Months Thirty-Five and Thirty-Six

October 15, 2022

Titus,

And like that, you’re three. This post has been hard to get started, realizing that it’s the last post “monthly” post for our last boy. We’ve now had 36 wonderful months of life with you, and it has been a joy the whole time. All that said, it looks like this post is brought to you by the letter “B”…big boy bed, back to school, birthdays, biking, being a wonderful little boy…

We’ve given you lots of changes this month, including taking the side off of your crib to make a big boy bed! That, in combination with the color-changing clock, means that you can get up and play in your room until the light turns green. Naturally, that’s led to a few nights finding you up reading to yourself in your rocking chair 45 minutes after putting you to bed. We also had the one night where you popped out of your room 15 times, “I have to go potty.” “I need water,” etc. etc. Even despite that, you’ve taken to the clock and the freedom. You get up and go potty by yourself (most of the time), and play quietly before it’s actually time to get up, especially at nap time. That’s a very nice blessing for other nappers in the house. At this point, it’s only your parents who really want that nap some days.

We like to peek in when you’re playing or reading in your chair (whether you’re supposed to be or not). It’s a pleasure to see you growing up and building your imagination. We have been asking what color your light is to get you used to staying in your room until it turns green; you get told to go back in until it turns. The outcome is that, when we peeked in to get you out early one day, you were happily playing while your light was still red. You looked up, “it’s not red yet!”, repeated that two more times, and then exasperated, “it’s not red yet! I told you three times!”

For a while, you were even making the bed in the morning. We thought you might roll around and fall out at some point, as your older brothers did when they first got their beds. It hasn’t happened yet, and you happily announced after a few weeks “I haven’t fallen out yet!”

Your older brothers went back to school this month. You were very excited to see backpacks and lunches packed, and things prepped the night before. You made yourself a container of goldfish, put it in your backpack, and put that by the door the night before school started. You were very disappointed to find out that you weren’t going that next day, and pretty bummed the next three days while your brothers were away. This has been the first summer where you’re really playing with your brothers, and it took some adjustment when your playmates had to go back to school.

As you were going to bed the night of your birthday, you looked at Mommy while snuggling and said, “I’m three now. Does that mean I get to go to preschool?”

It’s two months of birthdays, from Noah (a blast on the slip and slide), Seth (Nerf chaos all over the house), to your third birthday party, with Paw Patrol and all your friends. You had a great time with everyone, and we had a great time celebrating you, too.

You’ve come into your own on the strider bike these two months as well. You’re all over the neighborhood, riding up and down the cul-de-sac, and even going on longer rides with Daddy. You’ve even ridden all the way on a walk with Mommy and Daddy, just cruising along (stopping occasionally to check out a cool rock). You’ve tried a pedal bike with training wheels, and now you’re working on riding a real bike! You’ve got the balance, you just have to get that paired up with pedaling correctly. Of course, biking has led to some decent crashes already. Brushed it off, asked for some bandaids, and got right back at it.

Grandpa and Grandma came to visit, which is always a great time! We spent some time touring museums at the Smithsonian, and went to King’s Dominion, where they have a fall pumpkin patch and trick-or-treat with Peanuts characters.

Your clear little voice and extensive vocabulary lights up our days and the days of everyone you meet and greet as we go about our day, from the store to the street. You have the cutest way of adding an s to words that end in a silent “e” sound. “These are mines!”.

Every day brings fun memories:

• “Dad, it’s wind-ing hard!” (blowing)
• Looking at the ads and putting together a grocery list, just like Mommy. “Do we have goldfish? I’m going to get some apples.”
• Feeling daddy’s toes in his shoes, checking the sizes. “These are too small.”
• Pulled bunny out of the dryer, squealed with joy, and ran away making kissing noises. “Bunny gave me kisses!”
• Arranged a line of cars next to a fire station toy. “They’re in the Chik-Fil-A drive through!”
• Requested pajamas with monkeys on them. Looked down at them after dressing and started giggling, “So many monkeys on my pants!”

• Any food that he’s previously enjoyed, but decides he doesn’t like right now. “I hate this rice!”
• Mommy: “Holy cow!” Titus: “Where’s the cow?”
• At the National Archives. Mommy: “Those were our forefathers.” Titus: “No, five fathers!”
• You’ve decided that you are old enough to shower by yourself, just like your brothers. “No, I want to do a shower!”

Daddy had a day off of work, so you got to go hiking with Mommy and Daddy. We saw tiny frogs on the trail, and lots of spiders over the trail. Daddy moved one out of the way by moving the branches the web was attached to, and said, “Sorry, dude”. You spent the rest of the hike calling every spider a ‘sorry, dude’, as in “I see a sorry dude!”

You’ve grown so much in three years, and even just in the last two months. After a bath now, your hooded bath towel barely goes down to your feet. Not so long ago, you used to disappear into that towel for snuggles. We love seeing you grow and learn every day, and still miss the baby and toddler that you were. Thanks for being our son. We love you lots!

Daddy and Mommy