Rowen at 3 years old

35.5 pounds- 76%
39 1/4 inches- 93%

• loves to joke around and "tease" us
• thinks anything gross is hilarious- such a boy!
• tells us we are his "favorite people in the whole wide world"
• getting hard for mommy to lift and carry around for very long
• used the words, "actually" and "probably"
• asks me several times a day, "Are you sure mom?" after I say pretty much anything like, "We are almost home" or "It is rest time now".
• Still calls me "mama" quite a bit and Eric is "daddy" but we do sometimes here "mom", "mommy" and "dad".
• Very loving still and affectionate. We get lots of hugs and kisses.
• Wakes up every morning and screams, "Mommy, come get me!". Yes, this can cause a bit of a blood pressure rise for me first thing in the morning so we are working very hard on getting him to get out of bed himself and to come into our bedroom (this is just the best option for us- believe me, we have tried to figure out other ways). The other day he woke up from his nap and came down stairs so quietly that Eric and I didn't hear him. He surprised us by coming around the corner and whispering "surprise!".
  
• LOVES to get physical- wrestle mania here at our house in the evenings!
• takes a 2-3 hour nap on most days still- I love this as this is when I rest and catch up on stuff around the house on my days off of course.
• favorite toys right now are still, Lightning McQueen and Mater, Thomas The Tank Engine and Little Foot (from The Land Before Time).
• Plays pretend ALL the time. We are always making up stories with his toys and acting them out or reenacting from the show or movie.
  
• We call Ro "The Director" (in a loving way of course) around our house because he is always telling us our parts and very specific lines while we play together..."Mama, now you say, ...". We love this about him as we see a very creative side of him forming but it leaves little creativity for us :).
• Enjoys music, loves to sing. We listen to music in the car and he is always singing along in that sweet voice of his.
• Spends time in "time out" on a somewhat regular basis- not every day but often enough. Ro has quite a temper and does not give in hardly ever! I keep telling myself when I am about to scream with frustration that these are not the terrible threes, these are the terrific threes (from Ro's preschool teacher) and I will look back and smile on the "time out" experience someday. Not anytime soon I am sure of that but maybe someday :).
  
• Can identify all of the letters of the alphabet and knows every sound (although, those vowels can be a bit tricky sometimes). He can also identify the letter when we only give him the sound.
• Is getting better at counting with one to one correspondence. Daddy really works on this with him. We count every thing and anything... the toilet paper rolls, the caned goods in the pantry, his toys of course, food on his plate (crackers, candies, etc), you name it, we count it!
• Enjoys to pretend write. He will sometimes accidentally make a letter that looks like a real one and will get so excited, exclaiming, "Look, I made an R!".
• Can spell his name out loud. Also spells mom out loud and attempts to spell every other word you give him. It is hilarious. Most words start with "m-o-m" then he adds a few other random letters to the end but almost always includes the first letter of the word you give him! So for Papa he will say something like "m-o-m-h-p-a!" Grammy plays this with him just for a fun game mostly and we all get a kick out of it!
• Has an outstanding memory in my opinion (maybe only because mine is sooo horrible). I will read a simple story to him one time and he will "read" it back to me almost line for line immediately. He remembers things that happened a year ago with such clarity.
  
• Uses the word "lasterday" for anytime in the past- before nap time, 3 days ago, a year ago.
• Asks a ton of questions about everything (some are hard to answer!) and wants to see how everything works- really everything. He is certainly curious and I am sure will be a life long learner because of this.
  

We are just so delighted with our boy. He fills our lives with such fun. We can't wait, yet we want time to stand still, to see what this year brings for our Ro.