3 years old

Dear Ransom,

You are going to be 3 years old tomorrow. Right now you are in your room singing to yourself. You do this a lot. Sing to yourself. And to anyone that will listen. Lately you've been making up songs or just singing random words. Like your babysitters name over and over again or how Baby Jesus was a little boy once ( hmm) or how you'd like to be a dinosaur. All classic Ransom songs. You particularly like to sing if you have your guitar handy. In fact, that little orange Ukulele that we got for you over a year ago has not had a single day without being played with! You definitely love your music.
You now know several "adult" songs by heart and will sing them along with us if the mood strikes you. Your favorite and most requested is Amazing Grace. But you also like Take My Life and Let it Be and How Deep the Father's Love for Us. Those are your favorite for sure.

In looking back over this year I feel like the best way to describe you is going from a toddler to a little boy. It probably moved the process along that you had to spend three months without your Mommy and Daddy while we fought for Tabitha's life. During that time you experienced many new things and adjusted very well to new situations and people. We were so very proud of you! It helped that you always knew that you were loved and safe-being with Papa and Spicy and Nana is really not a trial! You probably had way more fun than if you'd been with Mommy all that time! But you did get to spend most weekends with me at the Ronald McDonald House ( or the Ol' MacDonald House as you called it) and there were just TONS of fun things there!

After your months of spoiling, you got a little sister, Tabitha. You were very sweet to her right away and definitely understood that she'd been in Mommy's tummy all that time and she was finally out! You very much appreciated the fact that she gave you a truck and a race car for being born. She is now 7 months old and you have varying interest in her. Mostly you just make sure we don't forget her when we're going places ( not that we would!) and you always pray for her first in your nightly prayers. You will periodically ask to hold her, but a few seconds is more than enough. You are not very excited, however, about her being about to reach your things or sit near you when you're playing. We suspect that it will be quite the horrible shock when she becomes mobile! But we pray that you will love and take care of her like a good big brother!

This year you definitely learned about geography! You learned about Georgia and Texas when we moved for Fort Benning, GA to San Antonio Tx. You definitely are enjoying some of the fun things to do in San Antonio and you very much like how much closer we are to Nacogdoches! You miss your family there a lot!

Some of your little quirks that we're currently enjoying are that you've moved from asking where various people are, to asking what we're going to do next. I have to give you a running itinerary of the day continually. You also like to ask "Why?" ALL. THE. TIME.

You love your Bear and Lamby and Paci. Incidentally, Bear is a boy, Lamby is a girl and Paci is also a boy. Its a little bit upsetting that you have personified Paci-especially since we'll hopefully getting rid of 'him' soon. While you are currently only allowed paci in bed, you will often visit him many many times during a day. If you are being particularly quiet or have disappeared, one can almost always bet that they'll find you lounging in your bed snuggling with your stuffed friends and getting a drag off of paci.

You are constantly saying funny things and have a very extensive vocabulary. In fact, pretty much everyone you talk to comments at how advanced you are in the speech department. You are very easy to understand which is also nice. I'm not sure why, but I'd hazard a guess that your love for books hasn't turn this particular advancement. I recently counted your books-the ones you read regularly-and you have 117!! We average reading out loud about 15 books a day and you're currently a big fan of the Bernstain Bears and the Little Bear books.
You also enjoy watching the Little Bear show and Mister Rogers Neighborhood in the mornings on the ipad. Your parents, who are NOT morning people, appreciate that you are also a "slow morning person".  Your routine is to wake up around 7, yell that you want to get up ( you never get up on your own from naps or mornings), go to the potty ( we started potty training in June and you're pretty much 100% accomplished with only a few accidents here and there in August), then climb into bed with Bear, Lamby and Paci with the ipad. Watch an episode of ( currently Mister Rogers) then yell that you want Oatmeal. You are reminded that you have to ask nicely. Then you have your oatmeal which has usually been made and is cooling for you while you've watched your show. What a nice life you have!

This year you learned your letter sounds to go along with your knowledge of the alphabet, numbers, colors and shapes. You also know how to spell your own name and how old you are. You love to play doctor, playing with your brand new train set, your cars and trucks on your road rug, and riding your balance bike ( which you are incredibly fast on!).

Tomorrow I will interview you about your favorite things, and who knows what you will say, but this is what *I* would guess is the correct answer:

Who is your best friend: Kilsyth
What is your favorite book: Cars and Trucks and Things that Go, Richard Scarry
Favorite movie: Winnie the Pooh
Favorite TV show: Mister Rogers
Favorite Food: Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich
Favorite Drink: "Juice" ( which he rarely gets)
Favorite things to do: ride his bike
Favorite Subject in school: just getting to go is pretty exciting
Favorite Song: Its a Beautiful Day in the neighborhood

You are a very happy little boy who is continually exclaiming "My isn't it a beautiful day?"...whether its daytime or nighttime or whether its raining or sunny or cold. It is your saying for when you are particularly happy, and it never fails to make ME happy hearing it come out of your mouth. Thank you for always posing it as a question and therefore making me stop and realize that it IS a beautiful day! Especially because we get to have you as a son!

We love you so much,
Mommy and Daddy

This morning...

We recently read about Jesus being tempted in the wilderness and not getting to eat for 40 days during Ransom's bible story. This morning Ransom was eating some yogurt and he asked if Jesus was hungry. At first I was confused. Then he said, " did Jesus not get lunch or dinner or breakfast?"
That made more sense since that was almost a direct quote from the story. 

"Yes, Jesus was very hungry because he didn't eat for 40 days." 

*pause*

"I think I better share my yogurt with Jesus."

Ransom always says the time is "forty-forty-two"... We are not sure where he got this from.

30 months

Dear Ransom,

One of the things I love that you've been doing a lot lately is thanking me for things. Little things like, "Thanks for pushing Tabitha and me in the stroller!" or "Thanks for driving me to the museum!"
and even "Thank you for feeding Tabitha!"....who said being a mom was a thankless job?!? Not when I've got you around!

Thanks for being my favorite son,
Mommy