Hyrum is 3 now, and I have always believed that 3 is way harder than 2. He was such an easy baby and toddler, but now he has gotten a bit of an attitude. He is still cheerful, friendly, and excited about everything, but he has started to have actual opinions. He will scream to watch "Paw Patrol" or another movie of choice, refuse to eat his meals, demand to do everything by himself, and occasionally test out hitting after seeing his brothers do it. He is spending more of his day in Time Out because of these things. I am hoping that by being super consistent with the punishments that he will stop testing us so much and start learning to obey. When he does get in trouble, he comes out of his room so sweet. He gives big hugs and says, "Sorry Mama." His big brown eyes and cute little dimple are nearly impossible to resist.
Aside from testing his limits on some of these things, he is a super fun kid. We spend all day together, and most of the time I love to be around him. Every morning we spend time cleaning the house and doing chores together. He helps put stuff away and knows the routine perfectly. We often go to the store after dropping off the kids, and it is fun to have a little buddy with me. We actually go so often that in his prayers he has started saying "bless that Dad can go to work, bless that the boys can go to school, and bless that we can go to the store." Ha! It makes me giggle every time. Over the last few weeks, he has become more difficult at the store because he won't sit down in the cart. It makes it much harder to manage him. In a major Mom Fail moment, he was sitting in the front of the cart, and when I got distracted he stood up and fell out of the cart. When I looked back, he was laying flat on the floor, whimpering. I thought for sure he had broken something. He was bleeding a bit and pretty limp. I quickly picked him up and he calmed down. I checked him over, and we immediately went home. Luckily, the only lasting effect was some major rug burn on his forehead and nose. Poor little guy!
Hyrum's absolute favorite thing to do is to scooter. The older boys love to scooter with their friends, so Hyrum has watched them from an early age. Earlier this summer, he decided that he was big enough to do it too. I was preparing to buy him a three-wheel scooter for he birthday in July, but by that time, he had already mastered a regular scooter. I am still shocked and surprised at how well he rides them. I have never seen a 3 year old so confident and well-balanced on a scooter. He begs to go out everyday. There is a dead end street right in front of our house, so he spends tons of time scootering around in the front.
Hyrum loves going to Grandma H's house more than pretty much anywhere else. When I volunteer in Christian's classroom, Hyrum gets to spend an hour or two with Grandma. He is thrilled to go and hang out with her. I love that they have this time to spend together. It is so special that they can make these memories, just the two of them. They make cookies, go for walks, and play toys. Grandma makes him feel important, and Hyrum has always been able to make others feel important because he loves them so much and shows it. He made these pumpkin cookies for his brothers and was so happy to bring them home to share.
One of Hyrum's talents is talking. He can talk your ear off for hours at a time if you will let him. When I am driving the boys to school, he talks the whole time and wants my full attention. It's so hard to concentrate on driving when he is yelling "Mom?" and asking questions in his high-pitched little voice. He is the most outgoing of our kids and will quickly adjust to strangers and want attention from them. Uncle Darell and Aunt Gayle came to stay the night with us, and he immediately took a liking to Uncle Darell. It probably helps that he looks just like Grandpa C. Uncle Darell read him a few books, and Hyrum was hooked. He talked with him for 30 minutes straight, while running around the room, showing him how to jump, talking about his Halloween costume, etc. When he left the room, Hyrum kept saying, "Where's Uncle Darell? Where's Uncle Darell?"
After talking so much and playing so hard, he gets tired. For a while, he was refusing to take naps and was falling asleep all over the house. I'd find him asleep on the couch, asleep watching cartoons, and almost always asleep in the car while we went to pick up the boys from school. I decided that we would just have to push through this phase and get him to keep taking naps. Every afternoon, we take naps together in his room. I lay on the floor of his room until he goes to sleep and then I either stay and take a nap myself or go get stuff done for an hour while he is napping. The extra time that it takes to get him to nap is sooooo worth it. He is so much happier and much more able to make it until bedtime without a meltdown.
One of the hardest things for Hyrum right now is that he is scared of monsters, ghosts, shadows, etc. His older brothers have made things worse by teasing him and making spooky sounds around him to scare him. He has started to have dreams about these things, and it is making it really hard for him to get a good night's sleep. He has to have a night light in his room, his closet doors open (Monsters Inc. was not a good idea!), and the bathroom light on. Even then, he still comes in our room almost every night. He will repeat what we have told him, "There's no such thing as monsters and there's no such thing as ghosts," but he is still apprehensive. Hopefully this phase will pass quickly so we can get a good night's sleep again.
And Some Current Favorites:
TV Show: Paw Patrol, Super Why!
Food: Smoothies, bread, raisins, pizza, anything sweet
Color: Orange or Yellow
Song: "Follow the Prophet" (we listen to it on repeat while going to bed)
Friend: Lizzy Vom Lehn, and his cousins Caleb and Bridger
Toy: Magnetiles, train tracks, cars
Book: Puppy Birthday to You!
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