The Animal Turns Three

Today, my oldest son, who we call The Animal, turns three. I know it’s sort of cliche to say, “Time goes so quickly!” But, my friends, it really, really does. It really does feel like just yesterday, we were getting ready to go to the hospital to have him.

In fact, as I sit and type this, it’s 1:59 pm. We had just arrived at the hospital at this point, and my contractions were regular but not too painful. They were so not painful that before we left the house, we lounged for a minute to eat the leftover pizza we had in the fridge. My experience with Miss Sassy Pants told me that once the work for labor began, I wouldn’t be getting any snacks. I wasn’t going to let that happen again.

My doctor came in and asked if I’d like to have my water broken. “Sure,” I said, like an idiot. That’s when the pain seriously started. After five (yes FIVE) failed attempts to get an IV in me, the nurses were finally successful. Aaron had sat there stoically but ready to explode as he watched them pushing the needle into my hand and me going through very painful contraction after another.

I told them to go ahead and order the epidural. When the nurse checked me again, she was amazed at how quickly I’d progressed.

Long story short, he was born before 4 pm. So yes, folks, it took less than three hours from the time I arrived at the hospital to the time our adorably huge (9 lbs 10 oz) peeing-on-the-doctor baby boy arrived. He was, and still is, absolutely perfect.

Over the last three years, we’ve watched him blossom into the brilliant, sweet and loving, hilariously funny three year old that he is today. Some of my favorite things he’s doing these days:

• He hugs his baby brother and says, “I just love him.”
• When he’s running away because we’re pretending to chase him, he says, “You can’t forget myself!” instead of “You can’t catch me!”
• Helping in the kitchen is not an option. He wants that stool taken out, and he is very serious about helping me make whatever I let him help make. Today, he helped make his own birthday cake.
• If you tell him that he can’t do something, he assures you, “It’s all right.”
• Like his sister before him at this age, when we take his picture, he demands to see it. I love when kids do this.

There are tons of other things I could say about this little big man. It would take a lot of words and quite a few posts. So instead, I’ll just say, “Happy birthday, Animal. We love you — a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck.”

Tags: birthday, parenting, preschoolgenius, theanimal