Friday, July 22, 2016

Define: Three

Beckett had this third birthday last week.  Three years seems to have flown by, yet at the same time it seems like he's just always been a part of our family.

Beckett's words have really made leaps and bounds over the last month or two.  He was evaluated a few months ago, and his speech was a little bit behind.  We worried that he had been having some ear problems, and that maybe his pronunciation was off because he couldn't hear us.  Our audiology appointment at Mott's went really well (and what a cool facility!), and they said his ears looked great.  He's started stringing more words together lately, and repeats just about everything we say (great for progress, not always great for us to hear what he's hearing from us...).

Whenever we asked him how old he was going to be for his birthday, he'd put his finger on his chin and say, "Hmm...two!" We would say, "No, try again..."  And he would say, "Hmm...one!"

Meltdowns at three are both funny and maddening.  Yesterday, he was upset about something, and I was trying to deal with that.  Jericho was also in the kitchen, and had crawled over to the cat food.  She started to dump the bowl on the floor when Beckett realized what she was doing, which just pushed him further into his meltdown.  I tried to tell him that I couldn't go take care of Jericho until he stopped freaking out, but Jericho spilling more cat food made him freak out more...I was really glad when Jamin got home.


For a while I've been disappointed with the amount of time I spend on my phone, and now that Beckett is a little more independent, I feel even worse.  Whenever he asks for a game, or my phone, or to watch something, I have a pang of conviction.  I know that it's unrealistic to think I can keep him away from all technology, and even if I could, I don't think I would want to.  I just don't want it to be a focus in his life, I want him to play with toys, to go outside, to catch bugs and play in the mud.  A lot of times I convince myself that it's too hard to do those things because of where we live, and truly, that is a factor, but I also know that if I were to be truly intentional about it, those things would happen.

One of his birthday gifts - this kid has a lot of people who love him!

At three years old...when he's throwing himself on the floor screaming because we said no to a video game (which he's actually doing at this very moment), it's hard.  When it's been an hour since we put him in bed and I hear his door open again, it's hard.  When he's been sitting in time out for 15 minutes because he won't just look me in the eyes when I'm talking to him, it's hard.  But when he smiles and runs to me when I get home, it's worth it.  When he learns something new and is so excited to show me, it's worth it.  When he says, "Love you, mama" (even with the prompting), it's worth it.  When he runs up and wants snuggle (which is the point of the meltdown he's just reached), it's worth it.  It's all worth it, and I am so blessed to call this three-year-old crazy kid mine.

This is his picture pose...ugh.

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