The Eve of Three

As parents, we’re told how time will fly when we bring our babies home. It never seems real until you’re standing in the party aisle trying to find Paw Patrol plates for your baby’s 3^rd birthday.

Soon my baby, possibly my last baby, will turn three. While she is still our snuggly girl, she is quickly becoming an independent person. Three is a double edge sword. Three has her own voice, thoughts, preferences, and questions; three also has a loud voice, 8 million thoughts every five minutes, preferences that change at the drop of a hat, and questions that even the world’s greatest oracle couldn’t answer. I love the inquisitiveness that this stage of life brings. Everything is new and fun; for example, going to the zoo is a whole new experience for them because now they now know facts about those animals that last year were just kind of cool.

While this time is amazing for your toddler, it can also be hard as a parent to realize the tiny humans you’re responsible for are slowly becoming more and more able to take care of themselves. From toilet training to dressing independently, eating, or getting on those pesky swings by themselves; all these tasks that they fully relied on you for are becoming easier and easier for them to accomplish solo. This is not to say that they’re pushing us aside. Our babies will always need their mamas, but their needs will change and you’ll have to adapt.

Soon you’ll be signing them up for preschool, which by the way requires about as much paperwork as a mortgage. Next, it will be school orientations and then sending your sweet little angel (ha!) off to a big giant school where you’re convinced they’ll be trampled by a rowdy 2^nd grader. Okay, so that one may just be my concern, but you get it.  

For now, I will enjoy the end of two. The snuggly toddler who screams when she can’t sit on my lap; my (not so) tiny hurricane who wakes up running, the curly haired girl who loves her sister fiercely. Three is coming, and it will undoubtedly be a rollercoaster ride. Call me crazy, but it’s a ride I cannot wait to take.