Three

Hopper is three today. THREE.

I don't know if having two little boys makes the time seem to go that much faster or that much slower. All I know is that one day he wasn't much more than a baby and the next day, he's telling me not to sing in the car because "It's not your turn, Mommy, It's not your TURN" which is just his somewhat diplomatic way of saying that he doesn't want something to happen. Instead of yelling NO, he'll say it isn't someone's TURN. This term can apply to people, episodes of nature such as Nightime or scheduling concepts. (No, NO Bedtime, it is not YOUR TURN).

(Between you and me, I'm secretly beginning to suspect that it's never gonna be my turn.)

He runs super fast and has no discernible fear of heights; however, he remains convinced that his teeth are getting wiggly, and that if I roll down the car windows he's going to fall out. 

He points out the stars and the moon and if you ask him where we live he says "PLANET EARF".Then he will pick up my cell phone and say, "Hello? Giant Robot? Where are you?"   He has a lot of phone conversations with giant robots.

He has friends. They're mostly girls, I think because they don't try to take away his trains. You take away the trains and you're ON THE LIST.

The train obsession: it's a big one. He got angry at me for an entire afternoon once because I wouldn't steer the car around the barriers at the railroad crossing and follow the train down the tracks.  

Sometimes (ok, a lot of times) he has to be reminded to be gentle...be quiet...which makes it ironic when he gets on to me for making Rowan stop playing in the dog bowl.  "He doesn't like that mommy. Be GENTLE." Alright son, we'll see how gentle that bacterial infection is gonna be. He alternates between being Rowan's advocate and bonking him on the head. He's learning which one garners him less Time Out.

If I had to pick my favorite part of Hopper turning three its that we talk. We talk about the books we read. We talk about trains. We talk about his day.  He'll tell me about the helicopters hovering "right behind you mommy, they're RIGHT BEHIND YOU." And if I can't see them, it's just that "they're going too fast, Mommy, TOO FAST."

YOU'RE going too fast, kid...  THREE, for crissakes.... Sigh.