Brigham's sunglasses

He wears these good-looking shades all the time - to bed, to the store, to play.

It always makes me smile.

Birthday season is upon us and I am excited.

Brigham's is next Sunday. He will be turning four. I must admit, I am excited for this birthday. I think three is a pretty challenging age. And I'm pretty sure that the day he turns four, all my struggels will be over. . . . right?!

He really is a sweet boy. The other day he made me laugh so many times. He was helping me re-stock the food in our 72-hour kits. He wanted one of the old Spiderman fruit-roll-ups so badly. I hadn't replace the food for three years, so I was a little hesitant. I unwrapped it and had a nibble. It seemed okay so I handed it to him and told him he could have it. A little while later, he made a commit about it being "really chewy." I turned to watch him take a big bite of the roll-up and realized he was eating the plastic backing too! He'd eaten about a third of the roll-up with the plastic backing! And to think I was worried aobut him eating an over-expired fruit roll-up.

The next treasure we found in our 72-hour kit was one of those small cans of Tree-top apple juice. I told him he could have it with his lunch. So, he carried it around the rest of the morning. At one point he put it in his pocket, which was a tight fit, and he couldn't get it out. He petitioned me for help saying, "only big womens can get juice out of their pockets." I was a little surprise to have my three-year-old refer to me as a "big women." It made me laugh. And so, being the "big woman" that I am I helped my little guy out.

Then, after lunch (during which Brigham enjoyed his juice), I put Aaron down for a nap and I went downstairs to do a workout video. At the beginning of the certain video I was doing, the instructor says something about not stressing about getting the steps perfect, "the important thing," she says, "is that you get sweaty - so let's get sweaty." Anyway, halfway into the video, Brigham was getting quite board, as you can imagine. I suggested he go get a book or a game. But, he wasn't interested. So, I told him he should exercise with me. I was surprised when he decided to give it a try. After giving his best effort (which was really cute), he leaned on the couch and said, "it's hard for little boys to get sweaty." What a funny boy.

Of course, I know better. I know that it's quite easy for little boys to get sweaty . . . and stinky and dirty. I also know that it's quite easy for one funny-little-three-year-old to melt his momma's heart, causing her to forget, for a moment anyway, that three-year-olds can be quite frustrating at times. (I suppose it is fitting that Brigham is scrubbing the bathroom walls as I'm writing this. He got a little board during his last potty break and outlined all the divots in the door trim with pencil.)