I love...

I was looking for an email I had drafted and ran across this one. Declan was 3 years old. Now that I have an almost 3 year old in the house it was so fun to read through his behaviors at that age. A little moment down memory lane....

There are so many things I love about Declan at this age:

-His razor sharp memory.

-How when you come at him to wipe his hands or something he doesn't want he says "Swiper no swiping" with his hand out.

-How when I leave to go to work he exclaims "HUGS" and runs to give me the best hug ever.

-I don't love this, but it's for memory sake: his finger is always up his nose. 

-How he loves to do the dishes. And by doing the dishes I mean that he stands on a stool playing with the water, soap and dishes for at least a half hour. It's how I get time to clean these days.

-How smart he is and how much he learns every day. Recently I'm amazed at his ability to play games on my iphone. I was enjoying a leisure shopping trip at Children's Place last week and he BEAT all levels of the memory matching game. His favorite game right now is Icee (yes, as in the Icees you get at 7/11. You can pick out your cup, lid and straw, fill it with a flavor of your choice, drink it and even spray down the machine. A client of mine told me her 3 y/o loved it, otherwise I would have never got it).  

-I love the snuggles at bed time. He wraps his arms around me neck and we are nose to nose and he just breathes his sweet little hot breath all over my face. Heart melter.

-I love his prayers. He rattles off what he is thankful for 5 minutes. He loves praying for Julio and Sante (our two World Vision supported boys). He talks like they are part of our family: "Thank you for Papa & Nana, Uncle Shaun, Sante, Lukie...." 

-I love his spontaneous bursts in to song. Once he catches you looking at him he acts all shy and quiets down.

-I love how he asks where Mark is every day. When I tell him he's at work, he always says: "oh, he's busy". Every day. Several times a day. Then we usually call him to say hi. 

-This is sort of scary but worth remembering: he turns everything in to a stool (hamper, play bins, etc). Everything high up is fair game so it's made us be on our toes about putting things out of reach. Just last week he got the Oxyclean spray gel stuff of the top of the washer (we have front loaders on stands so it's a feat) and sprayed all surfaces including the walls in our laundry room with a coat of the nasty gel. Such fun to clean up. Not. 

-Not sure I love this but it's for memory sake: he runs to the car, opens the door, plops in to his seat and then insist on buckling himself in. We usually have a mini battle and then I secure him properly. Fiercely independent!

-I love how he holds my phone to his ear and says "Bancwise, this Ashley" (that is where I work and since it's real estate he hears me answering the phone during the day)

-I love inquisitive mind. There is too much I could fill in here so I'll leave it at that.

-I can't wrap this memory post up without mentioning he is so particular about everything: the cup we use, the way I put his food on the place, the seat he sits in, the shoes he wears, etc etc.