Gerrit is Three!

Ugh, another very late birthday post! At least this one is coming before he hits his half birthday…

Do we still have a toddler? Is he a preschooler now? I don’t know, but we have a THREE year old!

Age: 3 years old on 27 Oct 2017
Weight: 29.5 lbs
Height: 36.5 inches
Teeth: 20
Clothing Size: 3T
Diaper Size: size 4
Milestones: I don’t even know…what are 3-year-olds supposed to be able to do?? He talks up a storm, he loves being active, and we think he’s pretty smart. He knows all of his colors, including a few less common ones (cyan for example); he can easily count to 10 but tries counting to 20 (the teens mess him up a bit); he recognizes a lot of letters in the alphabet; he can spell his name; and he can tell you a LOT about dinosaurs.

Sleeping: Shortly after Gerrit turned 2, I decided to night wean him in hopes of getting more sleep. After that first rough week, sleep did improve! It took a couple of months, but he did sleep through the night once in February. And then he started cutting his 2 year molars, so sleep went downhill again. As we approached his third birthday, he was sleeping fairly well (for him) most nights though: 1 or 2 night wakings, and he usually ended up in bed with us around 6am for a couple of hours.

A couple of weeks before he turned 3, I decided to really push full weaning. I was about 8 weeks along in my new pregnancy, and nursing was really getting uncomfortable for me. It was to the point where I was clenching my teeth as he latched on, so I knew we needed to cut back. A lot. The biggest issue for me was his early morning nursing. He would more or less stay latched on for over an hour, and it was becoming too painful for me to sleep though. So I told him he could still come and sleep with us in the morning, but boo-boo was done. He was mad, but honestly he didn’t throw a big fit or anything. And then he started sleeping through the night! They were short nights at first (he’d wake over an hour earlier than normal, but wouldn’t go back to sleep since he couldn’t nurse), but they eventually got longer.

I think napping more or less ended this summer. When I could get him down for a nap, he would stay up way too late in the evening, and I was getting really frustrated with bedtime taking an hour or more. Plus waking him from a nap was horrible: he was so crabby! So we started just not doing naps. It was a gradual change. He’d nap one day, skip a few days, nap another day. I was fine with car catnaps. By the time he turned 3, naps were done though.

Eating: Gerrit eats like a typical toddler. He wants what he wants, and refuses a lot of things that I make. I’ve worked in two “safe nights” in the menu each week: Mondays are always pizza night and Thursdays are always spaghetti night. Those are two nights that I know he will eat well! The other nights he gets what I make with no substitutions. The only thing I have caved on is letting him have ketchup with his meat if he doesn’t want to eat it. Ketchup apparently makes everything better in Toddler World.

For breakfast Gerrit loves “mama cereal” (Special K Red Berries) and “dada cereal” (Frosted Mini Wheats) as well as pancakes. His favorite lunch is leftover pizza, leftover spaghetti & meatballs, and “purple mac” (Annie’s shells and white cheddar). Gerrit loves apples, strawberries, and raspberries, will occasionally eat some banana, and enjoys sharing oranges, grapefruit, and pomelo with Andrew. He used to love broccoli and cauliflower, but now it’s hit or miss. He has discovered a love of ranch dressing though, and he’ll eat a lot of spinach and celery if he has ranch to go with! He’s warming up to carrots, and he enjoys beets because they turn his tongue purple. 🙂 One thing we really don’t have an issue with is Gerrit eating enough meat: he often asks for seconds…thirds… as much as he can get when it comes to the protein portion of the meal. His favorite snacks are “blue Goldfish” (the vanilla cupcake kind), “Mimi Goldfish” (flavor blasted cheddar), graham crackers, and pretzels. He mostly drinks water, but he also likes whole milk, orange juice, apple juice, and lemonade. Just no “poke-poke” drinks (anything carbonated)!

Mommy Update: The third year definitely had some new challenges. We saw the start of tantrums and meltdowns, Gerrit started showing more aggression toward peers, and I’d say we just went through the “terrible two’s” in general. This year tested my patience, pushed my buttons, but gave me a lot of laughs too. Despite the hard times and bad days, two-year-olds are just plain fun too. Hearing Gerrit’s verbal skills develop was amazing, and I was fascinated by the things he would say and ideas he came up with. It’s pretty entertaining to see your mannerisms come out in your toddler, and I loved seeing his personality develop more.

