He’s almost three, you know

When Sebastian was three months old, a dear friend came to visit along with her almost three-year-old. The two ages seemed (and were) worlds apart. I was astonished, for example, at the completely understandable sentences my friend’s daughter could say. It was hard to imagine my little proto-human ever being like this walking, talking, little person or carrying on a conversation with me.

So it was a bit of a shock to look at those pictures the other day and realize that Sebastian is now the same age Sidney was, and indeed the sentences flow nonstop.

Because he loves words and language and books – oh, my, how the child LOVES books – he says things that are absolutely hilarious when they are coming out of the mouth of someone not yet four feet tall.

When he is upset with something or falls down, he says, “Oh, dear…” complete with furrowed brow and dismayed tone. (I blame the Mr. Men books for this.)

Speaking of Mr. Men books, since reading Mr. Dizzy, he has also taken to answering questions by beginning with, “Er…” So if you ask him what day it is, he will say, “Er…today is Friday!”

We hear a lot of “quite” and “usually” as in: “Good morning, Auntie! I had a good sleep but not quite as good as the other one was.” and “Theo usually likes to sleep a lot.” You can tell sleep is an oft-mentioned subject around here, can’t you?

But my current favorite has to be “you know.” Today he informed me that, “Friday is a work day, you know, Mama,” to which I tried desperately to respond with a serious face. “Yes, I do know that, Sebastian. You’re right.”

It’s not the snotty teenage version I’m sure we’ll hear in ten years complete with eye-rolling. Instead it’s charming and hilarious, especially when it’s preceded by a statement that is completely false, as in the following: “Let’s go visit Gramma at PCC. She works there, you know.” {PCC is a grocery store much like Whole Foods, to which my mother often takes Sebastian when she visits. She does not, however, work there.}

And that is just the language. My three-month-old who couldn’t do much more than hold his head up has morphed into this almost-three-year-old who feels the need to scale every piece of furniture and attempt to jump off of it. Seriously, if your child is younger than three and already a crazy daredevil: watch out! And buy some gym mats and knee pads or something.

At almost three the routines are set in stone, unless of course HE wants to change them. Heaven forbid I skip a verse of his bedtime song or lower the blinds before he runs into bed rather than after. “Oh, dear! That’s not right!” But if he wants to read a book before pajamas rather than after? Sounds like a new plan.

The temper tantrums are fewer but the timeouts abound (see aforementioned crazy stunts). Still, we can all handle a little “sit and think” time much better than the howling meltdowns.

Almost three really is far, far better than terrible two. All of you who say three is worse? I don’t want to hear it. I’m choosing to believe that it’s two OR three, and we’ve paid our dues around here, I assure you. Right now I’m enjoying the view (and the conversations) from this little moment in time.

Update: Not long after writing this, I snapped this picture and posted it on Facebook…

He did not understand why I thought this was not a good idea. “I know how to not fall,” he assured me. Um, no.

Then he suggested going down backwards instead. No, again. I was not his favorite mama yesterday. Oh well.