Three and a half

Today, Doodle is three and a half. I can't believe that on his next birthday he'll be four. Four is old. Four is pre-K. Four is big kid. Anyway, he's not four yet. He's only half way between three and four so I've got some time to get used to the idea of having a big kid.

Advancements that Doodle has made thus far:

• He can write all of his letters, though they are often not in a line -- they're all over the paper and sometimes on top of each other.
• He is very interested in how to spell words. He asks how to spell random items that catch his eye. How do you spell CHAIR? How do you spell CEREAL? How do you spell MILK?
• He started nursery school after Labor Day and has been doing really well. He goes Tuesdays and Thursdays in the mornings. He cried most every day that I dropped him off except the first day and today. Mr. D and I went to back to school night earlier this week and his teachers told us that he is very smart, plays well with the other kids and is doing great.
• He is getting quite good at staying in the lines when he's coloring.
• He occasionally wants to go to the bathroom by himself and does a good job when he does.
• He pees in the toilet 99% of the time and poops in the toilet 2% of the time. We're trying a new approach with the pooping -- he can poop in his pull up but he has to go into the bathroom to do it. Once he does that routinely we'll add that he has to sit on the toilet with his pull up on. Then we'll take the pull up away and hopefully that will do the trick. A friend of mine did this approach and it worked for her three-year old.
  
• He's getting better at not winning, but still isn't great about it. He doesn't like to lose Candy Land or any of the other board games we have. He doesn't really mind not getting hits at baseball though.
  
• He's into comparing everything. I'm a faster runner than you are. When I'm five I will be almost as tall as you are. I'm a better hitter than you are (at baseball, not hitting people!).
  
• And because of watching baseball with Mr. D, he's thinks there has to be a winner and a loser to most things. Races, reality tv shows (I watch Top Chef and Project Runway when I run), board games. Well, he might have something here.

He loves playing baseball and watching it with his dad. He really enjoys making his sister laugh. And he still spends a lot of time playing trains and building with lincoln logs.

He's a good boy and I feel so lucky that he is a sweet good person.