3 years old

I am so proud of my son.

You love BIG.

You are compassionate. You notice when characters in a book don't look very happy. When you are playing with Tuolumne, if she falls and cries, you cry...you hurt with her. On my bad days, you get real close to me, put your hand on me, turn your head sideways and ask if I can smile.

You are extremely polite and mannered. Generally you say, thank you, please, your welcome, bless you, etc without ever being asked to. You love to open doors for everyone. You like being helpful in any way you can and jump to the opportunity to do so.

You still like to hold my hand and be held on occasion. You like kisses right on the lips and hugs and pats on the back! Sometimes you ask to cuddle under the covers if you are cold. You always want to be carried downstairs to go to bed at night.

You ask a lot about when you are going to be big enough for gum.

You have a great memory. This always surprises me for some reason. 

You are courageous. You are that same 9 month old boy who would crawl to the top of a slide and without hesitation go down belly first by yourself laughing all the way to the bottom. Only now you are 3 and climbing up what feels like to me these skyscraper sized ladders at the park and climbing your way to the top of boulders and jumping off of everything you can get on top of.

You love books. You would sit and listen for any length of time as long as someone was reading to you. The longer the story the better. You ask LOTS of questions and point out details of the book. You have a hard time sleeping if you know we have a fresh pile of library books in the house. "The Dark Dark Night" is still one of your favorites (thank you Capps Family). Curious George is your recent favorite from Christmas (thank you Nonna and Poppy). But you like every book you have and enjoy hearing again even the ones I feel you have outgrown.

You still like trucks and tractors but it is not ALL you do anymore. You like planes, puzzles, tools, and coloring. You love to swing outside. You recently have been asking to ride your Strider bike more often. You always ask about school and I think you are disappointed school is at home and will be for awhile.

You like to go out with me and run errands or go to the store.

We have been teaching you about how to talk to people. Whether it is on the phone or in person we are talking a lot about respectable ways to acknowledge people coming and going. You are getting very good at this! You are so good at asking people questions about themselves or about what is going on and this is something you did naturally by watching us and others.

You like to play hide and seek. You haven't figured out that putting your hands over your eyes doesn't make you camouflaged!

You always drink water and barely have milk anymore. You eat O's and yogurt most days but sometimes you want toast or a homemade muffin or biscuit instead.

You would eat cheese all day long if we let you! Dairy has been back since early fall, but in moderation!

We have had some pretty rough spots since August. I don't think people give credit to how much kids are taking in with what is going on around them. We have had a hard year and you have been affected by it. I am so very sorry.

You went from sleeping 12 hours at night since you were a baby to waking up 2-3 times a night. You would scream, you would cry, it was awful. Putting you to bed became a nightmare as well.

We gave you a lot of grace considering what was going on in our family, but we also stuck with our night time sleep rules and standards. At the end of January when you got the flu, all of a sudden the waking up at night stopped. You started to go to bed easier too. We have no idea why it changed, but we are so glad it did.

You still nap everyday. Usually about 2 - 2 1/2 hours long. Every so often we skip a nap on purpose.

You really like to rock climb and hike.

You love to be silly with us and to be silly with Tuolumne. She lights up when you are around and so do you. I think you will be great friends.

You are confident. You are not afraid to let us know when you are doing a great job at something, but you also let us know if we are doing a great job. I like this about you.

You eat whatever we are eating but you are particular on how you want it. You might want it "big", or in triangles, squares, whole, etc. but you definitely have an opinion on it. I don't mind this as long as long as you are asking nice.

You saw your first movie in a big theatre during Thanksgiving. We watched Planes and you loved it!

Cap you are brave, bold, strong, courageous....and many more things. Thank you for always loving us, teaching us, and believing. I love you!