3 Years Old!!! 3 Years ago you made me a mama.  It’s hard to believe time has flown by so fast.  Gone are the days of you laying on my chest snuggling me all day, and snuggling Daddy all night, gone are the days where you could barely lift your sweet little head up,  and gone are the days that all you needed to do is lay on me to be content.   In their place are days filled with an energetic, mischievous, sweet, and snuggly (only at night, or early morning) big boy.  You love to run, to play, to make messes and create havoc.  You enjoy pushing boundaries, but hate time out.  You love tv, and cuddling at night.  You hate eating dinner, but love eating breakfast.  You love fruit, you love cereal, you love meeeeeeuuuulk (milk), you love sports, you love cartoons, you love Ninja Turtles, and Monster Machines.  Most of all you love your sister.  You want to hold her, and play with her, and love her.  You call her “my sis” or “baby sissy” or “baby sister” and occasionally “baby Emme”.   You love to tell stories with yourself, Rylie and Damn (Graham) as the main characters.   You love to be busy, and while sometimes hard to handle (testing EVERY boundary), you are kind to others as well.  You are social and make friends with every kid you meet.  You are an adventurous, amazing little boy.

This month you were 38″ tall, and 30.2 pounds.  When we went to the pediatrician, you kept calling her Dr. Doom hahaha (too much Spiderman?).  We switched you around forward facing in the car, and you love being able to see out of the front.  Now the whole drive home from Elyse’s house you make faces at Emme, and she laughs and laughs and laughs at you.  It’s so amazing to hear you two interacting in the back seat.  You also are so much more chatty in the car with us now that you can see us.  You ask a bazillion questions about everything you see.  Why’s that excavator there? What’s it digging up?  Why is it digging dirt?  Trees are made of wood, why is there wood there? What’s that cloud?  Why is that dump truck there? What are they building?    And if I ignore your questions you become progressively louder and insist that I answer you.  Curious Lucas, just like Curious George.

This month was your very first trip out to a big movie theater.  Your Daddy and I both took a long lunch, and picked you up from Elyse’s house, all by yourself (we left Emelyn with Elyse).  I bought you a special shirt to wear- your Minions shirt because we were going to see the Minions movie.  We even got you popcorn and candy, and let you sit in your own chair in between Daddy and I.  You loved the big screen, although you did insist you had to pee 5-7 times during the movie.  Poor Daddy kept having to take you, even though you really didn’t have to go, you just liked going in and out of the theater.  Hahaha.  We also took you bowling for the first time.  You liked it, although you had absolutely no interest in waiting your turn for anyone else to bowl.  I ended up giving you my turn too.  I think your very favorite experience at the bowling alley was the arcade machines.  You loved driving, and shooting, and winning toys.

We’ve had lots of visiting with family this month, which started out with the 4th of July in Louisville.  You got to hang with your cousin “Dandin” as you call him, and see Muncle Mike, PopPop, Aunt Katie, and Deanna.  You love to walk in the magic forest with your PopPop in his backyard, and you love to feed his birds.  In fact, every time we get to Natchez Lane now, you ask PopPop to feed his birds and walk through the magic forest.  PopPop loves to show you the wild flower garden you helped plant, and to look at all the treasures in the “forest” (which is really a path in the back of the yard through the trees).  You also got to go to a favorite restaurant in our family, Huber’s Farm, with your PopPop and us.  You had a great time playing at the playground there, just like I did when I was a kid.  Although the playground has gotten a lot cooler than it was when I was little.

Of course the biggest event of the month was your birthday!  Your Aunt Jera, and Uncle Kevin came in from Tennessee to celebrate with you.  We let them sleep in your room, so on the morning of your birthday you woke up in our bed, and we immediately sang you happy birthday (you LOVE that song, you sing it all the time).  You had your traditional pancakes in the shape of a 3 for breakfast.  And then we began readying ourselves for your party.  Your party was awesome! It was Curious George themed.  Funny story- your Aunt Jera and I were talking about picking out Emme’s party dress, and our own party dresses so much that you chimed in “my want a party dress!”  We all had a good laugh about that  .  You wore your Curious George shirt of course, and we had everything decorated in yellow and red.  Daddy drew the most amazing Curious George Doorman that greeted people as they walked in the house, and a handmade Chef Pisghetti’s Ristorante sign to go above the food table.  We blew up pictures from Halloween when you were George, I was Professor Wiseman, and Daddy was The Man in the Yellow Hat.  We had bananas everywhere as decoration, and we served food based on the character’s in the show.  We had Betsy’s Banana Split Bar, Chef Pisghetti’s Pizza, Monkey Juice (lemonade), Monkey Punch (koolaid), Bill’s Banana Chips, The Man in the Yellow Hat’s Monkey Munch, Hundley’s Party Weenies, Gnocchi’s Nachos, George’s Banana Pudding, Professor Wiseman’s Popcorn, and of course, an awesome Curious George cake.     We busted our butts on your party, but it turned out fabulous!  You had so many friends and family from near and far come.  Your favorite presents were a Fart Gun (we call a toot gun), monster machines (Blaze and Lucas Crusader), and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle stuff.

These past 3 years have shown me how amazing it is to love something so much.  You are our world.  I can’t believe you’re mine Lucas Walter Atkinson.  You make me the most proud Mom in the universe.  I love you to the moon and back!