The Campbell Family Blog: Ryan is 3

I am not sure how it happened so quickly, but my precious first born son is now 3 years old! This year Ryan celebrated with friends and family at a local bounce house place with a Mickey Mouse theme. He picked out the plates and napkins and even got to help seal and place a sticker on each of the invitations and thank you cards. I might have gone a little overboard with the baking this year as I chose Mickey shaped cake pops for party favors and cupcakes for the party dessert. The few days before were a little busy with baking and decorating and completing all the final details. I was proud of my work, but also quite glad when it was all completed and simply party time! Ryan had a great time and enjoyed getting to eat an additional cupcake or two and bonus cake pop throughout the next week post party (due to leftovers!). Ryan had about 12 friends join us to bounce, celebrate and sing Happy Birthday and he had a wonderful party! Thanks to all who could attend (and those that couldn't make it and yet still have surprised him with a gift, it has been so thoughtful!!)

In the past year as Ryan went from age 2 to 3 he has changed so quickly. He has quite the personality and is such a smart boy! He is great with numbers and Mom tells me his one to one correspondence is quite advanced for his age. He knows and identifies all colors and recognizes all numbers into the 20's then he can get confused. He recognizes and knows all alphabet letters and we are working on sounding out words as he begins to spell and recognize words in preparation for reading. He loves reading books with us multiple times daily and reading continues to be part of bedtime and nap time routine. His vocabulary has changed so rapidly in the last year and he can communicate almost anything with us through sentences, though sometimes he will pause to try and formulate properly a sentence or request. He is learning new expressions and phrases and often takes things very literally. I got a kick out of a conversation last week that I wanted to share. We were driving in the car and Ryan was being impatient about something (what's new) and I said "Ryan, just hold your horses". He said "Hold what Mommy?" Me- "Oh, just be patient sweetie". R- "Oh, I thought you said horses" (laughs). Me- "I did honey, it is just an expression that means to be patient". R- "Hold your horses? What horses? That's silly Mommy." Haha! Oh the precious conversations we have sometimes. Ryan still has some "baby talk" and substitutes the "F" sound for "TH" such as "free for the word three" and "Efan for Ethan" and also words like "small" typically sound like "fall" or "smile as file". The hard "K" sound is often replaced also with a "T" sound example friend "Clara" sounds like "Tara". Perhaps these combined sounds are a little harder and normal to express less articulately, but it can be fairly humorous at times to me and harder for others to understand him.

At Ryan's 3 yr well check he weighed in at 34 lbs which was the 75th% and 38.5 inches tall which was also 75th% and first time he had dropped out of the 90's in percentile for height. When I asked his Dr about it she commented that at 3yrs it is the first time they do the wall measurement as opposed to laying flat on the exam table to measure, so it is often when they have the biggest difference. At 3 years old they do the first BMI measurement and he fell in the 50th% for that which she said is great and he is very healthy! His BP was 84/42 which sounded crazy low to me, but also normal for kids. Lucky for him, no shots were needed at this visit, but Dr Wallace gave me heads up that his 4 yr checkup would bring about 4 new shots. (That might be rough) He ran around the room during the appointment acting a little bit like a crazy person hyped on sugar and I am still not sure what got in to him, but I suppose Dr's see everything. Ryan is wearing size 3T clothing, though we have an issue with many brands of pants not fitting around the waist and simply falling off. Carters and Jumping bean seem to fit true to size and many with the adjustable waistebands fit. His shoe size is 8.5, but he wears mostly 9's because I don't typically buy half sizes. He loves all things Mickey Mouse, Thomas the Train, and Toy Story. Ryan enjoys playing games, coloring, stickers, putting together puzzles, playing at the park and running around outdoors. Ryan still sleeps each night with his stuffed bear named "Bear" (and many other stuffed friends), his sleep sheep, and occasionally lullaby music (recently he is saying he doesn't want it anymore). Ryan is loving being a Big Brother and does a great job entertaining Ethan and playing with him. He is learning a lot more about being gentle each day.

