Our Sweet and Salty Three Year Old

Sweet, salty, and everything in between. That pretty much sums up our three year old right now. I am so grateful to be his mother and obviously can't imagine life without him, but sheesh! It's a lot!

Sweet
He loves his brother. Oh, how he loves his brother. Sometimes he would prefer to love him from a distance (like when he has built an intricately elevated train track that will topple if you breathe on it wrong) but they really are becoming best of friends. Proof is on Instagram.

He sings all day long. Current favorites include:
Santa Claus is Coming to Town
Down By The Bay
The Corner Grocery Store
If the Savior Stood Beside Me

Matt cut Jonny's hair last week and for the first time ever J didn't freak out! Whenever someone mentions it he does this proud little bow to show them the top of his head, then carefully folds each ear back as proof of his bravery-- "and see behind my ears??"

Salty
So. Many. Meltdowns. I don't even know what else to say about that. The waterworks are real around here.

One of his new favorite phrases is, "I will not!" As in, "I will not pick up my cars!" or "I will not obey Mama!"

His sassy little attitude is simultaneously hilarious and concerning.  A few weeks ago he was chasing the dog with a toy truck. When I took away the truck he wailed, "You made a bad choice to me Mama!" Another time as I was trying to get him to try eating something new he burst into tears, crying, "this dinner is not delicious to me!"

In Between
He never stops talking in the car. Like, ever. Sometimes it is adorable and sometimes I would give anything for two minutes of silence. We are in the "WHY" phase and I'm sorry, but it's rough. I just can't spend 10 minutes talking about why we are waiting at the red light and the other cars are driving. "Why we stop mama? Why their light is green? I want our light to be green!" We have to take turns! What else is there to say!?!

It is sweet in these conversations, though, to get a glimpse into his mind and heart. He talks a lot about his Dada and the things they will do when Dad gets home. He is also very interested in "towns" and loves to ask what town his aunts/uncles/grandparents live in. However, these questions inevitably lead to the unanswerable "why" questions (What is Grandpa's town called? Lehi Why? They just call it that. Why he live there? Because he likes it. Why? They have mountains there. Why? . . . tectonic plates? I don't KNOW!!!!)

Sweet, salty, and everything in between. I'll take it all.
💓💓💓