Embrace Your Fears: Bam turns 3 (unless of course you ask him, in which case he is still 2!)

Bam is his own man. He always has been. If we can keep this up through the troublesome teen years, it will be a good thing. At least that's what I keep telling myself. For now, there are days when it's a good thing to have a strong minded 3 yr old. And then there are the rest of the days . . .

This is him in the midst of his little friend party yesterday. He and his buddies had quite a three year old blowout. There were balloons, and cars and brownies to frost. But, the weather was nice, if a little breezy, and the friends wanted to play outside at some point. Which would have been fine, except that Bam is currently TERRIFIED of wind. That's right. The wind. And breezy counts as wind in his world. Bam's response to wind is to shut any door between him and the out-of-doors. So, not only would he not go outside with his friends, I had to position myself in the door frame to prevent Bam from locking them outside. What a party! But he and they had fun. Because, that is the great thing about 3 year olds: in large part they are so egocentric they fail to even notice anything other than themselves and their own concerns.

This is Bam with his cake: my meager attempts to make the "Lightning McQueen cake" he had requested. When each birthday rolls around, we come to a problem: I have slim to no artistic abilities and my children have such extravagent ideas for their birthday cakes. You might say I could buy a cake. Well, that's when my own prejudices come into play: I really don't like storebought/mix cakes all that much, but I LOVE homemade cakes. So, my children must sacrifice for my lack of artistic merit. But at least it's a tasty sacrifice, because, honestly few things are tastier than a Wellesley Fudge Cake with homemade buttercream icing!

And now to tell you a few things about my little buddy, that I have been saving up for just such an opportunity:

He is a very verbal child, which is fun because he still has that little high pitched baby voice. So when he says things like, "I'm miserable sad mom" when I wake him from an impromptu nap in the car, it tugs my heartstrings. But my favorite was this week. He came to me and gave me a hug, saying "you're my very best girl mom!" I wonder how long I can keep that distinction!

Bam has some unique idiosyncracies. One of which is the "stuff" he sleeps with. None of my children before him have had loveys, blankies or any other kinds of security objects. Bam, all on his own, has them ALL. He sleeps with 1)blankie: a somewhat dingy, (despite washings whenever I can) receiving blanket from his baby days 2) grandma blanket: the quilt his Grandma T. made for him 3) Bob (as in the Builder) and 4) any other things which are important at the moment, ranging from a few of his sister's teddy bears, some rescue hero guys (especially Billy see here) and anything else in which he finds comfort or entertainment at the moment. This stuff is portable. We take it with us on all road trips. But Bam also carts it around for catnapping in front of his favorite programs, whenever he needs comfort and for finding other sleeping locations when his bed just isn't suiting his needs, as here:

As I mentioned before, Billy has been, off and on, a very important part of Bam's entourage. I have several photos of different versions of Billy in our possession, because every time I'm taking a picture of something or someone, Bam sees the need to take a picture of Billy too. So, I thought I could share: