James at 3 years

3 year old check up stats:
Weight: 30 lbs (35th percentile)
Height: 39 inches (85th percentile!!!) *last year he was in 13th percentile*

So in a little over a year this kid gained 5 pounds and grew 6.5 inches!! We noticed that his clothes were getting small on him all of a sudden, so we officially moved him up to size 3T clothes. I think that this is the first time that he has been in a size of clothing that actually matches his age. He has always been in a size or two behind.

As for his personality, he is a ball of energy and sass these days, with a little dash of sweetness mixed in :) He is fiercely opinionated and independent. He wants to be around us to play with him, but he wants to do everything for himself (except for the things he decides are our job to do for him). He always wants to know exactly how everything works and a lot of the time if he is having a tantrum over something being broken or not working, if we can show him exactly the mechanics of why it isn't working, he calms down right away and feels better. A simple, "it just is" does not suffice. This child wants to know "why????"

Going for a walk in the new double stroller:

 He absolutely loves his big boy bed and with the new found freedom of being able to get out of his bed has come some very interesting and hair-pulling naptimes and bedtimes. We have come up with a new rule in the house that there is no TV unless he has lain in his bed and taken a nap first. Then it is up to him to choose whether he would rather play in his room during naptime and have no TV when he wakes up or take a nap and watch TV when he wakes up. I was tired of constantly fighting with him about going to sleep and so far this rule has been good for both of us. No more power struggles at naptime! (Well, at least less :)

He has just started to realize that we actually stay awake after he goes to bed and do fun things without him, so he has taken to bringing his pillow and blankets out of his bed and camping out by the door to his room at night so that he can peek under the door and listen. This is what we see on the video monitor in his room almost every night now (it is a little hard to see but you can barely make out his legs on the floor):

 One night I thought, "he must not be comfortable!" and I tried to go in there and put him back in his bed. I couldn't get the door open! I opened it a crack and tried to push him out of the way with the door but he was dead asleep and wouldn't wake up even though I was shoving him with the door. After that I decided to just let him be. He definitely wakes up much earlier in the morning this way because he hears Rett get up around 6:30am, but he just plays in his room until about 8am. Then he starts hitting at his door and demanding to be let out.

James has the coolest older cousins who pass down the best toys to him! When we got together for my birthday last weekend they brought him this horse that you can actually ride! It is so funny to see the looks we get when he rides this down the road:

 

 Monday was our very first soccer practice! He is in a team of about 13 other kids and it gets pretty wild. Getting them all to listen at the same time to instructions can definitely be a challenge, but they seem to have fun and that is the important part. Watching him yesterday, I think we both realized that he will probably never get the ball this season. He is so easily distracted by everything around him, that he loses focus on trying to get the ball and will slow down while the bigger kids jump in. Oh well, he doesn't seem to mind.

James with Anthony and his coach:

 Sitting down, waiting for the next drill. It was a beautiful day!

 The had us split up with our kids and practice dribbling the ball up and down the field. James just wanted to play "Get my tushie game" which is basically his version of tag, but you tickle someone's bum instead of tagging them. Yeah, we should probably tell him that is a game just for at home...

 Bringing the ball back after a big kick:

 Sitting with his team:

 To keep the kids entertained and focused while waiting their turn for things, their coach would play "coach says" (like simon says) and James loved it. It was so funny to me because he usually doesn't follow along to those kinds of things. He normally just watches, but this time he jumped right in!

 At the end of practice, their coach told them to all try to get the ball from him and the entire group chased him around the field. I wish I could have gotten a close up picture of the joy on James' face. He was having such a blast!

Our little boy definitely keeps us on our toes, but we love watching him grow up! :)