  Yet, I think that's a better descriptor for him than toddler is these days.

What's new with Evan now that he's a three year old?

Evan wears size 3T clothes, although some are too big and some seem too small.  It's so variable by brand.  He is easily fitting into his size 8 toddler shoes now too.  Some days he will even wear a pair that are size 9.  I just got him some new 3T training pants underwear, and now that he's more potty trained I need to get him more "fun" boy underwear too.  However, we've had a bit of a regression with the potty training lately.  He seems to be willing to have accidents when he's just not interested in going to the potty (i.e. when he's playing with a toy he doesn't want to stop or he's watching a TV show he doesn't want to pause).  He's also quite afraid of public toilets.  I don't blame him sometimes…public toilets can be pretty dirty and yucky, but he's less afraid of the germs and filth and more afraid of the loud noises.  If we can assure him the toilet will not flush loud, he sometimes will eventually use the public toilet.  Several shrill screams of "nooooo!" and then a bribe usually come first though.

Evan is becoming more independent at some things, such as brushing his teeth (well at least he likes to put the toothpaste on the brush, then we still need to help him brush to ensure a thorough cleaning), while he doesn't want to be a "big boy" for other things (namely getting himself dressed).  He outright tells us he doesn't want to be a big boy and for us to help him.  I'm torn on if I need to give him more time to mature to want to learn to do it on his own versus push him harder to try it.  I'll admit it depends on my mood and how much time we have available.

Brushing his own teeth 

Evan's language has continued to develop and now he really is starting to put together new phrases on his own.  He still copies things we say though too.  He shows me that he understands colors when he helps pick tomatoes from the garden.  He's learned only to pick the red ones.  He's started taking more of an interest in coloring recently.  It started with him finding his MagnaDoodle.  He started drawing circles and squiggles on it and asks us to draw things with him.  Then he started wanting to color with crayons in his coloring book.  He has no interest in coloring inside the lines, or in trying to color just one page.  Rather he scribbles color around the page and then wants to do it on the next, but it's a start I guess.  The downside to his interest in crayons came when he drew on the couch with them.  Luckily I think I got it all off.  It seems like it's a rite of passage for a kid to color on something that they shouldn't  right? For me and my siblings it was the wall in our living room.  

He still loves to play outside.  Unless it's at his daycare (recall how the umbrella blew over on a windy day there).  Since it's summer, we've been trying to play outside as much as possible.  Recently John, Evan, and I had a water fight with super soakers and water squirt toys.  It was a blast!  I felt like a kid again, and Evan laughed so much.  We all got soaked.  Speaking of water play, we also went to a nearby park that has a splash pad too.  It went much better than last year's splash pad outing (i.e. Evan actually liked playing in it and getting wet on his own).  He did look down into one of the holes again though, but luckily it didn't shoot in his face like it did last time.

We take walks in the evenings when we have time, and Evan will usually ride one of his riding toys.  He is really into his new plasma car that Grandma Boyte got for him.  He can drive it properly, but he also really likes to sit on it and push himself along really fast with his feet.  I particularly enjoyed watching Evan try to help John put it together.  He brought out his own tools and then he copied everything John did.

Better get down low and look under it to see where the next part fits on!

Taking it for a spin!

Evan is getting to be quite the rough and rowdy boy.  He likes to wrestle and roughhouse with John, me, and even Emma.  We really have to watch him with her, because he can get way too rough.  I'm not sure if he realizes it or not.  Sometimes I think he is realizing that he has some power and control over things, and he's testing that out by pushing, hitting, throwing things, etc.  Sadly, the day before his birthday we had our first report from daycare that he hit another kid.  She hadn't done anything to prompt it either according to our provider, and I believe her, because he will sometimes pull that with me out of the blue too.  He's just working on learning how to respond to his feelings, such as anger and disappointment.  He has started doing more blood curdling screams when he gets upset and doesn't get his way, but he also has started grunting at us when he's mad.  While it's not a nice thing, it's better than hitting and the like, so I see it as his evolution in learning how to react to his anger.

Evan loves to play with his airplanes and trains.  Lately he's been sleeping with his Ripslinger plane.  We read stories at bedtime and he has started to vary his nightly choice of story a bit more (thankfully for me).  Ever since I got a play kitchen this summer, Evan has started to become quite the little "cook" too.  He really likes the appliances (namely the blender) and the pizza that he can "slice" apart.

Whipping me something up in the blender…not sure about ketchup going in with my veggies though! :)

Slicing me up some pizza

Evan has started giving us cheesy grins for photos more lately.  And what a cute grin it is!  It's nice to be able to finally capture it on camera so I can look back on these years and remember my sweet little boy with his dimples and his excitement about all the magical and fun things that he encounters every day.