Ryan is rounding in on 2 months away from a year in underwear and while for the most part he does great, we still deal with accidents and can have days with absolutely no problems followed by days with multiple accidents. It can be very frustrating, but we are trying to stick with it and encourage him and one day his stubborn little brain will decide pooping in the potty consistently is not a scary thing to do. He is now able to go in and potty alone and pull up and down his undies and pants (unlike the beginning when we always had to help), but still needs help wiping with BM's and I'm not sure when we will be past that as he has had some issues. After discussions with his Dr regarding how we have increased fluids, increased fruits (including prunes), cut back on milk and he is still only having one large BM a week which is not necessarily firm, we came to the agreed conclusion that it is truly not constipation, but stubbornness that because he had the episode with the anal fissure back this summer and it hurt when he went, that he is trying to hold it in and not go potty when he needs to until he absolutely can't hold it back any longer. She even had us do an X-ray after his appointment to make sure there wasn't some blockage we were missing. It of course came back clear. Thus, we are trying to implement some new reward charts, stickers, treats, etc to try to encourage him to at least try for a few minutes each day for BM and reward effort as well as success. This part of potty training has proved to be exhausting to me (and Mike), but I know he can do it if he will just put his mind to it.

With the age of 3 has come a greater desire for independence. The "let me do it" and "I can do it myself" attitude are present all the time. I have actually heard several times the past two weeks, "I can do it Mommy betuz (because) I'm free (three)." The pros to this independence show up in his helpfulness around the house including grabbing me items I need when my hands are full, assisting me with cleaning, laundry, dishes and feeding the cat. At this point Ryan is also able to get dressed by himself by putting on his shirt, undies and pants (minus any buttons or zippers) and can put on almost all of his shoes (but struggles with socks). Whether he is in the "mood" to do these things of course varies, but he enjoys getting to pick his own outfits (which sometimes match) and has grown accustomed to my rule that Mom gets to pick his clothes on church and school days and obliges without a fuss. Some of the cons come with us doing normal routine activities and all of a sudden it was something he had in mind that he would do which results in a crazy person tantrum over minor things. Recent examples might be: putting him in his car seat instead of letting him climb in, Washing his hands for him and getting his sleeves wet instead of letting him do himself, pushing the button to close the garage without first asking if he would like to, turning on or off a light (he will often do things again even if we have already done it), etc... I could list many more, but it's all I can currently think of. Another new bad habit which likely results from frustration is spitting. He does it in place of biting or hitting and seems to be his new way to vent his frustration when he has no words to say to communicate how mad he is. He still struggles with hitting and pinching Mike and myself when he is angry, but luckily seems to have stopped doing this to friends (with the exception of his cousin, Naomi... sorry!). Overall, the battle of the day (almost every day) is general obedience in all situations which will lead to respect for us and other people in authority over him. It can certainly be ugly at times, but we are staying consistent and determined with this one and know it will pay off in the long run. The most recent verse that I have chosen to teach Ryan here at home is Ephesians 6:1- "Children obey your parents in the LORD, for this pleases God." I try to remind him of it and point it out when he is disobeying or being hateful in his behavior. He can recite it and I am hoping one day it will stick.

To Ryan-
You continue to be a joy and light in our day and yet also a challenge. Mommy and Daddy love you so much and wish only the best for you as you grow up. We love your smile and laughter and sense of humor as well as the happy way that you make up words to familiar tunes and sing your heart out each day. It is touching to hear you singing songs to Jesus that you learn at church and preschool. We especially pray that you will continue to know and learn about how much Jesus loves you and one day make a decision to accept him as your personal Savior. We know discipline is not always fun and trust me it can be hard on us too, but we ultimately do it so you will learn respect and obedience not only for your parents, but for God. We could never imagine life without you a part of it and are so thankful to be your parents. You will always be our precious first born son and you are such a blessing to us. We love you very much!!! Hugs and Kisses! Mom and Dad

Enjoy some photos below of our big birthday boy on his special day!!