Stats
2T-3T clothing.
32.8 pounds (65%) & 37.0 inches (25%)
Notable events
He got his first REAL haircut (he’d had many by us before this), at about 2.5 years. We got it cut into a fauxhawk, but only ever did it that way 2 or 3 times. But it was so cute right after we got it cut — he’d say “Mommy just point[ed] it!” about his hair, or “are you going to cute it?” (not a typo — he made a verb out of “cute” hahaha)
We went on a family trip to Disneyland in January, and we had the best situation. We went with cousins and grandparents, but the grandparents weren’t interested in doing Disney, so they’d pick him up around lunch/naptime and take him home for the rest of the day. This meant he did great in the parks for a few hours, and then he still got a great nap and night sleep. He loved Disney, and he didn’t have to do it super hardcore. Win-win!
Tricks/Milestones
We potty trained! A couple weeks ago. I hesitated to do so, because we had a camping trip planned, and only about a month between when I wanted to train and when we left on our trip, but I’m so glad I did it, because he was a CHAMP! Seriously, hardly any accidents and totally got it right away. Poop took a week or two to fully come together, but it wasn’t bad, and pee was great basically from day 1.
He’s just a full-blown talker now. It’s wild how much changes in a year!
He’s mostly praying on his own now, repeating things we often say, and if he ever pauses super long, we guide him a bit.
The last year was big for motor skills. He especially liked jumping for a while — off chairs, stairs, beds, whatever! He also got SO GOOD at his strider bike late last summer, as predicted. He’s been an expert for a good while now, and it’s crazy to me to watch him balance down huge hills.
He started opening doors around 2y7m, and he has been turning lights on and off for a few months at least.
He was super independent for a long time, then took a bit of time being more clingy/cuddly, but now he’s back to a lot of independent play. Still comes for cuddles and when he wants to “hold you, mama!”
Favorite things
He still loves photo books, but he doesn’t pull them out daily anymore. He also LOVES home videos, and we only watch them every now and then, so when we shut them off, he’s always very distraught.
A full year+ he’s been kissing both cheeks every time he gives good night kisses.
He still loves playing with magnetiles, or anything like them (building-type) and he’s still attached to Scout the stuffed bear.
He loves to snuggle with a parent in the chair in his bedroom post-sleep. He could stay for a really long time most days!
He loves to kiss me on the lips. We don’t do it much, because Russ and I are not big fans of kissing kids on lips (okay, I think it’s weird when other people do it but I secretly love it 😂🙃). He used to say “I kissed you while you kissed me!” every time 😂
He has loved “diggers” for a while now. It started with the book Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site, which we got from the library, and then he got it for Christmas. He’s not fully OBSESSED anymore, but he does still like them a lot, and he’s gotten digger jammies, digger underwear, and had a digger-themed birthday cake.
He LOVES his “lovey” and sleeps with it, but I made the smart rule that his lovey stays in his room/bed, so before we leave his room after naps/nights, he puts it in his crib, sometimes with a little kiss.
Random tidbits
For a while, I was jumping rope a lot, and if he ever found the jump rope unattended, he’d hold the handles and jump. It was so cute.
We read Harry Potter 3 aloud in October, and every time I read “Peter Pettigrew,” he would laugh a bunch and want to “see Peter!” on the page. When I read, “Hello Peter,” he said, “You just said ‘Hello Peter'!” It was so funny :)
Funny/cute things he’s said in the last year:
“Ellercopter” for hellicopter
“motor-bikle” for motorcycle
“Ants, can you please get off my cookie?” (so polite, even to ants! 😂)
“A little bit Taylor” instead of “Elizabeth Taylor” (T Swift’s song)
“Fetch” when he gets hurt, because that’s what I say when I get hurt 🙃
“I like this song!” or “I hate this song!” when we listen to music
“I like your eyes Daddy, they look pretty” — when Russ looked like THIS for Halloween.
“Mac’n’tiles” instead of “magnetiles”
“Someone put my squares away . . . That was not helpful!”
“Neighborhoodie” — he was making a lot of neighborhoodies out of magnetiles for a while there
He’s the only one who got to see Cleo on sonogram with me. After she died, he was watching an old video from Russ’s childhood and there was that static/snow stuff that used to be in home videos all the time. He said, “Is that Cleo?” 😊 It was just cute that she was on his mind.
