3.75

That is Elijah's official age these days. A little older than three and a half, but not quite four. I think for most people, the hardest age to parent is the 2-3 age. You know, the infamous "terrible twos". Well, for Elijah it's this age right now. Don't get me wrong, it's not that he's bad all of the sudden. Okay...he has his moments! He just has too much personality, too much to say about everything, and, worst of all, his own opinion on what he should be doing. Before if I asked him to pick up his toys he'd (most of the time) do as I asked. Now if I ask him to pick up his toys he has a million different reasons why he can't. Ranging from, "I was going to play with them," to "I can't because my foot feels funny."

He's always been extremely talkative (cue jokes on which parent he got that from) and that's never really bothered us too much. It's not the talking that's the problem now, it's the questions! Oh my, I can't even get started on the questions this child asks. Every question you never want to answer has come out of his mouth. He even asks the questions we can't answer, like wanting to know where rain comes from...."Uh, from the clouds in the sky." "Yeah, but how does it come from the clouds?" "Oh well there's thing called evaporation-" "What's 'vaporation?"

Yeah, you see what I mean. Everyone tells me it's a good thing that he's so curious, that he's interested in learning. But seriously, some questions you just don't want to answer as a parent. Yesterday he asked me, "Mommy, when the baby is born will she pop out of your belly button?"My answer, "Um, no, not exactly. Hey, you want some CANDY?!"

I'm sure this is just the beginning.

Despite the difficulties of parenting an almost four-year-old, there are some advantages. Elijah, as always, is an extremely sweet and loving child. Although he does like to occasionally sneak up on Daddy and punch him in the gut...I'll let you guess which parent started that little tradition! Anyway, he does do amazingly sweet things all the time lately. Like when he hugs me, always trying to put his arms around my big belly, he says, "I love you and I love the baby too!" (Occasionally he throws in, "And I love Daddy, and I love myself!" I kid you not!) He likes to watch the baby kick in the evenings when she's really wound up and he puts his ear against my stomach and tells us all the things she's saying to him.

Okay are you nauseous yet from all the sweetness? No? Okay, I'll go on then. Yesterday he went and got out a piece of paper and a pencil. He hops up in his booster seat at the table and starts to write. I ask him what he's writing and he answers, "My name." I go back to washing dishes or whatever I was doing. A few seconds later he asks me to spell some words for him. He says, "Spell love for me." So I spell it for him and watch as he painstakingly writes it out. When he's finished he says, "Now spell Daddy for me." So I spell it for him. He then says he's done, gets down and runs off to take his paper to Matthew. He gives it to him and says, "Here Daddy, I wrote this for you it says 'Elijah loves Daddy.'" *tear* Okay, sorry, I'm a little pregnant and hormonal right now, but it was really cute!

I guess no post would be complete without a picture of my little stinker...I mean sweetheart!