Three-And-A-Half

It's official, in 2 days Will turns 3-and-a-half!!  Will is one of the most hilarious, silly, smart, and loving little guys I know. I can't believe this kid is closer to 4 now than he is 3. He is growing so fast.

At 3-and-a-half, Will...

Is getting so big! He has definitely hit some growth spurts lately. He is now 40.5 inches tall (85th percentile) and 33.6 pounds (51st percentile). He has also inherited the long legs gene as of right now. A lot of his height is in his legs.

Wears mostly 4t shorts as boys shorts are long but his waist has to be smaller or adjustable. He is also wearing some kids' size 4-5 at this point, but the waists are huge on him usually. He wears 4t to 5t pants depending on the style and brand. His shirts are all 4t, 5t, or 4-5 in kids at this point. He wears a 10 in shoes mostly with a bit of growing room.

Has been super healthy overall (except for an easy bout of the flu... he got it far less severe than the rest of us) despite being in school 2 days a week this year. I credit a lot of that to having a big sister. She brought home a ton of things when she was in school so he got most of them then and has remained pretty healthy this school year.

Enjoys school but isn't as big a fan as his sister. A lot of that has to do with him being more attached to me. He is less sure of himself and being without me (or Daddy if that is who drops him off). He is doing really well at school. He follows rules as far as I am told and if I catch a glimpse of him in the room, I can see that he is enjoying himself. He really likes his teachers, gym buddies, and going outside to play. One thing that we have noticed with him that we didn't see with Kenzie, is that he is amazing with remembering information such as his Bible verses (her memory is amazing, but she was so bad with rote information at this age). He can tell them to us from memory the day he learns them. It always took her some practice. He also remembers his classmates names and recognizes them if we are out and about and see them. He is great with faces AND names.

Can count to about 30 off an on. If he seriously wants to do it, he totally can. He also gets the idea of the ones place up to 100 and randomly needs help remembering what comes after 39, 49, 59, etc. If you help him, he can go up to 100. He can also count by 10s to 100... but hasn't put together how those two go together yet hence his need for help when he counts by 1's. He can also recognize most numbers 0-10. I didn't realize that until we were playing UNO the other night and he named all the numbers as I was laying cards down. He gets confused some on 6 vs 9, but otherwise seems to know them.

Can recognize some letters. He definitely knows w, i, l (because he can recognize and spell his name), and o. He can tell us the sounds for some letters but that is a far less consistent skill at this point. He has little interest in writing any of those letters though at this point. He isn't even into tracing them yet. I plan to work with him more on that over the summer and through next school year so he is ready for VPK when it comes around in a year and a half or so.

Loves to be outside. He could spend all day out there. He is learning to ride his bike with training wheels. The pedaling has taken him a bit of time to learn but he has it now mostly. He is always very intent on pedaling though and sometimes forgets he has to steer. Haha! He is doing really well though. It's not that he can't steer though as he can drive the plasma car around and turn on a dime to avoid hitting things or go exactly where he wants to. So we think it is more because he is still having to concentrate on pedaling more as it isn't automatic yet. We hope he has it down soon so we can start taking family bike rides. He loves to play in the water table which basically just involves him trying to either dump the water on his head or dunk his face in the water to take a drink "like a dog". We play out back a lot and he loves to find a stick and make it a whole host of things: sword, flag, hammer, etc.

Has an amazing imagination. He can play pretend games with the best of them. He likes to play doll house with his sister, cars/town by himself, and whatever other pretend game we can think up.

Loves baths but HATES having his hair washed. What is weird is that he is good with dumping water on his own head when he plays with the water table... but he freaks out when we want to wash his hair. I blame his Daddy. When I was gone one time, he dumped the water over his head to wash his hair and ever since then, he has not been into it. Oh well. He will grow out of it. He loves baths regardless though and wants one every night even though we sometimes don't give him one. He still has really dry skin so if he isn't dirty because we haven't done anything, we still sometimes skip a bath.

Has gotten really into board games recently. He loves to sit down and play a game as a family. I use "board" as a loose term though as Lucky Ducks and Connect Four are his favorites right now.

Is a pretty good sleeper with few issues. He no longer naps (and he hasn't for almost a year now, I think, unless in the car or super tired... or sick) but he is able to handle his emotions really well until bed time. We don't have the craziness of being overtired most of the time. Thankfully. Similar to his sister, one day he just dropped the nap it seemed and he was fine as far as his emotional state goes. He sleeps the night through with a couple exceptions. Almost nightly he calls me in 1 to 2 times to help him get his covers back on as he has some trouble doing it alone. It doesn't help that he is super attached to this weird two blanket system that has to be put on in a specific way. We hope to get him to switch to one single blanket at some point... but haven't taken the leap yet on changing that. When he does call me in, he asks for his water or blankets to be fixed and then immediately goes back to sleep. I don't even talk to him so it is quick and easy.

Has been having night terrors some. He went through a patch of about 6 weeks that he had one to two a week. He doesn't remember them (as is trademark with night terrors) and they are far more upsetting for us than they are for him. He has an obvious recurring dream with them as he talks about something being in his room with him and he points at it while screaming and crying. He tries to back away from it. The terrors have lasted anywhere from a few minutes to about 15. He hasn't had one recently (knock on wood) but I'm sure we will see them again. He has them more when he is overtired after a long day at Disney or the beach or something so we just try to make sure he doesn't get too overtired.

Knows his left from his right about 90% of the time. This is one that seriously surprises me. Kenzie was just like this and I know I have some trouble with that as an adult so the fact that both kids are so good at this is amazing to me. Maybe it's normal, but it always throws me. He is also very good with directions already and can remember how to get places and give me directions if I ask. He likes to announce that "this is the way to..." when we are driving. If we start down the road as if we are going to Nana's house, he will tell me that even if that is not where we are going. Or he will tell me that Target is on the way to Nana's house and other things like that. I wonder if this is a sign that he will be great with spatial type tasks like Legos and puzzles like his sister.

Is finally getting into puzzles. He can put together a 12 piece puzzle with some help. It took him a while to get to this point compared to his sister, I think but he is getting more and more into it. Maybe Legos will come next.

Still isn't much for coloring. He does it a bit, but doesn't really like to color. It just doesn't hold his attention long. It isn't long before he is off doing something else. He enjoys painting too but it also doesn't last long. He can sit forever though and use playdoh.

Has personality for days. I know it's been mentioned before, but Will is hilarious. And he knows it. That doesn't always help because he will try to do something funny until it has gotten old. He has this innate ability to make others laugh though. He makes funny faces or says funny things and has us cracking up constantly.

Thinks Mommy is awesome and Daddy is getting cooler every day but he still think Kenzie is the best of all. He is a cuddler and prefers to cuddle with Mommy. Daddy is his big buddy and they have some sort of weird secret pirate hook handshake thing going already. BUT... if Kenzie wanted to play with him, he would leave us both behind to be with her. We joke that Kenzie was a fine only child but Will would be a terrible one because he loves to have a buddy to play with. It is all he has ever known so while he can play alone, he prefers to have his sister with him. He also thinks she hangs the moon so everything she does is amazing.

Will is seriously the coolest little guy I know. We are so lucky to have been chosen as his parents. What an amazing little guy.