William 3.6

Will is generally one of the most obedient children I have ever met. He is a rule follower to the T. Even when I say something and don't even intend for it to be a rule. One example of this is when I allow him to take trucks to bed at naptime. If the trucks are too big, I will put them on the floor so that he has enough room to sleep in his bed. I tell him that he can play with them when hes done napping (meaning as soon as he wakes up he can play with them). Instead he will wait until nap time is over, and I come in the room, before he will play with them. Sometimes hes up for 30-40 minutes before the end of nap time and yet he STILL doesn't try to play with them! I've tried explaining to him that hes allowed to play with them as soon as hes awake, but to no avail. And that is only one example of many.

He takes rules very seriously and not only does he follow them, but he makes sure Nora does as well. As a mom, I love this and it makes my life so much easier. As a person though I don't know what to think of this. Growing up, I always took rules with a grain of salt and sometimes followed my own advice and definitely did not always respect or admire authority. Thats true even today. I tend to equate a little rebelliousness with free and creative thought and don't always think its a bad thing (within reason of course). And maybe its just a phase but for a 3 year old (who are SUPPOSED to be notoriously naughty), hes just SO GOOD. Its just WEIRD really. Who is this kid? His biggest challenge on a day to day basis, is dealing with his emotions. Hes quite an emotional guy and tends to cry a lot and need a lot of love and hugs to get through the day. He also tends to lash out as Nora quite a bit unfortunately. Part of me hopes that he isn't always this rigorous about following the letter of the law though. A little bit of a free spirit is always welcome here (remind me of this quote when he is a teenager!).

Of course he isn't a perfect little angel. He throws things when hes mad, and has a LOT of trouble sharing and takes toys out of other kid's hands constantly, much to my chagrin. My favorite thing to ask him is whether the toy is available or not and that he is only allowed to play with toys no one else is currently using. Hes been pushing Nora a lot lately. I think he gets overexcited and thats how he deals with it. But poor Nora takes it well most of the time at least. Its a work in progress. And sometimes he just has hard days. The other day I took them to the zoo, after he begged me to go to the zoo for 3 weeks. He cried or pouted nearly the entire time we were there. It was infuriating. But thats a 3 year old for you!

Much like his father, Will has always been really great at drinking liquids. He (and Nora both) will easily drink upwards of 30oz of water, milk or iced tea every day. All that liquid has to go somewhere though and lately that has been coming out especially in the form of sweat. Its funny because I don't remember him getting as sweaty when he was younger. Maybe his sweat glands just finally matured or something but just in the past few months, whenever he runs around and plays, the kid sweats like a mad man (also like his dad). And he has noticed too and often tells me, "mom I am a sweaty guy!" And he hates the damp sensation and lately wants to take all of his clothes off to cool down. At first it was just a shirt. Then at music class recently he was dancing around and I had to stop him from removing his pants. Finally at a play date I walked in the room and he was completely naked. His poor play mate was innocently wondering why he was naked. I was wondering the exact same thing and thats when I had to explain to him (yet again) that when we are sweaty, we can take off our socks, and roll up our sleeves, but you cannot remove all of your clothing. And so the lessons in social graces continue!

For the last 4-6 months he has been getting up super early in the morning. Like around 6:30am. All this time he has played quietly in his room until normal wake up time at 8:30-9. He has books and trucks and other toys in there and he likes to look out the widow at the street below. So there is plenty to occupy him. Lately however, hes started to get a little restless. Hes started taking off his nighttime diaper, changing clothes and wandering downstairs. I have taken to telling him that he can play in his train room (spare bedroom filled with trains and train sets), or his bedroom, but he can't come downstairs until 8:30. The morning has been my time to pay bills, respond to emails and take care of any urgent business from the day before. And I can't do that if hes wandering around downstairs demanding food or that I play cars with him. So for now hes allowed leave his room but not come downstairs until the appointed time. We will see how long that lasts. I have a feeling that he will want to come down earlier and earlier over time. Eventually we will need to stop putting him down for nap, and see if that helps him to sleep in longer, but I am terrified to lose that nap time as I get so much done during that time. Plus he still does sleep so I know he needs it. I guess we will see how this all shakes out over the next 6 months!

He and Michael went to Dunkin Doughnuts the other day and as they are standing in line, a large man enters. William whispers to Michael, "Dad, thats a football player" (by the way I have NO idea where he got this, because we never talk about football and hes seen maybe 3 games on tv). Michael mentions to the guy that Will thinks that he is a football player and the man good naturedly responds that he used to be a football player about 30 years prior. Then he says, "yeah, I used to play for the Chiefs!" (as in the Kansas City Chiefs). That took us aback! Apparently Will knows how to spot them!

I always get Will up in the morning first and then get Nora up. So there is a 15 minute window each morning where he is unsupervised. Usually the only thing he does is turn the tv to PBS and start watching kid's shows. This morning however, I come downstairs and he tells me that he is cooking waffles. Sure enough, he had opened the freezer, found the box of waffles, taken two out, replaced the box in the exact right spot, dragged a stool over, placed the two waffles in the toaster, turned it on and put the stool back. He said he only needed help reaching the syrup. He is efficient and independent, this kid!

Hes been really into the color blue lately. He says its his favorite color all the time. He has to use a blue plate, a blue bowl and a blue spoon at every meal. Most mornings he picks out a blue shirt to wear, "because I have blue eyes and it matches the same mom!"

Quotes:

As I put him to bed each night, he tells me, "good night! Have a good sleep mom!" Its very cute.

I asked him what he wants to do when he grows up and he said, "I want to buy Dad a motorcycle!"

He pointed to my chest and said, "Mom, do you have a baby in there?" I had to tell him that those are called boobs.

One of Will's many quirks, is that he loves to eat ice. But the funny thing is that nearly every time he does, he asks me, "Mom, can I have warm ice?" I try to explain to him that warm ice is called water. But he just looks at me blankly.

He is VERY polite lately and says, "Thank you mom!" every time I do any little thing for him from changing his diaper and helping him get dressed, to taking him to the zoo and giving him dinner. Its very sweet to feel appreciated!

After he witnessed me putting away some clean sheets in his bedroom: "Thank you mom! Mom you're a good helper!"

He has been having a huge growth spurt lately and is eating me out of house and home! He keeps telling me, "mom I am still hungry!" after each meal and then tells me, " Mom I am GROWING bigger and bigger and bigger!!"

We just bought a new garbage can at home depot, so we can turn it into a composting container. Meanwhile its been sitting in the garage, and Will has been fascinating with playing with it. The other night he came in the house and told me he was playing with it "just like on Sesame street!" I said, "oh are you Oscar the grouch?" and he said, "no, I am William the Grouch!"

All 4 of us were in the car and the CD player was on and Michael and I were talking and Will says, "Shhhhh! Be quiet please! I am trying to listen to the music!"

Michael was singing him a bedtime song and a line in the song says, "go to sleep my baby." Will stops Michael and says, "Hey! I'm not a baby! I'm a kid!" and then he had Michael re-sing the song with 'kid' in place of 'baby.'

He told me that he was going to move into the new house thats being built down the street. I asked him, "and how are you going to buy that house?" Will said, "with lots of money!" I said, "and how are you going to get the money?" And he replied, "I'm going to work, just like daddy!"