William Dean at 3 Years & 9 Months

Another quarter year gone by, and this handsome little dude continues to be such a bright spot in our lives. He's 3 years and 9 months today!
He must be having another height growth spurt because he looks tall and thin to me again. It's so funny how kids grow up and then out... and then up and then out. I could give very obvious examples of this with photos of Will throughout his life. He'll look tall and thin... and then full in the face... and then that cycle repeats. Right now his neck looks very slender to me. ;)
I have a handful of updates to share this quarter, one of which is simply his NON-STOP TALKING! The kid seriously never stops. Sometimes I have to say "okay, Will, I need you to let mommy's brain rest for a couple minutes... let's try to be quiet for just a little while okay?" :) But most of the time, he is making us laugh with his mature vocabulary, comical slogans and interesting insight on life. I'm overdue for a Will-isms post. So that will be coming soon.

He loves to be silly. He loves playing with his sister. And he loves when Craig and I get down on the floor and play along.

And, I'm telling you... this boy may be the most loving child on the planet. He showers me with thoughtful compliments on a daily basis, LOVES to give hugs and "snuggle", and is so sweet and considerate with his sister when he senses that Sophie is upset.

These next two pictures are from December (at Christmas) but they are two of my favorites in the last three months... (though I wish he weren't wearing that silly looking bib). ;)

This one of Craig and Will is from January.

Here are a few more updates on Will:

1) Sleep stuff. I think it first became apparent to us around his third birthday that nap time was no longer an absolute necessity. When we drove to Cincinnati in June and purposely planned to be on the road during nap time, Will stayed awake the whole way... both days. That shocked us at the time but seemed to be a turning point with sleep habits for him. It used to be that if we planned anything in the late morning and he started winding down, he'd fall asleep in the car on the way home and completely ruin his nap for the day. Almost without fail. But suddenly, he was able to stay awake longer and still lay down once we got home. That flexibility has allowed us so much more freedom in how we plan our days. And thankfully, Sophie has always been pretty flexible with sleep and schedule. That being said, we still ALWAYS lay him down for nap and it's still usually always the same routine (1 p.m.). On school days, it ends up being a little later. But what we're finding in the past few months, is that he'll have streaks where he won't sleep during nap for days and then he'll go back to sleeping just fine. On the days he doesn't nap, his behavior is usually whinier and he doesn't listen as well, but it's really not as drastic of a behavior change as it used to be. Also, on those days, he'll remain in his room for the normal amount of time (about 2 hours or so) and just have quiet time... and then he'll usually fall asleep sooner at bedtime.

Speaking of bedtime, I guess it's gotten better. I remember awhile back that he'd frequently be awake in his bed until after 10 p.m. Now it's pretty consistently in the 9 o'clock hour that he drifts off, sometimes sooner if he doesn't nap. For example, I remember one night back in January that he fell asleep a little before 8 p.m. on a day that he hadn't napped and slept till 7:30 the next morning! But that it VERY rare. He also went to sleep really well and early while he was sick around New Year's too. Typically, his bedtime is around 8 (often 8:30) and he wakes anywhere from 6:30 to 7:45, most commonly around 7-7:15.

2) Speech stuff. Will's pronunciation of big words is amazing. He is spot on and doesn't forget anything. There are, however, a couple letter family sounds that still sound confusing to me on occasion. For example, words with the "-ar" sound often come out sounding like "-ow". So "car" and "cow" sound similar from time to time. I can't think of any others off the top of my head, but I know Craig has one that I've always teased him about. Craig says "ale" for words that have "-al" in them. He even has a friend Al whose names sounds more like a twangy "Ale" (like ginger ale) coming from Craig. :)

On a different note, Will has been using the word "similar" a bunch lately to compare things. I love that he makes associations between things that I wouldn't have thought of or that he might have seen/heard days before. But he'll say "oh, that is similar to ____" or "they're not the same, but they're similar". :)

And he also has his daddy's (and Papa's) love of learning new things and just absorbing knowledge at every opportunity. So ANY time he hears something (a word, whatever) that he's not sure of, his stock response is ALWAYS: "What does it mean to (be) _____?" I.e. "destructive", "rush", "dawdle", "curious", "clothed", etc. are just a few recent ones that come to mind.

