Dear Brennan,

I contemplated not doing these updates for you now that you're the big 0-3, but I just love them so much I don't think I can stop. I love having a place to document the things you are doing and it's especially nice to be able to look back at what you were doing when you were Bryce's age. So for now, I'll keep writing them. You are now 37 months old. I guess we stop telling your age in months at this point. You are wearing 3T clothes and just got some new size 7 shoes! You had a great third birthday party and you can show 3 on your fingers!

Unfortunately the day after you turned 3, you got a stomach bug. Thankfully it was short-lived, but it was so sad to see you all lethargic and pukey. You were a strange sick kind though, because you kept saying you liked puke and diarrhea. After the stomach bug, you had a cold for a while and that gave you a cough that stayed around for a long time. It made for a few restless nights of sleep for you, but now you seem healthy again! You see the doctor for your official check-up later this week, but when I took you in while you were sick you weighed right under 30lbs. Of course that was after a day of puking and not eating at all, so I'm sure you're over that mark now.

I feel like the restless nights of sleep and your brother sometimes waking up around 6:30am have caused you to start waking up earlier in the mornings. You used to sleep until 7:30 very consistently, but lately you've been waking before 7, which is too early for this Momma. You don't get out of bed when you wake up, but you start calling out, "Mommy, mommy" over and over again. I was considering buying you a Tot Clock of some sort, but since we already had a digital clock in your room I decided to try something else. One morning when you woke at 6:45, I came into your room and got in bed with you. I told you to look at the first number on the clock and that when it said '7' you could get up. You didn't fall back to sleep during those 15 minutes, but you did lay still and watch the clock and as soon as it said '7', you said "Time to get up now!". Since then you're waiting until 7:00 (on the dot) to start calling out for me. I still wish you would sleep later, but at least now you're being quiet until then. You're such a good boy!

Speaking of sleep, you are still sleeping with no pillows, no cover, and no stuffed animal or anything in your bed. I think it's totally bizarre. I guess we need to give Bryce a blanket early, so he learns to sleep with one. You seem plenty warm at night, so I guess it's not a big deal; just strange. We use the word "strange" with you a lot! :)

You have always liked our dog, Ringo, but you seem especially fond of him as you're getting older. This makes Mommy sad because Ringo is not her favorite! When we kenneled Ringo for your birthday party, you kept asking where he was. You like to wrestle with him (until he gets too rough) and occasionally ask to ride him.

You have a new game you like to play now; Trouble. You got Candyland for your birthday and since we already own it, we took it back and you picked out Trouble as your new game. You understand the directions and follow the rules most of the time when you're playing. Lala brought you a special Thomas the Train version that we've been playing recently too.

That's right, your Auntie Lala came to visit! We don't get to see her very often, but boy do you love her! You couldn't stop talking about her visiting and once she was her, you were with her during most of your waking hours. She even got to put you to bed two nights! I'm so glad you all get along so well even though we live so far apart!

We've been working on correcting your words when you speak. Some words you just don't say clearly and we've been trying to get you to work on them. We also correct your grammar sometimes. We've been working a lot on using the word "I" instead of "me" and you get so excited when you use it correctly. We hear a lot of "I did it!" now. Then you jump up and down because you said "I" correctly. It's nice to know you like correct grammar like your Mommy (and Auntie Val).

Every week when we're at church, at least one person mentions to me how much you're talking now. You talk all the time and it's so nice to know that people are able to start understanding you more. People constantly talk about how smart you are, which makes me very happy, but what I love to hear is when people say what a good boy you are. It makes me very proud when people are impressed by how obedient you are (most of the time!). We've been working on saying, "Yes ma'am" recently and I think it's so cute to hear you say that.

People are right though, you are a smart boy. You are "reading" so many words now. I guess it's really more just recognizing them, but it's cute to see you run your finger across the word from left and right and try to figure out what it says. A few weeks ago, you surprised me and read the words "go" and "happy" in a book. I had no idea you knew those. And just last week, you were playing with you magnetic calendar. You pulled out all the months and were reading them. You know your months of the year and were mainly just looking at the initial letters because you'd get May/March mixed up and January/June/July mixed up, but again I was so impressed. You are so observant and if you're told something one time, you don't forget it.

Some of the funnier things you're doing right now include saying, "I'm growing up!" You'll say that when you're too big to fit somewhere (like Bryce's playmat) or when you do something new on your own (like reach the light switches). You also like to motorboat on Mommy boobs. And sometimes other people's boobs too! Your Daddy taught you that trick awhile back, but now you come right up to me and say, "I wanna rotorboat" (you say it with an r) and I die laughing every time. I guess we should probably get you to stop doing that soon.

I know I say this every month, but you really are such a sweet boy. You give me hugs and kisses many times each day and say unsolicited I love you's! You continue to be a great big brother and love to hug and kiss on Bryce too. You love going to church and you are learning so much about Jesus in your class and I just pray that you will grow to love Him. I really think you're going to have such a big heart for loving people!

I love you so very very much!

Love,
Mommy