Three Tres Sān

Milo,

You are three, sweet boy. Time swept us up in the bustle of daily life and now look... you are three! Watching you change from a baby to an independent little boy over these last few months has left me in awe. I have been looking at all of your pictures this week and I am struck by how different you are now. In honor of your third birthday, I want to capture the image of you today because I know you will change in a heartbeat.

You have just started your new full-time school and as usual, you got into the groove very quickly. Happily, you are in the same class with Cameron so you have a special friend there. I think you will miss Marcus from your old school though since he seemed to be one of the highlights of your days there. We are so excited to see you grow at your new school! You already amaze us regularly with your knowledge. We were pretty shocked when you came home a few months ago counting in Spanish and were duly impressed when you got up to cuarenta. (In fact, your teacher coerced us into potty training by reminding us that if you could count to thirty in Spanish you could certainly pick up potty training ~ and she was right.) Just this week you started counting in Chinese (thank you Kai-Lan) so now you can officially say the word "three" in 3 languages.

Your favorite show is Word World and it has effectively taken you to the next step in your ABC love. Now, after you watch a show, you go around and gather the letters that make up whatever word they focused on and then carry them around to different places, laying them out to spell the word, gathering them back up and repeating. Some of your most commonly spelled words are MOMMY, DADDY, MILO, CAT, DOG, PIG, etc. but some of the shockers have been GUITAR, TURTLE and ELEPHANT. I mean seriously, what almost 3-year-old can spell ELEPHANT? You crazy, smart little boy!

You are talking all the time now - often from the time you wake up until the time you go to sleep even if that means you have to repeat "Mommy" or "Daddy" 2,000 times throughout the day. You like to hear "Once upon a time stories" but they must start like this... "Once upon a time in a land far, far away there lived a little boy named Milo..." You don't want to hear the story if it stars someone else. You don't even mind that Mommy's stories suck. I will apologize now that I am a horrible story-teller. I am trying to get better and fortunately am getting lots of practice (especially when you are sitting on the potty).

You love music and I have officially given up listening to NPR when you are in the car. However, I usually make you ask to listen to music because you say it "mus-kick" and it is one of the last words that you pronounce with any sort of baby inflection. It always makes me smile. Your favorite song right now is Knocktopus by Recess Monkey (thank you Aunt Sarah) and you generally demand it and all other songs by song number which you can see from the backseat. This usually comes out as "Mommy, I want to listen to number 4" or "No Mommy, I don't want number 6! I want number 8!!" We have had to work on the understanding that sometimes Mommy likes to listen to things too. Daddy and I love it when you start singing to songs but don't know the words because you just throw in random numbers and letters to make the words. It is adorable and so fitting for you!

Lovebug, Bubba, Sugar Plum, you are becoming such a big boy (soon you will probably even nix some of my nicknames for you...). We have begun to hear "No, I do it!" much more often and you can. You can do it. We will let you even if our hearts hurt just a little that you don't need us for that one thing anymore - whatever that thing is. We will smile and be so proud that you are tackling the world as only you can.

A few months ago you starting wiping off any kisses that we forced upon you. Now it is a game. You wipe off my kisses and I always say, "You can't wipe off mommy kisses" to which you reply "They're permanent!" That is right my sweet boy, mommy kisses (and Mommy's love) are permanent.

I love you to the ends of the earth -

Momma