Because he's three!

As Little Man has entered the world of the "thrilling threes", I have a new excuse for some quirky behavior that pops up in our house. Because he's three, we now have entered the realm of negotiation, and Little Man is quite good at this. He knows, for instance, that when I say there are five minutes left for bathtime, he should negotiate for 10, and when there are 10 more minutes of being at the grocery store, he should negotiate for 5. Because he's three, he is also in the habit of telling the most fabulous, detailed stories about rocket ships that come out of guitars and a dinosaur named "peanut" that can fly. He enjoys lining up his cars or planes in rows, and if he's working on a project like setting up a lemonade stand, he wants to do it himself, thank you very much. (Yes, we did in fact set up an outdoor lemonade stand in the middle of February--Because he's three!). His favorite object to carry around and sleep with is a broken pair of headphones, and he prefers to sleep on the floor in his daddy's sleeping bag rather than in his comfy bed. He loves to start up conversations with complete strangers that go something like this.

"Excuse me man/lady, what's your name?" "Oh, my name is Weeoooh, and this is my sister. Um, what, what, what, what's your dog's name?" (he ALWAYS asks this and he believes everyone has a dog!) "Well, I do know that my mommy painted her toes today, and they are so pretty! Do you paint your toes?"

Mostly it makes people chuckle, and because of his social butterfly-ness I met a someone at Walmart that actually goes to our church and sits behind us often. Would I have met this nice man had it not been for Little Man's uninhibitedness? Probably not, and he has actually been my social networker with several new friends. When I watch him I think about the story of the children all crowding around Jesus, probably wanting to show him the latest lizard they caught or ask him if his beard is scratchy, and how Jesus welcomed it and the attention probably made him smile. And then I wonder at what age do we lose that part of ourselves, becoming more concerned with personal space? Hmmm.....a deep thought!

In this new realm of his being three, I have struggled with letting him be his own person rather than being my baby. While he still has an occasional baby-like tantrum, he is really learning to talk about his frustrations, his fears, his desires. Sometimes he doesn't like having a sister around all the time, he has told me, while the next minute he is kissing her booboo. He said just the other day that he doesn't want his heart to break because then God won't be able to see him, that he needs to make sure he doesn't become extinct like the dinosaurs when the comet hit the earth. He understands that "being patient is hard" and he melts our hearts when he volunteers the "I do love you so much". Watching him teaches me so much about what it means to be a child of God, and also about what frustration and simultaneous joy God must feel when He watches us become who we are.