It's been so long. I have a sticky with notes but I'm not sure if I have written about them already. I'm going to assume not. Sorry if I have already written about these things!
You have a dinosaur water bottle that you are pretty attached to, especially a few months ago. We simply refer to it as your "dinosaurs." We lose it a lot.
You've been obsessed with Avengers for a long time now. I'm not sure how you got into it. I think you stumbled on some YouTube videos. I got into the bad habit of letting you wonder around YouTube. It started because you wouldn't hold still for diaper changes. I was tired of the constant struggle.
Then this past year, I've let you watch YouTube as I work in the mornings. Bria would be at preschool. You and I would hang out on my bed--me working and you perusing YouTube. I figured I was around and could stop inappropriate videos. Still. I know you're not watching quality programming and we've been working on reducing your time on YouTube. I'd love for you to watch Netflix shows.
Anyway, you started out by doing Hulk Smash. You would proclaim in a low voice, "Hulk Smash!" You would bang your fist on the ground and it was the cutest thing ever. Your favorite color is green thanks to that. Although your second favorite color is red. You've branched out to liking Spiderman and Ironman. Marshall is your favorite pup from Paw Patrol.
You've discovered Paw Patrol this year, too. You are the cutest. For the longest time you would refer to our Paw Patrol toys as "my pups."
One of my favorite things is to ask you your name. You used to come up with different thing. Somedays you were Hulk Smash and other days Spiderman. For the past few months, you've been Marshall. I love this game and I ask you your name all of the time. Meanwhile, Dad never asks you your name and had no clue that your favorite pup was Marshall. I was just talking to Dad about this and he asked me, "Why would I ask Crew his name?!" Apparently only I do that. Ha, ha. I do it everyday though.
You love to snuggle and have me hold you. This was more months ago but you would constantly walk up to me and proclaim, "Hold me!" This was cute and aggravating as it usually happened when I was trying to prepare dinner or get something done.
You still nap and you need to be snuggled for at least thirty minutes after a nap. There's no point fighting this cuddle time because otherwise you are a sobbing mess. You need the snuggle.
We've been potty training your for about five/six weeks. You've been the worst! You do not care about potty training. You're fine wearing diapers. Dirty underwear doesn't bother you at all. Your potty training motivation is completely external.
I've spent a small fortune on toy rewards. We would do a sticker chart and you would earn stickers each time you went to the bathroom. After you filled the chart, you got a toy. We ran out of toys a few weeks ago.
What's working right now is mints (you call them nips) and YouTube on the phone. I know, we're trying to cut down on that. But potty training comes first! I would not call you potty trained even after all of this time. You have some really bad days with accidents. Then you'll go three or four days with no accidents.
I've been tempted many times to put you back in diapers. What stops me? When you wore diapers, you went poop on average 4-8 times a day! I've cried many tears from your lack of potty training motivation and mass number of poopy diapers. We tried potty training you back in March when you turned three. That was a clear failure. Thus, we waited until June. I'm done though! I would much rather feed you mints and YouTube videos for forever than deal with endless poop diapers. I can handle cleaning pee pee accidents over never ending poo poo diapers.
Although you've started going poop in your Pull Up in the morning. Where's your sense of hygiene, kid?! Dad and I haven't braved nighttime potty training. You always wake up with a VERY full diaper and now Pull Up.
You say some cute things. Your talking is not the greatest. The pediatrician said that a stranger should be able to understand 80% of what you're saying. Um, yeah, that's not happening. You say "Giggles" for "tickles." My favorite is that you say "hugs and misses" for "hugs and kisses."
You lost your second toenail last month. (You lost one last year, too. Your sisters and brother haven't lost a single nail.) You dropped our laptop on your toe. Ouch. Your toenail took FOREVER to fall off. Meanwhile, you kept snagging your partially uplifted toenail on EVERYTHING. You cried so much over that dang toenail. I told you that you were going to lose it and you did not believe me.
When the toenail was hanging on by a thread, you kept dislodging it so that it would stand vertical on your toe instead of horizontal. We tried to bandage it but that only offered so much protection. The second time the nail went vertical, I quickly tore it off.
Your toe distressed you quite a bit without the nail. The first two days it looked gnarly, all pink and puffy. When we asked you what happened to your toe, you would exclaim, "It's turning pink!" You said this as if the color was the problem. Your toenail is slowly growing back. I still ask everyday about your toe just to hear you say, "It's turning pink!"
Personality-wise, you are proving to be determined and headstrong. You are my only kid who figured out how to buckle himself into a five point harness carseat. This is nice but also bad when we start driving before double checking that you've buckled yourself in. You and Akarie are very similar in personality. Dad gives me a hard time about our blonde-haired children because you are hard to parent.
I love you, Crew. You've been a fun kid. Fun and hard. You do cause a lot of trouble and have broken a lot of things. Thankfully that's calmed down a bit. The only trouble you've been in recently that I can think off the top of my head is that you have drawn on the wall a couple of times.
I love you,
~Mom