Me personally? This was my year of successful weight loss! I started working at losing weight around the time Gerrit turned 2, and I was able to drop 15 pounds in about 9 months or so. I lost the first 10 pounds pretty steadily (2 lbs a week or so), maintained that loss for about 6 months, then slowly lost another 5 pounds. Getting pregnant made me lose another 7 pounds, but I’m sure I’ll gain that back in the near future!

Likes & Dislikes

Gerrit is still a very active kid. He loves being outside! Living on base, we have several playgrounds in walking distance. I feel like we went to the one closest to our house at least once a day when the weather was good (so 90% of the time). He developed a love of being pushed on the swing. He would swing for hours if we would agree to push him for that long! Gerrit still enjoys getting wet and dirty: he loves his water table & sprinkler, he is always in the dirt and rocks, and he will make mud whenever he can.

Between 2 and 3, I definitely saw a decrease in wanting to look at/read books and an increase in wanting to watch TV. I’ll be honest, I usually let him watch TV so I could get things done or just get a break. With Andrew gone all the time with pilot training and studying at home, I used the TV as a babysitter way more than I’d like to admit. His favorite shows on Amazon are “Stinky & Dirty,” “Team Umizoomi,” “Dinosaur Train,” “Dino Dana,” & “Tumbleleaf,” and his favorites on Netflix are “Octonauts,” “Super Wings,” and “DinoTrux.” We also depended on TV shows and movies to get us through long car rides… another thing I’m not proud of, but traveling alone with a toddler can be trying.

As for favorite toys, I’d say Gerrit played with his cars/trucks, dinosaurs, and train set the most this year. Despite the different things I’ve gotten for him to build with, he definitely still preferred destruction! If we played with blocks, he wanted me to do the building so he could knock down towers with his trucks. He usually wanted to instruct me to build things with his bristle blocks, although as he neared age 3, he started building his own airplanes and boats!

Gerrit really enjoys playing with Play Doh & painting. We basically had Play Doh out almost every day. It was fun watching him learn to use the different tools to manipulate the dough over the year. He started out always wanting me to roll the dough or cut the dough, but he slowly started getting the hang of doing those things himself. Gerrit loves finger painting. I tried watercolors once or twice, but he really prefers getting in there with his hands and using different textures to mix colors. We always had plenty of artwork up on the wall to look at!

Dislikes? He never liked getting his diaper changed or getting dressed. Both were usually a chore for me. Gerrit definitely dislikes not getting his way; he is very stubborn too. His third year was full of tantrums & meltdowns over very minor things (to me) that were a huge deal to him: getting ready for bed, leaving the park, not being able to be held while I cook, not being able to wear sandals in cold weather, taking shoes off in the house, etc. I learned to pick my battles some days.

For awhile, Gerrit disliked leaving the house for any reason, especially in the mornings. Most toddler activities here are scheduled in the morning, and getting him out of the house was next to impossible some days. He’d fight me on going to weekly play group at the park, I’d have to practically drag him to the library for Story Time, and he hated having to go run errands with me. Most of the time, he was fine once we got in the car or got to our destination, but actually getting out of the house was so hard some days. It was just a phase, but it seemed like a really long phase. I’d say he definitely just had issues with transitions for awhile.

Memorable Events

I feel like I touched on quite a few memorable events when I did my recap of our first year in Del Rio, so I’m not going to mention them all again. Plus it’s tough to remember everything that happened in a year! I also did a separate post for Gerrit’s 3rd birthday party, but that was definitely a fun event for all of us!

Happy 3rd birthday, Gerrit! Everything with you is an adventure, and we love watching you learn and grow. For every terrible two tantrum you had, we also had a great snuggle session. I’ll definitely remember the times you pushed me to the end of my rope, but I’ll cherish all the giggle-filled tickle fights, the way you always fit perfectly in my crook of my arm, and your sweet smiles. I appreciate (even though I don’t always like) every way you challenge us, because it make us better parents. I know your strong personality will be such a great asset to you as you get older, and I hope we are nurturing your skills as best we can. We love you so much, Gerrit.