3 years old

It's hard to believe that my oldest son Cole is going to be 3 in just a week! Even if I'm no longer a regular writer, I'm so glad that I have this blog to go back and read. It's true, you do forget so much. It's also funny to see how some things just never change!

So many of my posts are about Cole's eating habits, or lack there of. Cole is still a picky eater. He won't touch a cooked vegetable. My saving grace is that he eats salad with ranch dressing. Thank goodness for ranch. Instead of using nutritionally-void iceberg lettuce, I use baby spinach. I toss in a little broccoli slaw. He loves fruit, but will only eat apples and pears with regularity. He is hot and cold with bananas, will only eat pineapples if they are large chunks and will only eat strawberries if left intact. Cut them up into bite-size pieces and it loses its palatability (oh, you're right, that's not a word. hmmf). I've learned to stop worrying about it. If he will only eat the cheap nuggets made with rib-meat, as opposed to organic breast meat nuggets, meh. 


Cole has grown into a great kid. But he is hard to entertain. Kids are just such peculiar little things, aren't they? He will obsessively industrially pick up sticks and put them in the yard waste bucket. He'll do this for 20 minutes at a clip. Usually when I want to go somewhere. But I've yet to see him play with a toy for over 5 minutes. What kid doesn't like toys? He likes books, he likes having his stuffies around, but he doesn't really play with anything. So when I asked him what he wanted for his birthday he said a box a Mini-Wheats, rather than a toy. He does like Thomas the Train and he really loves an empty cardboard box, so we got him this for his birthday:

I hope he'll go inside and be able to envision the same things that he did when he was in the cardboard box:

What goes on in their little heads?

Example One
When I went into Cole's room this morning he was naked from the waist down. He'd stripped off his pj pants and his overnight pull-up.

"C'mon, let's go pee," I said.

"I pee in my bed."

Sure enough, I peeled back the covers to reveal a spot about 14" across, warm and wet. About an inch from that lay his dry pull-up. WHY?!

Example Two
Cole all of a sudden has an aversion to buttons and zippers and throws a fit if he doesn't get to wear sweat pants.

Example Three
"I need my privacy."
The boy who will streak through the living room wearing nothing but a towel over his head no longer wants me in the bathroom while he poops and pees. He's two and three-quarters. His aim sucks. His "wiping" skills are worse.