Three Years Old

Dear Jace,

Three years ago right now, I was going on 13.5 hours of labor. I was tired of waiting. I wanted to meet you. I still had five hours to go....
I blinked and these last three years went by. Every day you reveal more of the little man you are going to be and shed more of the little boy that you are.

You started pre school a few weeks and yesterday I got to go and spend the day with you there. It was truly amazing to see how you are when you are there. You can be soooo rotten at home and to me and Dad and Maizey, but the little person I saw I at school was nothing like that. You listened, did as you were asked, took part in the singing and circle time. You used kind words and shared and played so well with your classmates. I have noticed a real change in you over the last few weeks and now I can say that I have preschool to thank for that. Maybe it gave you something that is all yours and that has caused this change, maybe it's just having time away from us.... I don't know, but seriously Buddy, you are doing SO well at it. I could not be more proud of you.

Just for a second, back to the part where you are so rotten. One day I hope you will have an answer for me as to why you act like this, but seriously, why do you scream at me (us)? Why do you pretty much NEVER do as I ask? Why are you so freaking defiant? I think you want a reaction from us, that's why you do it, so I (we) really try our best not to give you one, but sometimes, it's just too hard. I keep telling myself it's just a phase. I hope so, we are really ready for it to be over.

The times when you are not being bad? You are so fun! You make us laugh with a raise of your eyebrows, your "blinking", your attempts to sing songs and quote movies. You don't get them right, but it is so cute and so hilarious to see you sing so seriously. Your current favorite song is 'Thats What Makes You Beautiful' by One Direction. Your favorite line in the song goes "the way you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed" - your version? "flips over gets on your web" sang at the absolute top of your lungs. I need to try and sneak a video of it, it is so great. I bet we listen to that song 15 times a day. You want it played over and over and over.

Your friend Deken has a bit of a Batman obsession, and loves to wear a Batman costume all the time. A few weeks ago, you started pretending to be Buzz Lightyear, jumping off everything you could, yelling 'TO INFINITY! AND BEYOND!" and asking to watch the Toy Story movies every single day. Well, Deken just happened to have a Buzz costume as well, and a few days ago while at his house, Deken put on Batman and you put on Buzz. I almost died at the cute. When it was time to go, you had a fit over taking the costume off and Paola graciously let you borrow it. It is the first thing you ask about in the morning and the last thing you talk about at night. You are obsessed, just like your friend Batman. I mean Deken. The two of you can be super heros together.

You still eat a lot of apples. You help yourself to any that are in the fruit bowl. You are a constant eater these days actually, except at dinner... then you make me feed you like a baby. You eat nonstop until I want you to eat, then you refuse. You aren't picky and for the most part, really enjoy everything I give you. Besides apples, your other favorite is hummus. Hummus with everything, even just on your finger straight out of the bowl when I'm not looking. Off the top of my head, the only thing I can think that you actually don't like eating at all is sour cream.

There is no one you would rather play with than Maizey. When the two of you are jumping on the trampoline, or making cookies out of mud, or running your homemade obstacle course, you have so much fun together. When you aren't pushing each others buttons, you are totally little best friends. I love listening from a distance when you guys are having so much fun together.

It took you almost all of the last year to master holding two fingers up, just in time to start needing to hold three up, but that one you've already got down pat. You have so been looking forward to your birthday and have been announcing to us for weeks that it was your birthday. You listened well enough to us, to be able to tell people that you were two, almost three. It was super cute to hear you copy that. You wanted a rocket ship cake, but my expert cake making skills seriously lacked in the rocket department, so Dad designed a rocket ship out of m&m's on the top of the cake and you LOVED it. I'm assuming the idea came from wanting to be Buzz Lightyear and I'm so glad Dad pulled through for you.

I honestly can hardly believe three years has gone by since you were born. You have brought so much love and laughter to our family. With the arrival of your new baby brother or sister coming very soon, I am noticing just how much of a baby you are no longer. You have been a bit indifferent about the idea of a baby ever since we told you, but the last month or so you have started to take an interest in my belly and what is inside it. You like to sit beside me and rest your hand waiting to feel a kick, but truth be told you don't have the patience to wait for one. You give the baby kisses and hugs even though you often remind us that you don't care for kisses or hugs anymore. I am so looking forward to watching you as a big brother, I think you are going to be great!

Happy 3rd Birthday Buddy. We love you so much and can't wait to see what this next year brings for you. Keep making us laugh, and just for fun, every now and then, could you just do as I ask? Please?!

Love, Mom and Dad

Old Maid

The last two days we have been playing a lot of Old Maid. A LOT. Obviously Jace doesn't know how to play, but he is happy to sit beside me and hold the pairs that I pass him. He calls every stack of cards he holds "three dollars" and thinks that getting the Old Maid is super exciting. Maizey giggles the whole time, I think she feels like she's pulling a fast one on him since he likes getting the Old Maid. Last night after dinner, they sat at the kitchen table and she tried to teach him how to actually play and I listened with one ear while doing the dishes. She is so patient, it kills me. If only I had a fraction of that patience. Every time she told him to pick a card from her hand he asked her to point out which one was the Old Maid. She would giggle and tell him she couldn't say and that he had to just pick one. He was a bit let down every time he didn't get it and very excited when he finally did. The game fell apart after a few short minutes and the cards were left scattered all over the table and floor. Still listening with one ear, Jace followed Maizey around the house with the Old Maid in his hand telling Maizey that he "loves the Old Maid" and "She not a super spooky bitch. She a nice bitch" . I was suddenly listening with both ears! Um, what the??? Oh, you mean WITCH??
I didn't correct him, he has a habit of saying the word you don't want him to say, even more when you tell him not to. Plus, I know he was just making a mistake and he really does know the word is WITCH.
I laughed and laughed, quietly to myself.

Preschool Time For Jace

Today was Jaces first day of preschool. If you know Jace, you know that at any given second he can be excited about something or 100% against it - no matter how exciting it is. The lead up to today has been exactly that - one minute he is so excited to go, the next he is arguing that he isn't ever going and that its only Deken that is going actually. So I wasn't exactly sure how today was going to go.
Him and I argued for almost the whole two hours we were up this morning before we had to leave for school. About everything. Breakfast, clothes, shoes, tv.... you name it, we argued about it. I kept silently reminding myself that soon, very soon, I was going to get a break from him and the arguing. We got out the door and to the school on time. He marched ahead of Maizey and me to the door and I had to call him back outside to take a picture.



This morning, at that moment, he was sooo excited. Walking down the hall to his class he started to get a bit nervous and reached for my hand, which has happened exactly zero times in his whole life. He was suddenly nervous, I felt it in his grip. I happily obliged to the hand holding. We hung up his sweater and backpack, showed him the bathroom and then he sat down at the play dough table. I took a few pictures and we said goodbye.



He barely even looked at us. We walked out the door and my eyes filled with tears. My baby is old enough for preschool. It kills me. I held the tears in until the truck and then I couldn't stop them. I'm inclined to blame my ridiculous pregnant hormones. I wondered aloud why I was crying when all I wanted all morning was a break from him. He can be such a little shit and he yells at me ALL. THE. TIME. but really, no matter how crazy he makes me, I am going to miss him. My Buddy, it's going to be so quiet and so much less messy when he isn't home all morning, it's hard for me to imagine it.



He was exhausted when we picked him. He was pretty chatty and filled us in on what he did. He's going to like school and eventually, I'm going to like dropping him off there.
Happy 1st day of school, Buddy. Can't wait for you to start bring home messy art projects and hand made Mothers Day cards.