The Terrible Threes

We've had a very busy past few weeks and we must apologize for the lack of blog posts...I'd say that we'll do better in the future, but who are we kidding? Life with a three year old is a fast-paced whirlwind, and we just do the best we can.

There are a bunch of pictures scattered throughout this post. We've had a fair number of visitors over the past few weeks, including my Aunt Karen and Uncle Michael who came over for dinner last weekend, and my Dad, Cora, and my sister who watched the Superbowl with us. You may also notice that Landon got a haircut a little while back. When he allows us to put some gel in it, he looks quite dashing...without the gel, well....you can see for yourself.

Now on with the post...

The first thing I’d like to address is the phrase “The Terrible Two’s”….that phrase is total bullshit. I personally found that age to be a year (or in our case, 11 months so far) of learning, fun, interaction, and development for Landon. This was the age that his vocabulary grew by leaps and bounds, he learned how to ride his bike, he ditched his diapers, and learned how to melt our hearts with that sneaky smile of his. He went from being a baby to being a little boy, and Michaela and I cherished every minute of it….well, looking back we cherished every minute of it…while we were in the heart of it, I’m sure there were a few moments we could have done without.

Anyhow…as Landon is creeping ever closer to his 3rd birthday, we are seeing more and more of the infamous “terrible threes”….let me tell you, they make the “terrible two’s” look like a day at Disneyland! We have been warned by friends and family with older kids that for some reason the two’s get the bad rap and it really is the three’s where kids start to test their boundaries and make parents wish for a fonder time when you could up and smack them across the head without worrying that some nosy neighbor would call local law enforcement on you….I kid, I kid…well…kind of.

Landon recently transitioned into the 3-year old’s class at school, which is a pretty big deal…I liken it to changing jobs, as he’s in a whole new environment with some kids that are nearly a year older than he is. So far everything seems to be going ok, and I don’t think it hurts that he’s still one of the biggest kids in the class.

However, a few things that we have noticed over the past few weeks include.

-More Laundry…for some reason, the kid still elects to sit down when using the potty at school. He has no problems standing up at home, but at school he doesn’t like to, and while common sense would lead us to believe that sitting down shouldn’t be any messier than standing, apparently the laws of gravity don’t function the same in the school’s restroom. He has been overshooting lately, which has lead to more wet pants and laundry loads than I can count. I’m trying to convince him to stand up like he does at home, but I guess he’s having performance anxiety or something, who knows?

-“No! No! No!”…this is a fun one. He really likes to say “No!” to us when we ask him to do something. While Michaela and I try to remain calm and ask him nicely, after we get that nice response we go from asking to telling real fast.

-Creative punishments…As he continues to test his boundaries, we have to continue to invent new ways to keep him in line. These strategies range from timeouts to toy removal and the always effective ice cream embargo.

-Selective hearing…which goes right along with “No!”, this drives us nuts. Not only does he dart the other way if we ask him to come, but he also tries to avoid looking at you when you speak to him, and does exactly what you ask him NOT to do, just to see what happens….it’s good times! I spend a lot of time saying “Landon, you need to look at Daddy when I’m talking to you”…pause for five seconds…”what did I just say?”…


So yeah, this has been an interesting few weeks. While I have heard that the three’s are harder, I have also heard that this phase doesn’t last too long (provided you don’t inflict permanent damage to the child or yourself during said phase).

All joking aside, I don’t want this to come off as a negative post…just one that shows some of the challenges that we are currently dealing with. Michaela and I love Landon more than anything in the world and he continues to blow us away by the amount he’s developing and learning. He’s recently taken to completing puzzles and is pretty darn good at them. He is still the best eater for his age I’ve ever seen (this week alone he tried several new meals including fajitas and fish), and he still loves to cuddle with Mom and Dad at every occasion (especially Mom).

So while this phase is challenging, I will argue that each phase presents new challenges and that our job as parents is to devise ways to meet those challenges while not stunting our children’s growth or development. In our case, we’re electing to chronicle these phases and challenges so that one day we can look back on these days to see where we went wrong, or what caused us to lose our minds!

Photography Disclaimer: Okay, so we're learning how to focus manually (yea!), but we're still learning...so even if they're "in focus" some (okay, most) pictures are still dark. I never knew so much went into photography! Shutterspeed, Aperture, ASO settings...my mind is foggy.