Height/Weight: Not surprisingly, Garrett still falls into the "peanut" category for his height and weight--although he's moved up in percentiles since his second birthday, so there's still hope that he won't be the smallest boy in his class! At 29 pounds and 2 ounces, he's just shy of 30 pounds, and measures in at exactly three feet tall. And truthfully, I'm selfishly pretty glad he's still as small as he is; despite being three he still insists on being carried more often than I'd like to admit. And I suppose if he were heavier I'd just be stronger--or I'd have to tell him "no" more often--but where's the fun in that?
Wearing: Honestly, I have no idea what size he is wearing. But I blame that on the grossly inconsistent sizing for kid's clothes (and the fact that some of our clothes have likely shrunk due to the number of times they've been washed). I know for a fact he has 24 month clothes in his closet--maybe even a few rogue 18 month pieces in there somewhere--but he also has a few 3T items. The majority are 2T though. However, if he had it his way, he'd have far fewer items in his closet than he actually does. His absolute favorite things to wear are his football clothes (anything Vikings) and his sweatpants (or "soft" pants, as he calls them). Out of principle, I make him change into real pants whenever we are going out somewhere, and as a result there are some days where he changes clothes upwards of four times. But, he changes them on his own and (so far) doesn't fight me about putting "nicer" stuff on to leave the house, so I'm letting it happen. Because what's a little more laundry when I already average five loads a week?
Eating: I'm honestly trying to think of something that Garrett doesn't eat, and I'm coming up blank. He rarely complains about any of the food he is served and for the most part he clears (at least the majority of) his plate without issue (although generally speaking he almost always eats his vegetables before his meat. Usually he'll eat a decent amount of meat without coaxing, but not always--and usually not without asking for seconds of his vegetables first). He definitely has a higher tolerance than William for spicy foods, and whenever Darrell is adding hot sauce to his food Garrett insists on having some too. He still enjoys helping with meal prep as well, and as a result frequently snacks on raw vegetables (including onion--so weird). He tried some celery the other day as we were prepping it for a meal and he made such a big deal about how awesome it was that you would have thought we'd given him chocolate.
Sleep: If this were a report card, Garrett would probably average a "C+" in sleep. The boys have been sharing a room for just under a year, and the first month or two was really (really) rough. Part of the problem was probably self-inflicted; we knew the boys would be sharing a room at the beach in June, so we wanted them to have a few months under their belt before we tried it on vacation. So we pushed the issue even though the timing was probably not good for the boys. Garrett did not transition well through Daylight Savings time, and as a result he was taking upwards of a hour to settle himself down for bedtime (even when he was still in his crib). Around the same time, William pretty much stopped napping altogether, so when bedtime rolled around he was usually out almost immediately. Put the two together and it spelled disaster. William was either so exhausted that the two bickered through bedtime and we had tantrums and frustrations across the board, or he was in a "drunk tired" mood where everything Garrett said or did was hysterical and they couldn't stop giggling like school girls (which was at least better than them fighting with each other, but Darrell and I were usually still plenty frustrated about the situation, especially when it would persist for ninety minutes after lights out). Eventually things leveled out (especially once we started putting Garrett down for his nap earlier and limiting how long he slept for), but even still we'll go through rough patches of getting them to settle down at night. Additionally, Garrett will still wake up occasionally at night. It comes and goes--two or three weeks of nothing, then a week or two where he's up every other night (and multiple times a night at that!)--and we're struggling to find a way to effectively nip that in the bud, especially since we don't want him waking up William. However, the thing that is consistently keeping his sleep grade from being in the pits is his napping--despite the headaches he gives us at bedtime and the slowness with which he settles down, he usually goes down very easily at nap time and probably averages a ninety-minute nap (and we rarely let him nap for longer than two hours).
New Stuff: Um, everything? Apparently when I go a year between updates on a particular child a lot changes. Shocking, right?
--Biggest new development? Becoming a big brother. And boy oh boy, is he ever in his element as one. He loves Connor so, so much. He is so sweet and mimics so many of the things I do with Connor, especially in terms of trying to soothe him when he's fussing. There's nothing sweeter than watching him pat Connor on the back while saying "What's the matter buddy" and "It's okay sweetie". Unfortunately, Garrett does not have as much awareness of personal space and ability to be gentle as I do, so his attempts at soothing are often unsuccessful, but that doesn't stop him from trying. We really saw his nurturing side shine through last year after Rose and Jonathan were born, so we knew at least initially he'd be really good with Connor, but we weren't sure how long it would last since he would be around Connor all of the time. I think by now we can safely say his nurturing tendencies aren't going anywhere anytime soon (although sometimes I wish he'd be a little more disinterested in Connor so I can stop feeling like I have to watch Connor like a hawk 24/7 to make sure Garrett doesn't hug him to death. There are worse problems to have, though, right?).
