"I love My Evan"

Evan is 3 years and almost 2 months old now. This just might be my favorite age that he has been. But then, I recall thinking this a lot in his life. Not the first three months of his life, mind you. Those were ROUGH. But I remember thinking this at four months, when his smile and coos and laugh would light up the room, and his cries were always for a reason. I remember thinking this at 8 months, when he was crawling and drooling and SO easy-going. And again I thought this at 1 year, when he started talking and signing for real (communication at last!), and started showing signs of his clever and funny and sweet personality. And again, at two years, surely that was my favorite age. What terrible twos? I just had to explain to him why some rule was the way it was and he'd say "oh, okay." I always said that Evan got all the crying and fits and awfulness out of his system during those first three months of his life, because he has been the easiest and best and happiest kid in the whole world since them. (Minus teething and illness, of course!) But NOW. I mean, if you could just see this kid now. Granted, he is becoming slightly more difficult (atrocious threes?) but it is all part of his charm. He oozes personality, and everything he does is just so damned cute or funny or smart or both. Well, except for the time outs. Although sometimes he even finds a way to make himself cute during those...

A list might be the best way to help me remember these times someday (in addition to my oodles of pictures and videos, of course), so here goes:

EVAN AT 3 YEARS, 2 MONTHS:

- He has a very dramatic sigh that he started developing when he was 2 1/2, and has now perfected. It is complete with an exasperated lifting and dropping motion of his arms, palms-up. He uses this in the following context - ME:"Should we make the square out of green playdoh?" EVAN: Dramatic SIGH with exasperated arm motion, followed by "Mommy. The square needs to be blue because the triangle is red and the star is yellow," followed again by the Dramatic SIGH. I swear he is about to roll his eyes at me one of these days, since he is so clearly astounded by my complete ignorance of all things Obvious.

- He likes to dance around behind me at the stores, and I let him do this as long as he does not touch anything and as long as he is not loud. So he walks and "dances" in a twisty-wiggly way while whisper-singing "I am hee-hee, I am oh-oh, I am poo-poo, I am Grandma, I am mommy, I am lee-la, I am ..." etc. etc. So I love the dancing, but I also love that he keeps up with me and listens still. He just has a grand old time dancing through the stores, but manages to stay out of any trouble. Kind of the story of his life.

- He can sit forever and listen to books, and already shows an affinity towards reading and writing. He knows all his letters and their sounds (thanks, Tad), and just wrote his name last week! (It was messy, and the "a" and "n" are debatable... but he IS three, so give him a break already.)

- He has the best smile of any kid I know. I'm not biased. You should see it.

- When I lie in bed with him to sing him song goodnight, we sometimes rest our foreheads on each others, or our noses, and he touches my face with his hand, and we sing like that. That is when I say "I love my Evan." Sometimes, he says "I love my Mommy." But other times he says "I love my poo-poo" and smiles.

- His teacher says he is the best artist in the whole class, which shocks her because he is one of the younger ones and a boy. Apparently, the girls are usually always better (of course!), but Evan is just a gluing and painting and cutting machine.

- When he hasn't seen me in a while, he'll come running, saying "Mom-meeee, Mom-meeee" in a deepish kind of voice. And he hugs better than any other kid too. A lot of times it is a full-body hug, legs and all.

- He is very bossy, so one of his favorite sayings is "Listen up, people!"

- When he is around a baby, he will be SO nurturing that it makes me ache for another baby just so he can have a sibling to care for. He will play with them by tickling them gently on the belly while saying "Tickle, tickle!!! HeeHeeHee," where the laugh at the end is the best part. It is an oddly forced laugh with a weird big smile and he gets very close to the baby's face when he does it. The babies LOVE this. He can go on like that more 10 minutes.

- His thought process seems to be close to that of an adult's by now, which is very amusing. I love hearing all the detailed steps to his reasoning about why, for example, he wants two pretend baby dogs for Christmas, one named Beena, and one named Trish. (The reason is too long to get into here.) Or why he needs a pretend castle ("NOT a real one, Mommy, that would be too big, okay?") with a REAL door that is big enough for small and big people to fit through. "But I don't need people because I already have people! But the door needs to be REAL, not pretend, so I can open it and put the people in, and then close it, and the open it and take the people out, and then close it. So the door has to be a REAL door, okay Mommy? Tell Santa. Don't forget."

- He named a dinosaur that came from a hatchable egg "playdoh playdoh bowl bowl bowl." His other dinosaur-from-an-egg is named "Zee Zee," and his alligator-from-an-egg is also named "Zee Zee." Although, recently Evan became very upset that they have the same name, and declared "OH NO!!! They have the same name! They CAN'T have the same name! Why do they have the same name!?" (Because you named them that, I say.) Dramatic Sigh. "Well, I can give them NEW names, Mommy. They can't have the same name!!" Dramatic SIGH with hand motion.

- He gets to watch 1/2 hour of cartoons a day, and he almost always picks "Max and Ruby," which I hate. When it is almost time for the show, he comes up to me and asks me, "Ask my belly if it is time for Max and Ruby to be on," and he lifts his shirt to expose his cute little belly. I then have to lean down and say to his belly button "Belly, is Max and Ruby on?" Then I have to put my ear against his belly and listen to the answer. Evan looks at me expectantly with a hopeful joyous look and turns his head so I can whisper the "belly's" answer in his ear. So I whisper the answer, something like "The belly says Max and Ruby will be on in 10 more minutes." To which Evan will likely say "Aaaawwwwwwww." This process repeats as often as you let it until the answer is "The belly says YES!" At which point Evan breaks out in cheer and yells "YAY!" and starts chanting "MaxandRuby, MaxandRuby..." while he runs towards the TV. I suppose you see why I limit him to one cartoon a day! Also, I asked him one time why he likes Max and Ruby so much, and he said "Because Max does not listen to Ruby. Little kids have a hard time listening. I don't like to listen, but I do. Sometime I don't listen. Max does not listen, and I like that." You can see why I dislike this show, but I don't have it in me to take away something that brings him such pure joy. Plus, I am positive it is not doing any permanent damage, so who cares?

- His favorite animal is the dolphin, at least this week. Why? Well, "because the dolphin is blue, Mommy, and blue is my favorite color." Dramatic SIGH with arm motion. Of course.

- When he gets a fruit snack as a reward (10 "smiley faces" = 1 fruit snack), he has to take all the packages out of the box and line them up just perfectly before he picks one. He is kind of OCD about a lot of things and always has been, which is super useful when it comes time for cleaning. He seems to be getting over it a little in his older age, but he still has his moments.

Well, that is all for now. Mostly because it is late and I need to get to sleep. And because if anyone is actually still reading this other than myself, you are probably hoping I would just stop already. Everyone's kid is the best, blah blah blah. Well, start your own blog, then :) And, thanks for reading! Goodnight, blog!