Thomas at Three

My sweet little boy.

You are always reminding me that John Paul is the baby, and you are the Thomas.  Papa and I love you so much, butter bean.

You are Papa's wingman, and my sous chef.  We love the time that we get to have with you, one-on-one.

Your energy is boundless right now.  Sometimes it's awesome, sometimes it's overwhelming.  You run and play and jump and giggle and hide and seek and yell and laugh and meltdown and rally and bounce back and start all over again.

You love to help. "Can I help please?"  In the kitchen.  Outside with Papa.  With John Paul.

You love my iPad.  You play games on it (most often, AntSmasher, Cars and Thomas the Train).  You love to flip through the photos and watch video clips that we have taken around the house.  It always makes me smile when you are missing Papa (while he's at work) or John Paul (while he's napping) and you'll watch one of their video clips over and over and over to hear their voices or giggles or laughs. 

You are concerned with who is happy and who is not happy.  I love that you ask how we are doing, "Papa, does your knee feel better?"

And I love that instead of "yes" when we tell you we love you, you respond with "I love you too." 

Our funniest moments are your quotables.  We are constantly reminding ourselves that you love to mirror what we do...good and bad.  The other morning, we all slept in and you ran into the room.  John Paul started crying from his room, and you looked at us and yelled, "Sh*t! He's awake!"

Mother of the year, right there. Definitely got that from me.

I think I'll go eat a whole bar of soap now.

You love to call things "disgusting", though it sounds a bit more like "dith-gus-ing".

You are an incredible big brother to John Paul.  You are always checking on him and love to get him up in the morning.  "Good morning, John Paul!  It's morning time, brudder!"  You laugh at the things he does and are always letting me know what he's up to.  "Mommy, he's touching the remote!  He's pressing buttons!  MOMMY! MOMMY!  He's changing my channel!  MOMMY MOMMY MOMMY!"

You love puzzles and cars and playing ball in the house and you want to celebrate your birthday every four days.

"My birf-day is coming. It's in four days. I like cake."

You are getting better in Mass, most times your timeouts come from not being able to contain your energy, not being 'bad' in Mass.  You're becoming a better role model for your little brother.  I love that.

Over this year, we pray that your fears of the nighttime will lessen.  John Paul misses you at night and we love seeing you cuddle with him in his crib when you're scared.

We love you so much, sweet child.  Thank you for being an incredible joy in our lives.