--Along with being a fantastic big brother, he's really started to nurture and imaginatively play with his stuffed animals. At times, it's a really fun interaction to watch, and I'll usually humor him by "feeding" his animals when they sit at the table and "disciplining" them when they are being too noisy in the house. However, sometimes he is downright ridiculous with them. His elephant likes to use Connor's exersaucer (and needs to have the legs at a lower height because he isn't as tall yet), and I have to ask if elephant is done with his turn before I can let Connor have a turn. Puppy was forgotten at Grandma's house one time (he was having his tea on the piano and silly mommy didn't think to check there when I was packing up their stuff to leave) and for weeks we had to hear about how sad Puppy was about being left behind. I'm pretty sure he averages five or six animals in bed with him at a time, and I think it is usually worse at my mom's house because in addition to the ones he takes over there she has others that he has to cuddle with as well.
--We also see a lot of his imagination when it comes to reading books. He does a pretty good job of retelling stories that he's heard us read multiple times, but even if it's a story he's never seen before he'll pick it up and tell a story based on what he sees in the pictures. He's probably still a ways off from being able to read, though (which is probably an obvious statement since he's only three), because while he can sing his ABCs with no issue, his letter recognition isn't the greatest (although sometimes we feel like he is playing us and he knows his letters better than he lets on, so that could be a fun trait once he gets to be a teenager). He can also count to twenty with about 90% accuracy.
--He has been potty trained since January! We put him in underwear one Saturday morning (after talking about it for a few weeks beforehand) and he only had a handful of accidents over the weekend (although Sunday morning he did walk up to Darrell and say "Daddy, I have a poppy diaper" to which Darrell had to reply "Garrett, you aren't wearing a diaper". So that was fun). Monday was a major setback, though, with at least four accidents that morning (and Darrell was out of town for work until Wednesday--great timing), but I changed how I talked to him about it (go potty when you *think* your pee is ready to come out, not when you *feel* like your pee is ready to come out), and he's pretty much been dry since (whatever it takes, right?).
--For the most part, he is very sweet and helpful (which can make it harder than heck to discipline him when he needs it!). He loves washing dishes, he gets excited about getting to match his socks and fold his pajamas (not to mention the act of putting the clothes in the washing machine in the first place!), and he is always very quick to grab his knife and pull a chair over to the counter to help us cut vegetables for dinner (although he usually ends up eating as much as he cuts, but whatever).
--Verbally, this kid is a riot. I know I mentioned last year that he must love the sound of his voice because he is always making some sort of noise, and that hasn't changed. However, as he has matured and his vocabulary has developed, he has picked up some pretty entertaining mannerisms to accompany what he is saying. He can be so animated and expressive when he is talking that I'm convinced he has a very successful future in theater ahead of him. And maybe some of the things he says/does are only entertaining because of his age (and small size, which makes him seem younger than he is), but when he drops phrases like "Thank you for making my toast not crunchy Mommy. It's so delicious" and "I don't want any cheese. Thank you for offering", I usually can't help but laugh a little.
--We were already seeing a lot of his independence at his second birthday, and not surprisingly that has only gotten stronger. While we (frequently) butt heads at the house with his tendency to push boundaries, I admire his determination at parks and playgrounds to push his own physical boundaries so he can keep up with the bigger kids (aka William). I've actually watched other parents step in to assist when he does something like climb the snake ladder for the hundredth time that summer, because admittedly, sometimes he really does look like he should be too "little" to do some of the stuff he does. Knock on wood, though--so far his fearlessness and drive to keep up with William have not resulted in any major injuries, because to his credit, he does have a pretty good understanding of what his limits are--at least on that given day.
--I'm a little ashamed to admit this, but I'm really not sure what I would consider to be his "favorites" at this age. Sure, he loves Connor and his animals, but I don't know what I would say he is really interested in/enjoys doing (which--if I'm being honest--made buying Christmas and birthday presents a bit tricky). He's pretty adaptable and mostly tolerant about doing whatever William is doing, and as a result I feel like he hasn't really started to define himself/his interests more than just being William's younger brother. He'll go through phases of being really interested in something (like puzzles, art/music, cooking at the play kitchen), but he hasn't really had something that he's latched on to and stayed interested in (at least not to the degree that William latched on to trains). I suppose that's a little indicative of differences in their personalities, though--William has always had more of an ability to sit and do something for long periods of time, whereas Garrett is much more constantly on the move and jumping from one activity to the next and then back again.
Happiest of Birthday Wishes to my new favorite three year old! I'm so excited to watch where life will take you in the next year--and beyond!
