Three

How does one's baby suddenly turn three years old? Of course I "know" the answer ... but truly? My little Reuben isn't quite so little right now. He looked at Uncle Isaac out of the corner of his eye this morning at church and said he was "too big" for Uncle Isaac to hold him.


But today he turned three years old.

Reuben is a joy to me. He has this joyously mischevious (if that's possible) grin in which his little eyes light up and you can't help but smile back at him. His laugh is contagious, and it's best when he dissolves into laughter over something he said to himself. Or when his big brother has figured out something bizarre to make Reuben laugh, and it gets done over and over and OVER again, with Reuben cracking up and falling over E.V.E.R.Y. S.I.N.G.L.E. T.I.M.E.

He still loves to snuggle. Put his blanket on my shoulder and bury his face in it. Or have Daddy or Mommy lay by him in bed for a minute to have that "closeness" before sleep.



He can be rather dramatic, falling to the floor in tears when reprimanded, or erupting in angry shouts when fighting with Jonah over a toy or something.

He loves to sit at the table and share whatever he is eating with me. So much that last week he hunted me down in the bathroom (I am NEVER safe - no matter I am doing!) and handed me a fork and requested that I "hurry up" to come and share his noodles with him.

He loves his Daddy: after all, he is going to "shoot lots of deers and moose when he grows up" and wants to do all things that he imagines Daddy doing. Wrestling, playing basketball, baseball, frisbee - he loves to be active just like Eli. And I love seeing him standing on the chair in front of the living room window - watching for Eli to get home from work.


He opened the presents from us tonight with happiness, and then proceeded to state: "But I need to pop my poppers (the bubble wrap) before I play with my toys." And was entirely content to set aside his new cars and superheros to pop little air bubbles. He enjoyed his "Happy Birthday Day".

As always, he still somehow knows exactly how to push my buttons, and drive me to seek from my Father what I need to be doing to parent him. Being his mother is entirely wonderful, and entirely confounding at the same time. I really have no idea what on earth I am doing: and hope that I will never even think that I have it together! That I will seek true wisdom on raising Reuben to be who he is intended to become, and not believe it will just "happen".


I love my little guy - but how did he get so big??? = )