"Why?"

Whew!  This is my seventeenth day of publishing a daily blog post. I admit that I am getting a little burnt out.  I also celebrate that I am somewhat caught up with blogging!  Now if I could say the same thing about a balanced checkbook, Birthday thank you's, and house cleaning it would be a real reason to celebrate.

I realized that I couldn't end my big blogging spree without a post dedicated to where M is at.  My little man turned THREE friends.  I don't know how he could grow up on me, but he is... every single day!

As the title of this post is hinting, M has reached that lovely season when every single statement that Brandon and I (or anyone he is around anywhere) make is questioned with a "Why?"  Sure, there was a season some time ago when he did this from time to time, but this is consistent and intense.  We celebrate this season as we can see his little mind wrestling with so many different things and he is learning new concepts every day.  Watching him figure things out is so much fun.

M had his 3 year check up this week.  He did great and is now in the 3.88 percentile for height and almost the 6th for weight.  When he came home he was just hanging out at the bottom of the charts.  At age two he moved up the 2nd percentile so we are really celebrating the big jump to almost double that.  Because of his jumps there is still a lot of wonder as to what his adult height will be.

Besides height and weight M is right on track with his peers.  Our little man who was so far behind is now doing the same things that his friends are.  Amazing.  Thanks be to God!  He has a huge vocabulary, but the Dr. did say we need to work on articulation.  This isn't a huge surprise to us.  M could work on this area for sure.  To make matters worse, whenever he gets excited (like at a Dr's office) he talks really fast which makes him really hard to understand.  We have been working hard and are already seeing improvements.

The funny side of M's articulation issues is a whole lot of funny ways to say words.  For a long time he has said, "K-puz" for because.  Since we started working on it he has accidentally said "A-cuz" and "P-cuz" so we are quite sure he thinks that because has something to do with the letter "B." The living room is usually called the "woman room."

M continues to try new foods and has added several veggies (not blended YAY) to his diet.  He still really doesn't like beef, but he is more willing to try it than before.

Sleep seems to continue to be an issue in our family.  He treasures his nap and begs for his each day.  This is not an issue of course.  The issue is the 2-3 times he wakes up during his nap coupled with the 2-3 times he wakes up each night.  We know he has started to have bad dreams.  He has only told us about one of his dreams.  Apparently his pillow moved all by itself.  His dreams really shake him us and sometimes he is awake (with one of us) for over an hour after them.  Please if you think of it pray for sweet dreams for our little man.  

We have talked a lot with M about our trip to China.  He knows that he is going to stay here and that Brandon and I are going to go to China.  He talks about this a lot.  He tells strangers, "My baby sister at China.  Mommy and Daddy gone a long time, big airplane ride, bring my baby sister home.  I see her at the airport.  I hold her."  Overall he gets it.  He doesn't really like it.  We will of course be asking for lots of prayers for him as we get closer to travel.

He has obviously asked us why we have to go to China.  We told him that baby sister doesn't have a family there.  We are her family and we need to go there to bring her home.  This morning M asked Brandon "Why baby sister no have a family in China?"  There are some questions that are just hard to answer. 

Yesterday as I was comforting M during one of his nap wake ups I was overwhelmed with how much love I have for him.  It is amazing how time grows your love.