When I told him he was going on a trip to Europe with us, he said, “Am I up?” (thinking we’d said “You’re up”)
He calls his video monitor a “momitor”
When he found a “Pete the Cat” book, he immediately started calling him “Peter the Cat”
He calls Ada and Holly “the girlies,” never just “the girls.”
Lately he’s been saying nonsense/silly words like, “See ya later, badoodle!”
He asks, “Who’s that kid?” about every single person we encounter. Everyone is a kid, even the adults.
He’s in a “why” phase. Asking about everything, all the time, over and over 🙃
When he wanted me to put Neosporin and a bandaid on him, and Holly started putting it on instead, he yelled, “MOM’S THE CHEF!!!!!” Meaning, Mom’s in charge. 😂
Still usually uses an F sound for TH sounds (Ruf for Ruth, wif for with)
Lately he says, “Orange is my favorite color!” like, all the time 😂
Usually I do Holly’s bedtime routine/singing while Russ does Peter’s. Then I go in and give Pete a hug and kiss. If I’m not there for Pete’s singing, he almost always says, so sweetly, “Can you please sing to me just a little bit?” So i’ll sing the last line of his song. Oh! And whenever he hears his song (“Families can be together forever”) outside of bedtime routine, he gets so excited and says “Is that my bedtime song?!” 😂😍
One time I said, “I’m so grateful to be your mom 😊” and he replied, “you’re the good-est in the world 😍” MELT MY HEART!
Peter is seriously the SWEETEST boy. He’s gotten a tiny bit more feisty/opinionated in the last 3 months, but his level of feistiness is still sooooo mild compared with almost any other kid on the planet, and was non-existent for most of his third year. Some examples of this are:
He has always been extremely polite, saying “please” the first time or with one reminder.
He used to be ridiculously easy to redirect, and is still pretty darn redirect-able. If he’s doing something I don’t want him to do, I just say, “What if you go play magnetiles right now?” or “How about you go make tea for Scout?” and he’ll run off to do it.
Almost anything we ask him to do, he would do it. Stuff like putting his shoes away, cleaning something up, grabbing something for us — he’d help, no question. It’s less now, though. He used to be so obedient that we’d compare him to Ella Enchanted. One way that he is still THAT obedient, is that when he is in bed but not yet asleep for his nap (like he’s been playing and talking for 15+ minutes), I’ll get on his monitor and say, “Peter, close your eyes and go to sleep.” And he will literally close his eyes right that minute, which allows him to fall asleep. It’s mind-blowing!!
He just has the most tender heart. He has so much love to give, and if someone ever tells him “no” or “stop” too sharply (or sometimes not sharply), he bursts into tears of shame. It’s actually really sad.
For the last few months, sometimes he will hit or throw things. It feels like he doesn’t fully understand that those things hurt yet. But if he hits me or his dad, and we say “ouch! hitting hurts!” he’ll usually immediately say “I’m sorry!” and softly caress us where he just hit us before.
He’s so tender and soft with babies. I never have to worry about him hurting a baby, only about him touching a baby’s face 😂
Sleep
Pete is still a great sleeper! He says he doesn’t want to nap a lot more often these days, but he still has naptime every day, and he sleeps at least 90% of the time (would probably be 100%, but sometimes I don’t realize he’s still awake so I don’t get on to tell him to go to sleep!). He usually has no objections to bedtime. He’s still in his crib, though I think he’ll do great when we transition him out of it. I probably should have done that before our one-month trip to Europe, where I’m still planning to use a pack-and-play for him 🙃🙃
His schedule looks like:
7:15am wake him
1:30-3:30pm nap [[I used to wake him at 3pm because it was affecting his nights, but then I stopped and it stopped seeming to affect his nights too much 🤷🏼♀️]]
8/8:15pm down (4.5-4.75 hours after I wake him from his nap)
I wake him at 7:15 because if I leave him longer, he takes forever to fall asleep for his nap, or he skips it altogether.
Usually he falls asleep for his nap within 20 minutes. He can skip his nap without a problem, though I’ve only done that like twice, and it was so we could do fun family activities that required a long drive (Christkindlmarkt & Hill Air Force Base museum).
He takes 30 minutes (sometimes more) to fall asleep after we lay him down. He’s happy and content though, so I’m not worried about it.
His schedule in waketimes is approximately 6.25 / 4.75. His sleep works out to be about 1.5-2 daytime hours, 10-10.5 nighttime hours, and ~12 hours total.
