3 is a Magic Number

Yes it is.
Tobias turned 3 this month. We knew it was coming. Not only because he has a birthday on February 16th every year, but because he was just starting to act more "3". People call year 2 of a child's life the "terrible twos" and certainly it comes with challenges but in my experience 3 is even more challenging. Year 3 should be called the "thrashing threes" because they throw so many temper tantrums and because sometimes, as the parent, you too want to thrash around in mental agony over trying to get a very unreasonable person to do something very simple and very necessary. Like eating.

Tobias believes in deconstructionism. He likes to take his food apart so that it LOOKS like he's eaten something. I'm pretty sure he lives entirely off of stolen candy.

Sometime in the fall, Tobias started telling people he was three when they asked him how old he was. At first, I corrected him but when we hit December I decided to just let it go because in two months he would be three and I didn't want to confuse the kid. This was a mistake. Somehow, in the the two months leading up to his birthday his age kept escalating until he was insisting that he is seven years old. I've talked him back down to four, but that's about as far as it will go. I wonder if he will always be one year older than he really is.

This Statue of Liberty is seven years old.

Three-year-old Tobias is fiercely independent and oh so naughty. You would think that by boy number five we have seen it all. We thought we had but no, Tobias has taught us some new tricks. Recently, I discovered that he filled our milk jug with small toys. There's nothing like finding a lego in your cereal by biting down on it. Yum yum. Short of dumping all the milk through a strainer and then pouring it back into the jug there was really nothing to do about it. I figured the germs were already in there so we just let the toys settle on the bottom and occasionally someone would get a little something extra in their glass until we finished the milk and were able to fish the toys out that were too large to fit easily back through the opening. Yep. That was a new one.

He is also our first child to ever cut his own hair. See that chunk missing in the front? He really did not appreciate me buzzing his hair even shorter after that.

Tobias is also the first one to attempt grand larceny. I was playing a game with Benjamin and should have noticed that Tobias was far too quiet. I heard the garage door open. I found Tobias in the van with the keys trying to turn them in the ignition. So, so, independent that one. I guess he really wanted to go somewhere.

Tobias ripped this cabinet door off it's hinges. But that's okay. As you can clearly see he already "fixed" it. "I not in trouble. I fix it!"

Tobias is not a kid that likes to sleep in. He likes to get up early and then wake up the entire house just for good measure. This was causing some serious sleep-loss and extreme crankiness among brothers and parents alike. We tried just locking his door at night but then he would wake up and kick the door with his heels while laying on the floor until someone came to let him out. Kicking the door is very loud so it woke up the whole house anyway. We tried stocking his room with books, puzzles and even snacks so he would just stay in there in the mornings but to no avail. Finally, we decided to fork out the money for a fancy alarm clock that turns green when you are allowed to get out of bed. If he waited until the light was green he would earn some iPad time which is a huge deal. The clock was very complicated to set and had a little panel over the control buttons. It also had options for plug and batteries. I went ahead and put the batteries in case the little stinker unplugged it. Sure enough, the first night he unplugged it AND took the batteries out. No yellow light to tell him stay in bed, so he got up at the usual five am time. The next night we secured the battery compartment and tried again. He still got up, but we were able to put him right back down and he stayed until the light turned green. Success! We had several more successes and he earned some iPad time but apparently it still wasn't motivating enough because he kept messing with the clock. He changed the time on the clock so that the light would turn on earlier. It was green! Time to get up! Eventually, he figured out a way to get the light permanently stuck on green. Every time is wake up time! That's about when we threw in the towel. You win this time little T-Ricks. Now we let him get up and just ask that he quietly plays in the basement so that his brothers can sleep. Now he just gets up, sneaks into the storage room and steals food until the rest of the house wakes up. Sometimes, I open a box of granola bars to find that it is entirely full of empty wrappers.

"My belly fat. Yours small."

Three-year-old Tobias really likes to look handsome. Daddy usually gives him a bath on Sunday mornings and he comes downstairs after he's all dapper to tell me "I handsome Mommy." One morning, the other boys wanted spiky hair so Marc tried spiking Tobias's hair also. He took one look at himself in the mirror and started crying and saying "scary" over and over. Don't worry, Marc combed his hair down in a nice part and then he was "handsome" again.

 

 

Could I get a little help for this totally reasonable activity I am doing here? I seem to be stuck.

This winter I have had a very frustrating situation where the van is often dead when I go into the garage to start it. At first, I thought something was wrong with the battery, but then I noticed that there were usually lights on in the van when we did get it going. I started keeping the lights control switch on "off" all the time so that it was impossible to turn on any of the interior lights. The van kept dying. I started lecturing my older boys because they often went out to retrieve things they left in the van and I thought they were turning the main lights switch back to "on" so they could see better. They said they weren't doing it. Finally, Tobias showed his hand. The van was dead, again, we jump started it, again, and when we did EVERYTHING was on. I mean lights, blinkers, wipers, hazards, cd player, everything. Only Tobias would do that. He confessed. We now keep the van locked at all times even when it is parked in the garage.

Tobias requested to have this artoo-detoo mug on the table so that he could color the picture in his coloring book accurately. He used only a gray crayon though, so it got a little tricky.

Three-year-old Tobias is a holy terror to take on errands. I made the mistake of taking him to the library. When it was time to check out, I had a large armful of books. We made our way to the elevator to go upstairs to the front desk. Tobias and Benjamin got on with me and pushed the buttons. When we got to the top floor, Benjamin and I got off but Tobias did not. In fact, he pushed the door-close button and rode up and down the elevator for several minutes before I was able to catch him with the door open and dive in to grab him. The entire time we were checking out I literally had to restrain him between my legs so I could use my hands for things like getting out the library cards and paying an overdue fine. He made several more escape efforts but never got all the way back to the elevator- thank goodness. There were many wide-eyed library patrons that day.

What do you think he's thinking so deeply about? What to wish for? World domination? Turning three is serious business.

One thing that has definitely not changed about Tobias is his major sweet tooth. His candy-centered view on life was made apparent when we were listening to the radio in the van and a brief news report came on.
Tobias: "They said North Dakota."
Me: "Yes they did."
Tobias: "We live in North Dakota."
Me: "Yes we do."
Tobias: "We eat CANDY in North Dakota."
Me: laughing "Sometimes, buddy."

The birthday boy is all tucked in after his big day with his two popples. He chose the one on the left, "Dizzy" as his birthday present. He got "Yikes" on the right for Christmas. He loves those guys. We love you, buddy.

Three is a magic number. It is also crazy, unreasonable, endearing, adorable, and fleeting. Yes it is.