Me, Nathan, and Paul when we first got to Paul’s grandparents’ house for some delicious food followed by some egg-hunting… all following a beautiful Easter service at our church. Of course, it can sometimes be incredibly difficult to convince a three-year-old to sit still for a picture, but we were finally able to get a decent one in the midst of some squirming.

Nathan helping his great-grandmother dye some eggs. He totally loved it! At first, I was slightly trepidatious about Nathan being around food dye, but it worked out well… He was surprisingly calm and managed not to make a huge mess. And he thought that it was super neat to dye eggs multiple colors.

He was so excited about carrying around the basket full of eggs. I’m pretty sure he thought he was Big Stuff, and I must say that I wholeheartedly agree. And doesn’t he look totally dapper in his Easter outfit? Paul’s grandmother gave us the jacket, and she’s pretty sure it used to be Paul’s. So of course I had to put Nathan in it for Easter.

Nathan’s having a nice little chat with Daddy. My two most favorite men in the whole wide world, right here, both looking as handsome as ever, and both making my heart swell to approximately the size of a football field. I don’t even know how my heart hasn’t exploded out of my chest yet.

After the festivities, the little guy was pretty tired. He had a big day and really enjoyed going to church, gorging on a delicious Easter meal, dying eggs, hunting them, and then running wild and free outside.  Holidays are great around here, and I am super happy I get to spend them with my wonderful husband and child. I couldn’t ask for anything better!

I don’t see how hoarders can do it. I would go crazy!

So anyway, I’ve been taking Nathan to the park to enjoy the lovely weather, and (of course) he has a blast. He’s growing into such a little boy. We’ve been working diligently with him on speaking in complete sentences. The kid has a steel-trap memory, so he’s memorized the basic sentence we taught him which is “Mommy, may I have some more Dino Dan please?” What’s really cool is that he uses that sentence for other questions. He just switches some words out. For example, he’ll now say “Mommy, may I have some more grapes please?” It’s incredibly awesome to hear the little baby you gave birth to talking to you in a complete sentence.

He’s also really advancing in the potty-training area. He tells me when he wants a diaper change, which is great. And he also tells me when he has to go potty. But I have to be quick… I have about ten seconds to get him to his potty before he pees in his diaper.

Nathan is also flapping his little Wings of Independence. He does NOT take too kindly to being told what to do. For example, I can expect a meltdown if I just grab his hands and start wiping them when he’s done eating. But if I ask him if I may wipe his hands, he’ll say okay. Other times, if he balks at the notion, I offer to let him do it himself. Sometimes it takes a while for me to convince him to let me do something, but I’ve noticed that if I just keep asking in different ways (“May I wipe your hands please? … Will you let Mommy wipe your hands for you? … Will you wipe your hands for Mommy please?”), eventually he’ll give in and let me.

He has such strong willpower! Last night, it took me nearly five minutes to convince him to let me brush his teeth. And I bet someone out there is thinking “Forget that! I’d just MAKE him brush his teeth!” Well, that doesn’t work with my kid. Sure, I could force my will on him, but it only leads to a meltdown and will put us both in an angry mood. I think avoiding those types of strong confrontations are important when you have a spirited child. Granted, there are times when you must be confrontational, but I think it should be saved for the Really Big Things.

We’ve had to drastically cut down on naps. Remember how we were having a bear of a time getting him to stay in bed at night? Well, he would go a few days doing pretty well- but then, inevitably, he would relapse. It was driving us crazy. Well, we had one more trick up our sleeves; we cut down on his naps. So now he doesn’t nap every day anymore. He’ll still nap if he really needs one, but here lately, I’ve just been keeping him up. And at night, he falls right asleep. Go figure.

He’s also becoming sweeter and sweeter. He is constantly seeking hugs and kisses. And he loves nothing more than to sit in Mommy and Daddy’s lap, cuddling with us. I love how lovable he is! And I’m taking full advantage of it because he won’t want us to love on him forever. Before you know it, he’ll be grown. And I won’t be able to nibble on those little arms anymore.

We are truly blessed to have such a wonderful child. Granted, he can definitely be difficult and trying when he wants to be, but his sweet side more than makes up for it!

I still can’t believe I’m the mother of a three year old!

My little guy when he was just seven months old… my how time flies. Well, it doesn’t exactly fly in the moment, but it sure seems like it did in retrospect. I can’t believe Nathan is getting so big now and that he is now done with the toddler years and has morphed into this preschooler. PRESCHOOLER. I love this kid.

He thinks I’m hilarious. I’m enjoying this ability to make him laugh while I can… when he becomes a sullen teenager, I’m sure he will no longer find my antics amusing.

Sitting outside together, enjoying some beautiful weather. And oh yeah. Nathan loves having his picture taken. Every time I break out the camera, he grins and says, “Say cheeeeeeeeeese!” And of course he likes to scroll through all the pictures after I’ve taken them, exclaiming “There’s Mommy! There’s Nathan!” and even occasionally kissing or hugging the screen. I love this kid.

I can’t believe my little boy has grown so much… sometimes it seems like such a long, long time ago that he was a little baby. Other times it seems like just yesterday. I wonder how it will feel in ten years. Or twenty. Or thirty. I know I’m really going to miss him being little and all the sweet little things that come with it, especially the things like how a hug can make the world ok, how kisses have the magical ability to instantly heal absolutely anything, and especially the way he wraps his arms around my neck and tells me he loves me “so vewy much.” He’s at a tough age where he is testing every single one of his boundaries and purposefully not minding me just to see what I will do. But the sweet times totally make up for the frustrating ones.

I’m really going to miss these times when he’s all grown up. Even the hard parts. Because when he’s all grown up, I won’t be able to tickle his feet anymore or scoop him up in a giant bear hug and twirl around the room with him… and all the other sweet little things that come with this age. The good and the bad, it’s all part of it.  So every time he throws a temper tantrum or tries to assert his independence, I just tell myself that one day, I will look back at these days with fondness…

When we learn about the letter “B,” for example, I’ll ask him what sound(s) that particular letter makes and then we’ll talk about different words that start with that letter. I turn it into a fun game and make it something exciting and interesting. Whenever I ask Nathan if he would like to talk about a new letter, he gets so excited, claps his hands, and will even do a little dance. So, after I drew on the board and we talked about the letter “B,” Nathan walked around the house saying, “B is for book! Book starts with the letter B! B says buh… buh… buh!”

I’m so glad he likes learning and loves to read. As long as he keeps up a love of learning and reading, the sky is the limit for him.

“You talking to God?” I asked.

“Yeah, God’s in the clouds,” he replied. Then he put both hands on my face, tilted my head up towards the sky and said, “Say hi God!”

I’m not sure if he wanted me to say hi to God, or if he was asking God to say hi to me.

You see, I’ve been talking to Nathan a lot about God. To explain God in terms that his little mind can understand, I told him that God lives really, really far away… further than the sky. He lives so far away that we can’t see him, but he has really good eyesight so he can see us. And good hearing, too, so he can hear us. I tell Nathan that God loves him so very much, to which Nathan always replies, “I love God too!”

My sweet, sweet baby. The look on his face says it all; he really does love God. Even though he’s never seen God, he loves him nonetheless. To me, that is pure preciousness.

You see, my religion is extremely important to me. I want to bring Nathan up to know God and to love him, but not to the point that I’m shoving the Bible down his throat. I want him to love God because he WANTS to love God. The best I can do, I think, is to talk to him about God and guide him in the right direction, and pray God does the rest.

So far, God seems to be doing just that.