Well Jacker is now 3 years old. Crazy. Over the next year any remaining bits of babyishness will slip away leaving me only with a little man of a 4 years old.
Chris and I were talking about the other day how I sometimes don't feel like I know as much about Jack as I did Josh at this point. I don't think it's a lack of my attentiveness as it is more of him being the younger brother. He loves everything big brother does when big brother is around, but when he's by himself his interests seem to change a bit (as well as his personality!). Having a middle child and learning about how younger siblings acts is going to be a learning process for us. We are two oldest children, both the first grandkids on either side and children of 3/4 oldest children. So we don't know that much about little brothers and sisters point of views in families. Time to read up!
That said, when Josh is around it's all about legos and Star Wars and whatever else is going through Josh's crazy imagination at that point. Jack happily follows along. When he is by himself he will quietly bury himself in a fort of pillows with a few of his Hot Wheel cars or Iron Man and sit for an hour perfectly content. He watches whatever Josh wants to when he's around, but if Jack is choosing or by himself it's more Cars or Toy Story 3 oriented. When Josh is around Jack is more talkative (if not downright loud) and crazy, more bold in interacting with strangers, but when he is by himself he's more shy and quiet and sometimes won't even go up to his friends by himself. Like I said, sometimes it's hard to distinguish which is Jack's personality and which is Josh's influence over him.
We've always said it's 3 that's the difficult age not 2, and Jack is living up to that. Jack has always required much less discipline than Josh, however he's starting to keep his own in necessary discipline though. Josh was very defiant towards discipline and would tell you it didn't hurt after he got a spanking. Jack will cry for 10 minutes if you just tell him he is going to get a spanking. He is most often getting in trouble for throwing his cup or food on the floor, and not listening. He is still generally very well behaved, especially when he is by himself.
We are completely potty trained other than at night, however he doesn't always recognize the urge to go early on so all of a sudden he's whining and jumping up and down and if we don't go potty right that minute the world will end. At least that's how he sees it. Very interesting when you are at the back of Target with two other children and he just went 15 minutes ago. We're actually keeping an eye on it since he's been pee potty trained for about 9 months and it seems strange he's not recognizing the urges earlier on yet. He also still has his heart murmur so we look to be headed back to the cardiologist at 4.
At his check up he was 50% across the board weighing in at just over 31 pounds and right at 3 feet tall.
His language skills for his age are amazing. It always cracks us up some of the words he busts out. The other day he told us something was humongous, and asked me how many a million was. Some of my favorite things he says are:
- "I need to go potty really badly"
- "I got an ouchie yesternight"
- "mommy, I lurve you"
- "Firstly we need to..."
- "Can I have a bah-ana?"
It seems odd since he is the more quiet one but he has a ridiculous sense of humor. He knows just the right thing to say at the right time and will repeat jokes he's heard on the radio all the time. He is regularly keeping us laughing and often gets himself out of trouble by using his humor, and cuteness.
He loves peanut butter and anything jelly, honey or banana. He will often choose that over Chick-Fil-A for lunch. He won't eat the red part of peaches because he thinks it tastes bad. He will eat vegetables wonderfully as long as I feed them to him (unless it's cut up cucumber carrots or pepper). He doesn't like cold desserts very much so popsicles and ice cream are usually wasted on him. His favorite treats are cookies and suckers. He likes cupcakes but just eats the frosting. He freaks out if he doesn't get orange juice for breakfast and often asks for it at dinner as well. One of his favorite places to eat is Panera and Chipotle.
He loves trains and cars and gets ridiculously excited when we pass a train (there's a track near our house). He loves to go to the park but is often more interested in dirt and bugs than actually playing. If he is playing it's usually on the slides. He loves going to Chick-Fil-A to play on the playground. He loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Little Einstein's on TV and his favorite movies are Cars and Toy Story and Little Rascals. He walks around singing "I've got two pickles, I've got two pickles, I've got two pickles hey hey hey hey."
At his birthday party he was beside himself about getting his own present he got to open and play with. Even though Josh hadn't wanted to share his birthday toys Jack unwaveringly shared his with his brother. He is very generous and considerate and thoughtful. He is very sweet and affectionate as well. Sometimes almost too much : ) He will grab EvaKate's hand and just sit there kissing it for five minutes over and over. He loves to give hugs and snuggles and is very physically touch oriented as how he receives love.
I think that sums up a lot of Jack. He is sweet and caring and crazy and funny. So lucky to have such an amazing three year old boy! Just like I tell him all the time, he's my favorite three year old boy in the whole wide world!
