3

 3 isn't a big number, in the grand scheme of things, it's quite tiny. If you ignore negative numbers, it's really only the fourth from the bottom. But, you ask Oliver and he's SO BIGGER NOW! And he seems bigger ... taller, more loquacious, more knowledgeable (I mean he just announced the anatomical difference between boys and girls last night), more stubborn ...

Here are 3 things that come to mind immediately when I think of my bubs, in form of a photo montage.:

LOVING:

 GOOFY:

 

ALWAYS IN MOTION (these are all during 1 meal time):

We love you Oliver and even though we'd love to slow time down and keep you little, we love watching you grow in front of our eyes. By the minute, it seems some days. You are such a happy little boy, we feel very lucky to have you in our lives. You teach us to be patient, to look at everything with a new wonder and to be kind to everyone. You also teach us to just take a few minutes and enjoy life everyday, to run around with smokey, or race your cars on the kitchen floor, or pretend to hide from the alligators under our comforter ... your imagination is amazing and I hope you never lose that. This note to you doesn't seem very cohesive because it's not. I've been avoiding thinking about you growing up :( I feel you tugging your hand away from mine as I try to keep you close to me and safe. But, you want to spread your wings like Dusty Crophopper and take off. Pretty soon, you won't want mommy to play with you at all and I feel like I am mourning that day already. But, I need to not let the thoughts of your future independence from us take over our todays with you. We also need to prepare you for that future independence. I know that in my head. But, I don't have to do it without crying, darnit ;-) We love you so much. More than we ever thought possible to love somebody.

Happy 3rd birthday to our beautiful, big, strong, handsome boy.