Remy's First Year & Beyond: October 2015

The Remster, Rem-Rem, my Remalema, Sweets, my first born, my cute as a button, my silly boy, my sour patch kid, my smart, feisty little firecracker is 3 years old! Three years, 1 day ago I was induced and 31 long hours later he arrived. He was stubborn then and he’s stubborn now and I wouldn’t trade him for the world. 3 year olds are so much fun and also why we get gray hairs at a young age. One second he’s sweet as ever and listens great and the next he’s a tornado of talking back, yelling, spitting and crying. It can all change in the blink of an eye. The poor child has my lack of patience and temper. But like most 3 year olds, you can’t stay mad at them for long because they’re back to being sweet as ever.

I asked Remy what he wanted to do on his birthday and he said “See sharks. See big sharks in the water!” So we headed to the Mall of America and went to Underwater World. Actually, I believe it's called Sea Life now? Anyways, the kid loved it. First we went and saw the fishes and then we headed over to Nickelodeon Universe and took him on a few rides. It was actually his very first time riding on a ride. First we took him on the carousel and then he got to drive "big rigs". He loved it. After that we got some lunch. The boy wanted a cheeseburger so that's what he got. Then we went to build-a-bear and he picked out a minion. A minion with a lightsabor. Yep.

This child talks up a storm and is constantly asking questions. I love when he makes up stories and plays pretend. Children really do say the darndest things! He is always soaking up information and remembers so much but he has zero interest in sitting down and learning. He doesn’t give two hoots about learning his colors or letters. I always ask him what color cup he wants or what color his shirt is today and he either ignores me or says orange. Everything is orange. Girls are just so much different than boys. Boys just want to do - who has time to sit down and learn?!

Remy loves his little brother, Ivan. He loves making him laugh and doing big brother things like taking him for a ride in his car, helping him eat, showing him how to shoot his guns or crawl up the stairs. However, like all sibling relationships, he gets mad when Ivan is playing with his toys. I have to explain constantly that they need to share toys and that not all the toys are his anymore - they are both of their toys. Remy doesn't exactly like that. Remy does like to wrestle with Ivan. Sometimes he gets a little too rough of course - Ivan's only 10 months old. I can see that the older the boys get, the closer and more they are doing together. I absolutely love the bond they share and I'm excited to see it grow.

Remy’s favorite things are nerf guns (he calls them shoot guns), robots, monster trucks/motorcycles/4-wheelers and super heroes. The kid has more nerf guns than everyone I know put together. I asked him what he wanted for his birthday. He said “a big yellow shoot gun!” He ended up getting a nerf gun from Grandma, a remote control monster truck from daddy and a robot from me. He loved all his new toys. Since the boy has a million nerf guns we had a little nerf gun war. I haven't had that much fun with kid toys since I was a kid!

Remy’s current favorite shows are constantly changing. Today he likes Lego City, Superhero Squad, Dinotrucks, Japanese toy videos (like every kid, right?). The next day he’ll change his mind and not like those shows anymore. The one consistent show that never changes is Curious George. The boy is always up for a little George. The current favorite movie is Minions (which is why he picked out Bob at the build-a-bear shop). That changes all the time as well. Though he did go through a long Frozen phase like most children.

Seems like all of Remy’s likes/favorite things change in a blink of an eye, including food. One day he’ll eat 3 apples – the next day he’ll say he doesn’t like apples. One food that never changes is mac-n-cheese. Whenever I ask Remy what he wants for lunch or dinner, he almost always says mac-cheese.

Some things to remember about this age: Remy is fully day-time potty trained, however, still wears a diaper for naptime and bedtime (hoping to move past the naptime diaper soon); Remy is wearing some 3T shirts and moving into 4T, wearing some 2T pants and moving towards 3T and is wearing size 9 shoes; still taking an afternoon nap (thank God).

The boy won't have his 3 year check-up for a few months. Might as well take him in with Ivan when Ivan turns one.

Sorry for the million pictures but a lot happens in 6 months!!