August 26, 2008

My Boy, Just Shy of Three

Sometime in the last year, Puppy stretched into a long, skinny boy. The lack of diaper only accentuates it. I put a new pair of 3T pants on him, adjustable waist pulled tight, and they fell to his ankles. He eats quite a bit but seems to burn it right off, constantly running and moving and jumping.

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"Do you want to play princess, Mama?" he asks.

"Sure." The answer is always, "Yes."

He climbs behind me on the chair and begins piling my hair on top of my head, pushing and twirling it into a mess of knots.

"You're a princess! You're a princess, Mama!"

He holds up a ruler and pretend to measure the height of the 'do. "How tall is it? Is it seven, Mama?"

"Sure, why not?" I have yet to figure out where this game came from.

"Give me 52 pennies. You're a princess!"

***

After Firefly came home, he started to ask to be carried more, which we expected. He holds his arms up toward us, opening and closing his hands like little lobster claws. He shorthands his request to be picked up: "Pick me! Pick me, please," making me feel like he's pleading for us to choose him over his sister.

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He is big into puzzles right now, the 20-40 piece ones with the oversized pieces. He sits surrounded by pieces on the floor, methodically matching pictures together. When finished, he wants to undo it right away so he can reform it again. As a kid, I never wanted to take them apart once I'd finished. I like how how easily he returns to the beginning.

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Someone once told me that each stage in your child's life is the best. You think it can't get any better than it is, and then it does. I was skeptical when I first heard it and still doubt it sometimes. How could I enjoy this little person any more than I do right now? Then the next stage comes and brings some novel bit of independence or ability. The wonderful things about this age: his imagination is showing more and more, we can trade sentences back and forth, we laugh about things together, he so easily finds wonder in things.

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He still loves books. The librarian handed him a tote bag as his reward for participating in the summer reading program and he ran excitedly around the children's section, filling it with picture books to take home. At my parents' house, he always pulls out his favorite book, one from my childhood, it's purple cover worn. He wants us to read it to him again and again. He wants to take books to bed and in the car. He pretends to read the used car catalogs from the stand outside the post office, calling them his magazines. Nearly every day he asks if his real magazine came in the mail.

I try not to get too excited about his fondness for books. It's a bit early to be dreaming of passionate literary discussions and trading paperbacks back and forth. But the bookworm in me, the one who'd read for hours each day if she could? She's loving it.

***

Every now and then he asks me to lie down next to him while he falls asleep. I pause to stretch out on my side for five or ten minutes on his bed. Each time I start to think about how quickly this will pass, how little time we have left before he'll want privacy and independence. Gazing at his tiny silhouette, I try to memorize what it feels like to be close to him, the weight of him on my lap or in my arms, his giggling squirminess as I zerbert his cheek.

8 comments:

Andromeda Jazmon said...

So sweet. Sometimes, just touching their soft, sticky hands or the warm top of their heads makes my heart overflow with delight and wonder in the moment. It rushes by so fast and so much of growing up is difficult. Thank God for the sweetness. You've perfectly described your little treasure being three.

cynthia said...

beautiful. and yeah, that's our favorite book over here too.

Anonymous said...

I love this. I do think its true that each stage is the favorite. There is such cute sweetness in these little boys we have!

Lori said...

So sweet. I got the "he's at such a fun age right now" comment about my son yesterday. And I immediately thought about how much fun is still ahead. Crawling...walking...talking...laughing at jokes...singing songs. It's so easy to look forward to what's coming next instead of enjoying today.

Clementine said...

What a sweet post. I love the way you talk about your children--your loves for them comes right through your writing.

Anonymous said...

Here's some hope for you...my first nephew was the sweetest boy on the planet when he was little. He would sing in his high voice and play and I thought, I don't want this to ever end! Can't our relationship stay JUST like this??? Then he got older and talked more and was still perfectly sweet - he would always ask me how old I was and SWEAR I was younger because I "didn't look THAT old" I just looked beautiful. Mind you, the answer to his question was probably "19" (ha!)

Every year I thought - this is it - the year he's going to want his independence and won't want to be seen with his aunt. This is the year I won't be cool to him anymore.

He's FIFTEEN and still loves me AND thinks I'm cool! I was ready to settle for "loves me" - but I got "cool" to boot!!!

Anonymous said...

Awww. Posts like this make me start anticipating -- and make up for all of the time that I spend being terrified! LOL

Anami said...

"Gazing at his tiny silhouette, I try to memorize what it feels like to be close to him, the weight of him on my lap or in my arms"

This brought tears to my eyes as I consider how quickly my kid is going to be two! It just seems to be gone so quickly, in a moment they're grown and don't need their moms anymore...So I'm left with the memories of these precious moments between maturity and childhood.

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