The Jenkins Family: Cal at 3

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Cal at 3

Had to record a few things about my big three year old. I absolutely love this stage and wish I could slow the time down. As crazy as Cal acts sometimes (mostly when he's tired or thrown off his schedule), he so adorable in every other way.

For example:
* I was getting Cal out of the car the other day and said, "Love you buddy." To which he responds, "Thank you for those kind words."

* Anytime I lay him down for a nap he insists that I kiss both his hands (got that from his sisters) and then a huge hug. When I give him the hug he always says, "I love you."

* Cal is very thankful and remembers to say thank you for all the little things: "thank you for getting me my food." "Thank you for getting me out of my car seat." "Thank you for getting me dressed." "Thank you for holding the door for me." "Thank you for getting me my truck." I'm sometimes shocked by the small and very simple things he'll thank me for, but I absolutely love it. He really is a grateful little guy and I'm grateful for his sweet example.

* When he's in a good mood at meal time, he'll be very complimentary and says things like, "Yum! This is so tasty!" and " Thank you mom for this delicious dinner."

* Have I mentioned that Cal loves salad! It's so wonderful having a kid who asks for salad and veggies!

* He's always more than willing to help me in the kitchen too!

* I just love Cal's enthusiasm about little things. He and I get a lot of one on one time with the girls at school and I just savor every minute of it. We go on picnics about once a week. I love how excited Cal gets when I spread out the blanket and lay out all our snacks. He usually sprawls out in the warm sunshine and says, "This is a great picnic!"

* I love Cal's vocabulary and how articulate he is when he speaks. A couple months ago Cal started to worry about being modest around his sisters. Now he always tells me, "Don't let anyone see my bum. That would in inappropriate."

* While driving past the train station the other day, he yelled, "Look! There's the train! It's a locomotive."

Cal really is such a crack up. Conversations with him are the best. Here's one he had awhile back with Spencer: "Get your coat Calvin. Aren't you cold?"
Cal: "No, I'm not cold. I'm healthy."

His little voice is the cutest, and I love the couple of words that he says a little differently, like how he says oatmeal, "oitmeal". But one time we corrected him and now he corrects himself when he says it wrong - always with an adorable smile on his face.

Cal's growing up so fast and just in the past couple of months that I started writing down notes of things he'd say or do, he's already changed and doesn't do a lot of them anymore (sniff sniff). He used to remind me to cheer for him anytime he did something great. He'd tell me: "Say, Yay Calvin!" or "Say, Good Job Calvin" or he'd even just tell me: "Clap mom, clap!"

Cal's always loved to read and I adore his obsession with books. The library is a favorite outing - Cal usually gets himself a big stack of books, finds a table, and just sits and reads (it's heavenly).

He used to be obsessed with the Berenstain Bear books - "The Spooky Old Tree" "Bears in the Night" and "The Big Road Race" but just in the past month Spencer has started telling Cal adventure stories every single night and those adventures they go on are WAY cooler than any book I have to read. I've now taken a back seat in bedtime story reading. Cal always wants his dad at bedtime and if Spencer isn't home Cal begs for me to tell an adventure story, but sadly my imagination isn't anything compared to Spencer's! Their adventures really are top notch - complete with jumping from airplanes, going over water falls, swingings over canyons, scuba diving, climbing volcanoes, exploring caves, saving princesses, (his sisters) fighting dragons and bears, etc. I just can't compete with all that!

Cal does not like being left behind! As the third kid he's always afraid someone is going to take off without him. Anytime we all head out to go somewhere Cal runs to the garage yelling, "Don't leave without me!!!"

At three years old, and now officially in a big boy bed, Cal rarely takes naps anymore. So sad to let go of that 2 hour nap every afternoon, giving me my beloved solitude time, but it's not so bad because he's good at quiet time. Oh how I love to watch my kids sleep - checking on them at night is a favorite time of the day! Car naps are almost pretty darn cute!