Is forever enough?: It Ain't All Sunshine & Roses (AKA: The 3-Year-Old Post)

I think we all know by now, my kids are my everything. And I'm so lucky to stay at home with them. I couldn't imagine a more fun or fulfilling job in the world. But dear, sweet Lord they have been giving me a run for my money lately.

Feel free to blame the over-a-month-long blog absence on one Julian Fowler.

I have very few new pictures. (The ones I'm putting in here have nothing to do with this post. But who wants to see pictures of tantrums?) There hasn't been time to pull my camera out between cleaning up the constant messes, picking up the crying children, or feeding, diapering, cleaning, and disciplining said crying, whining, fit-throwing children.

Boy has it ever been one step forward, three steps back lately. Just trying to get out the door would be a hilarious scene if it weren't happening to me. I start to feel like Ben Stiller in every movie he's ever been in where bad things just keep hitting one after another until it's not even funny anymore and you just feel sorry for the guy.

Miss Evelyn got a mouthful of teeth all at once. She was not happy about it. Thank goodness, that seems to be better now. She's back to happy, funny, chatty girl.

See my new teeth? (There are a few way back there...2 year molars? Her teeth are coming in all out of order.)

See? See??

Julian fights naptime and bedtime tooth and nail nearly every day. (I'm loathe to admit it, but I think he may be done with naps. That is so sad for me.)

I think that that whole "terrible twos" thing is completely off base. I didn't think two was a tough age at all. Now three...that has been a whole new adventure. Three has been fun with all the new things he's learning and saying, his expanded vocabulary amazes us and makes us laugh. He is growing into his own little person for sure. But my question is: Why does that little person hate sleep?

He's still sweet and sensitive and funny and loving. He is smart as ever...actually reading now. He can read and spell several words and we are just in disbelief every time he does it out of nowhere. But he is getting more strong-willed and contradictory by the day. He'll ask questions and if you answer differently than what he wants to hear, he'll say "No, it's not." He is loud and rough and tumble and into everything. He has a short fuse, a short attention span, and lots of curiosity.

If it were up to him, he'd spend the perfect day at home jumping on couches, throwing the football into everything (the TV, Evie's face, the dogs), tearing down the Christmas tree, slapping the dogs around, making excruciatingly loud noises, and getting every last item out of every last drawer and strewing it all across the house.

I try getting him outside as much as I can to blow off some steam, but Evie tends to put the kibosh on that pretty quick. She wants to do what she wants to do (run in the road, sit in puddles, climb things she shouldn't) and then gets cold about ten minutes in and wants to go back inside.

A chilly trip to Kellogg Forest

But you know? I don't think he's naughty. I think he's three. And trying to learn a little about independence. I'm not trying to complain...no one said raising kids was easy. And it is always worth it.

Besides, now when Evie turns three and I'm standing open-mouthed at her new attitude, I'll desperately search my blog thinking "I swear Julian went through this same thing at three..." So hello, future me. It did happen and you lived through it once. Just try to find the humor in it all. And take deep breaths. Lots of deep breaths.

So, I take a minute, pray for a little more patience, and go dive back into year three with my favorite boy.