And finally, whenever Craig or I spell something to each other that we don't want him to hear, Will ALWAYS asks "what did you spell?" Craig will sometimes get in the habit of spelling things so much that he'll do it at random. I.e. "Are we going to E-A-T soon?" And I'll look at him and just say "why did you spell that?" 3) Eating stuff. About the same. Still picky with main dishes. Recently loves nuts: almonds, walnuts, peanuts and will also eat a pb&j sandwich now, which is new and SO convenient at times! Oh, and he LOVES burgers. We've had burgers on the grill three times in the last two weeks and he inhales them. Drinks exclusively from a regular cup now. Craig offered that sippy for way too long in my opinion, but he pretty much never gets one any more. Only occasionally a flip-straw water bottle. Loves to help me bake. Loves to set the table. Loves to lead the prayer before meals.

4) Speaking of prayer, he now correctly does the Sign of the Cross before prayer (as of February).

5) Responsibilities. I've been really working on getting him used to having certain daily responsibilities. For example, his morning routine on week days recently includes getting up, going potty, dressing in the clothes that I've laid out for him the night before (he usually brings them up to my bathroom where I'm getting ready and dresses there), feeding the dog and pulling up his bed covers. He also has to put away his coat and shoes when we walk in the door and throw his clothes in the hamper before bath every night. And at dinner time, he loves helping me set the table. Pretty soon I'd like to make it a habit that he helps sort the silverware back into the drawer when we empty the dishwasher. And finally, we try our best to hold him accountable for picking up his toys, but depending on the night, we often end up doing the clean up (or helping him) just to get him to bed on time.

6) Behavior. Will still has occasional tantrums that are mostly short-lived, but he is so much easier to reason with (and always has been, compared to his sister) and that makes disciplining much simpler. Probably his biggest problem is whining/back talk when he doesn't get his way. That is what we're correcting him most for these days. And frequently, he'll fight with Sophie over toys and privileges and personal space and decisions and, and, and... But in general, Will is an awesome big brother and I so appreciate his consideration for Sophia. Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever be able to reason with that girl. But then I have to remind myself that she IS two years behind him and perhaps things weren't so easy when he was her age.

7) Learning. Will loves his school!

February was an unfortunately minimal month with all the weather days we had, but he looks so forward to having that social time with friends. Right now at school, they're working on a weather unit and even have a music presentation coming up this Sunday. We're really looking forward to that - grandparents and aunts will even be there! Craig and Will were supposed to be the special helpers again this Thursday, but we're having to switch with someone else next month because Craig is working all week this week (yay!).

At home, a couple things I've noticed he's improved on include numbers and counting. I've never heard him sit and actually count to 100, but I'm pretty sure he could do it. He almost never stumbles on reading double digit numbers and always knows the pattern of counting up. He can also count backwards from 10 with no problem. When looking at a group of something, Will can now visually recognize how many of something he sees (without counting) up to about six, i.e. dots on a di or counting puzzles, etc. It's neat to see that change.

He's talked a lot about rainbows lately, drawn pictures of them and read books about them. So he loves to recite the order of color in the rainbow (think ROY G BIV) and correct you if you say purple. "No, it's violet!"
I know I've mentioned this before, but he can no longer be stumped with differentiating right and left. And for some reason, he has a weird preference for "right". He'll tell me he wants "the one on the right" for anything that I'm about to give to him and Sophie. Or that he wants to sit on the right side of something. Silly kid. But he is definitely left handed, though!

So that's the update on Will! Just three more months until he turns 4 and I can hardly believe it!

I love you, sweet boy!!!