Please Meet Our 3 Year Old: Harrison Andrew Jones

What everyone says is true, "they grow so fast".

Harrison is officially three years old as of Friday. Honestly, I've been treating him like a five year old for about 10 months now, ever since Silas was born. Once Silas was born Harrison went from my baby to my little boy and all little boys are five, right?

We celebrated well. He got to have two friends over and mommy and daddy invited another handful of friends who have been in Harrison's life consistently over the last three years. They've babysat, been at his dedication, prayed over us when I was pregnant and have walked along side during the happy and hard times. It was a blessing to celebrate 3 years with them. We went a little more simple this year. My friend Gina shared a family tradition she had that Nathan and I have decided to implement. Every other year is a friend party alternated with an immediate family only party. Silas will start with the immediate family party this year :)

Harrison wont stop growing for some reason... must be all the food he eats and books he reads. Can't he stay our little guy forever? I wanted to share with you all what our little man is like and why he's such a gift to us.

1. He's considerate. He took to please, thank you and excuse me right away and continues to use them (at least with us that is...). He runs ahead of me to the van and opens my car door for me. He picks up things that Silas' drops and pats him gently on the head when he's sad. On Friday he went up to our friend Kathy when she arrived and said, "thank you for coming to my party" without even being prompted. I was blown away.

2. He's affectionate. He asks to be held so that he can give hugs and kisses when we're standing. He has to cuddle for at least two songs and when he gets lucky, three, right before he falls asleep. He tries to cuddle with his brother often but I have to remind him to be gentle with his hugs. Friday he gave his friend Ethan a goodbye hug only to follow it with a kiss. That's why we don't invite girls to these parties :) haha

3. He's cautious. For his birthday we decided to take him to Heritage Square, an old amusement park that resembles a permanent carnival. He only wanted to ride a few rides because he wasn't quite sure about the rest of them. He rode the swings, one very tiny roller coaster and the train that circles around the park.

He'll often ask me if he can do "_____" before doing it. Like jumping off the third stair, climbing on a railing, walking on a curb, etc. My mom got him a small 6volt four wheeler for his birthday and he's been on it three times. He wants to know what he's doing before doing it and he can't seem to quite figure out how to stop and start without it startling him. He thinks objects are much closer then they really are.

4. He loves the park! Every morning he wants us to take him to "a" park. He likes a different one almost every time. New swings, slides and ladders are just too fun.

5. He LOVES to learn which makes me happy, of course. He loves to do his "letter" every week which means we paint a letter of the alphabet, draw pictures, etc. We're now working on days of the week, weather, months and counting.

6. He can't get enough construction vehicles. He's moved from a fascination with airplanes to an obsessions with construction vehicles. He knows the name of every one of them. As people have come up to him asking if he had a good birthday his automatic response has been, I had a construction cake! He talks about it a lot. When we are in the car he asks if we could go see constructions trucks so we drive around and find job sites, cheap entertainment.

7. He loves the water but not being splashed. We started swim lessons this summer and he never wanted to get out and always wanted to go back. He wasn't happy when he had to go under water or get splashed, still fights us in the bath but he likes it none the less.

8. He's very clean. He doesn't like much of a mess when it comes to food or dirty hands. This morning he spilt some juice on his shirt in the car on the way to church and was worried about it the whole time.

I could go go on and on and on which I'm sure any mother could do.

* you might be wondering why the bike doesn't have training wheels. It's a balance bike. Harrison walks while squatting down on it. He can sit and lift his legs to coast. It doesn't have petals and it's supposed to help them learn how to balance on a bike.

*The tractor above is from our neighbor Jess. He brought it over for the three boys to climb on. He restores old tractors which of course amazes Harrison. He actually transports construction vehicles so every once and a while he'll have his semi out with a bulldozer or backhoe on the bed. It's like Christmas for Harrison. We love our neighborhood!