To my Incredible Boy on his Third Birthday

Dear Griffin,

It blows my mind that you're three. How can that possibly be when I remember holding tiny you, just fresh home from the hospital like it was yesterday? Wasn't it just a few weeks ago that you first learned to walk, that you learned to say "mama"?

But it must be true. You're such a KID now. Not a baby, not even a toddler... you're a rough and tumble boy. You're all about tackles, jumping, climbing and sliding. You're getting so tall your pants are all too short on you. This also means that you're counter height so you're like a large dog the way you surf them for items of interest. You're so self sufficient, still demanding you do everything YOURSELF, only now you're getting to the point where you actually CAN! You've gone from short conversations to telling full blown stories, complete with characters and sound effects. And you love your crew of friends. Your Tommy and Tanner and Brandon and Everett. You come home from school so excited about what you got to do with them that day. I hope you get to keep them forever.

Like just about every other kid, you're picky. You hate 90% of the dinners I make, and I can count on my hand the food items that I *know* you'll eat. Just today I asked what you wanted for dinner- I said we could go ANYWHERE or I would make ANYTHING- whatever your heart desires. You asked me for toaster waffles. Quite the refined palate, my friend.

You love to get ready with me in the morning- picking out your clothes, brushing your teeth and combing your hair. Sometimes you ask if you can wear some of my make up and while I usually tell you that your face is so perfect without it, sometimes I indulge you and pretend to brush on blush or mascara. Don't worry- I've never sent you to school looking too fancy. It is your job to let Scarlett outside and then bring her back in. And you have also decided that you are in charge of opening Evvie's door in the morning (which is an important job, to be sure).

You're almost potty trained. ALMOST. You're just stubborn enough to understand that's a little bit of extra effort on your part so sometimes you just pass... It's ok, I know we'll get there. But in the meantime, you are SO PROUD to put on underpants and you want to show everyone when you HAVE gone potty (even though we'd be just as happy without inspecting it...)

You are so smart. So crazy, amazingly smart. Your dad and I are so impressed every single day. Of course you know your letters and numbers- you have forever. But now you can count to 10 in Spanish! You whip through puzzles and tangrams so quickly with no help from us. You can pick out Colorado, Ohio and Connecticut on a map and tell us who lives where. And you remember a crazy amount of random facts- like the Sphinx is a statue of a lion and a person. I mean, WHAT? You're just the coolest boy.

You love story time. You get two every night, but you always try to weasel in a third. And lately you've started reading to Evvie which she maintains an odd attention span for. It's such an important and beneficial love to have. Nurture that- it will serve you well in the future.

Speaking of Evvie- I cant tell you how much my heart grows every single day watching you two. Because you don't just tolerate each other, you ADORE each other. You really are best friends. You make each other laugh, you want to be around each other, you share your toys, you play together, you do what you can to protect her... its absolutely incredible. I'm so proud of the way you accepted such a big change and the ways you showed us what a loving, sweet, good person you are.

You ARE such a big kid. But you'll always be my baby. The other day as we were walking in to school, you fell and skinned your knee. You dusted yourself off and pretended like you were ok because other people were around, but I could see the tears shimmering in your eyes just waiting to fall. I gave you a big hug and told you that you were brave. But then you just weren't quite ready to let go of my hand. You lingered next to me longer than usual, you weren't interested in your friends or the Legos. In that moment, you just needed your mommy and know you were safe. You just needed a second to regroup and be yourself. And if you grow up knowing anything, I hope it is that. That no matter how big you are, I am still your mommy. You can hold my hand as long as you need to.

I love you more than there are stars in the sky. Happy happy birthday.

mama