A Full Fledged Preschooler....

Jonathan no longer falls under the toddler category. It is no longer acceptable to call him my baby boy. He is a real deal, full fledged, big boy 3 year old. And he doesn't hesitate to tell everybody who asks. Oh, and give him about 5 minutes and he can show you that he is 3 with his fingers....poor kid can't seem to work that pinky finger....

We haven't actually had his birthday party yet (that's this weekend) but we did do lots of celebrating on his real birthday. In fact, he has been celebrating since last Thursday when he took cookies to his friends at school. And while we are on that, I had a serious emotional moment when we went to pick out his treats for his class. I couldn't believe we were already at that point. Out of all the things we did for his birthday, this hit me the hardest. I just can't figure out when he got so big. Big enough to need treats for his class. He was so excited to be allowed to pick them out himself.....and he ended up with bright pink cookies with lots of sprinkles. Not Zack's favorite choice, but Jonathan was thrilled :)

We spent the weekend doing lots of fun things with our sweet little guy. Pancakes for breakfast, the big rodeo parade, lots of outside time and then a trip to the rodeo to see all his favorite animals. After all of that, his favorite thing was riding the ferris wheel at the end of the night....he said he was as high as an airplane and couldn't have been happier. He had the biggest smile on his face and waved to Daddy and Brother every time we came back around :)

Watching the Parade with Daddy!

Enjoying some yummy rodeo food and watching the horses!

These days, Jonathan can be a handful ...Just this morning he spilled an entire bottle of bubbles on the kitchen floor....but man, is he amazing. He is so, so smart. It has been such a joy to watch him learn over the past year. He just craves information and you can almost see his little brain working when he is figuring out new things. He truly loves his brother and gets so excited when Matthew comes in his room in the morning. Sometimes he is too rough with him, but not on purpose (most of the time) and they have so much fun together.

This was Jonathan's handiwork in the bath the other day....luckily, Matthew is pretty patient!

A few things about my boy at 3....

- He rarely eats. Anything. But little man LOVES whole milk. When he does eat, his favorites are hot dogs, cereal with milk, waffles, yogurt and chicken nuggets.

- He still takes about a 2 hour nap in the afternoon and sleeps like a champ at night!

- Potty trained during the day, VERY far from being potty trained while asleep.

- Favorite shows are Daniel Tiger, Thomas, Barney and Fireman Sam

- He LOVES to be outside....swinging, riding his bike, running, playing at the park etc...

- He knows all his shapes, colors, letters and numbers 1-20 by sight. He can even count backwards from 10! He knows his colors and numbers 1-10 in Spanish too. He loves reading letters out loud and points them out while we are driving :)

- His favorite books are Curious George, books about trucks/tractors/trains, Bible stories (Jonah and the Whale is his current favorite) and Thomas the Train books.

- He loves driving around and really loves going "really high!" on the overpasses. He even tells me to change things up sometimes and "go a different way!" 

It has been a true blessing to be this boys Mommy. I couldn't have asked for sweeter, more fun boys. Thank you Lord, for 3 glorious years with Jonathan Zachary Ley!

Things I used to say before becoming a mom....

Me? Judgmental? Never! 

Me, thinking I could do things better than others when I had kids of my own? Yes.

I realize how awful that sounds, but let's be honest.....you ALL thought/think the same thing. And then you had your kids. And maybe, just maybe, you are Super Mom and you followed through with all your prior thoughts and decisions about raising your kids. But, alas, I am not. And it became glaringly clear today when Jonathan peed in the bushes at the park (again.) Here are a few of the things I said I would/wouldn't do when I had kids.

1. "I will not let my kids eat hot dogs, juice, chicken nuggets or any other processed meal until it is absolutely necessary." Turns out, "absolutely necessary" comes a whole lot faster than I anticipated.

2. "I will always wipe down any surface before my kids touch it." This was thrown out the window the day both boys peed their pants at the playground in the mall. I figure, I could wipe down that table, but my little wipe isn't going to get rid of the hidden gems the kids before them left behind. I just pray it wasn't pee.

3. "I will not let my kids watch more than 15 minutes of TV a day." Oh, poor, naive, little Katy. 

4. "My kids will have a protein  veggie, and fruit at every meal!" I am lucky if they eat ANYTHING at a meal. Now a days, I bribe Jonathan to eat his chicken nuggets by offering him chips. #Momoftheyear.

5. "I will never have THAT kid in the store....if mine starts screaming, I will put a stop to it right away!" Sure, I do this. If by "put a stop to it right away," I meant "pick up anything edible with sugar in it and stuff it in their mouth so they stop being obnoxious."

6. "As soon as my kids start acting up, they will get a spanking and time out!" If I did this every time my boys acted up......whew. My hand would hurt. As it is, I am pretty bad about saying "oh, he didn't really mean to throw that ball at Matthew's head and make him cry all because Matthew took the ball away from him 3 days ago and he is still mad. It was an accident......I can't spank him for an accident."

7. "If my kid ever makes too much noise in a restaurant  I will immediately take him outside and give him a talking to!" Screaming kid? What screaming kid? All I hear is my little angel talking quietly to his bowl of chips and queso. No issues here.....

Those are just the few I can think of now. In all seriousness, I think it is hilarious how we all think we will be these amazing, perfect parents. We will do everything right, nothing too controversial, follow the rules that all the books spell out for us...and then, we have our kids and realize that those things just don't work sometimes. At the end of the day, we all love our babies. We want the very best for them and most of the time, we don't care how we achieve that. I wish that all of us would look around, pat each other on the back and say "good work Mama!" Even if you don't agree with everything that Mama is doing....they are doing their best. Give them some mad props for it.

So, shout out to all my Mama friends! You guys are doing an amazing job! Keep proudly sneaking your kiddos those juice boxes and chicken nuggets....no judgement here!! :)