Taco at 3.5

I’m a little overdue in capturing who Taco is at 3.5 but better late than never! I recognize that these posts might be boring for others but it’s been a great way to capture my boys’ childhoods. I often go back and read them because the details can be very foggy but they are likely a snooze for others.

Taco continues to be our big-hearted snuggly little guy with BIG FEELINGS who gives the absolute best hugs. He needs so many hugs and kisses and squeezes before he leaves the house with Phil on the days I don’t do drop off. He is my stage 5 clinger that just can’t get close enough. He's the kid that will stroke my skin while I sing bedtime songs to him in the rocking chair. Can anyone say Oedipus complex? ;) 

Growth: He weighs about 33 pounds so is just a few pounds lighter than Paul. He mostly wears size 3T but definitely has a slim waist so needs elastic waist bands or the shorts will fall off. He has a very long torso so wears some 4T tops.

Likes:

- He is still obsessed with Mickey. He wears a Mickey shirt almost daily and has 2 different Mickey stuffies that he sleeps with.

Wearing one of Mickey shirts while playing with Mickey toys. He would prefer to only wear Mickey shirts.

- Popsicles are his favorite summer treat but he also loves ice cream. 

Note that he is wearing a Mickey shirt in this photo. I had to buy 3 Mickey shirts for the summer.

- He loves going to Starbucks for a cake pop. I love this tradition, too, as I get a latte typically.

- He is very into his stuffies. He sleeps with so many different stuffed animals. He also likes to take his stuffies places. 

Bear enjoyed a stroller ride to Starbucks.

Showing sock monkey the costumed geese

- He has gotten very into Paw Patrol lately. Chase and Marshall are his favorite pups. 

- He is very into pretend play which is a delight to observe.

Chef Taco at your service!

Dislikes:

- He still hates mornings. 

Eating: He’s a pretty good eater overall. He definitely eats way more things than Paul does. His favorite foods are yogurt, cottage cheese, Mac and cheese, Dino-shaped chicken, and pizza. He also loves all kinds of fruit but especially loves apples and blueberries. 

School: He has been happy at his daycare and has made some good friends. We love everything about his daycare EXCEPT THAT THEY HAVE A SANDBOX WHICH IS THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE. We are not a daily bath family since the boys are prone to eczema and we are, well, kind of lazy but frequent baths are necessary since Taco basically rolls around in the sand like a dog, it seems. He loves to take his shoes off in the car and dump the sand out so we've learned to empty the sand from his shoes before he gets in the car. Phil and I joke about what dollar amount we would pay the daycare to remove the sandbox.

His daycare is a lot more play based which I feel is best at this age. Let them play and enjoy life - there will be a time for more academic focus when they are older in my opinion. His teachers are working on letter recognition with him but he just doesn’t seem to have any interest. We try at home too but he has a ‘shoulder shrug emoji’ attitude when we work on letter recognition. Paul was so interested in letters and numbers at this age but I am telling myself that each kid is different and he’ll take interest eventually. We are planning to enroll him at the school-based pre-K program in the fall of 2025 so we figure that program will probably be more academic focused and hopefully by then he'll have more interest in learning his letters. He's definitely more drawn to numbers, though, which isn't surprising given his finance nerd parents. He can count to 20 in English and Spanish and loves to count things. 

Potty training: He potty trained in April and it was pretty easy all in all. We waited until it was clear that he was ready so he took to it very fast! It is wonderful to be done with diapers! 

Sleep: He dropped his nap in June when he started to get up way too early and also fight bedtime. I miss his nap but bedtime is so much easier now and he's not waking before 6 anymore. Once he dropped his nap we got rid of his crib. We were able to pass it along to another family on the block that had a baby this spring so that worked out well. Taco is currently sleeping on a twin mattress on the floor but we orderedg him a bed with a trundle bed that will arrive this weekend. We did the same ‘mattress on the floor’ transition for Paul, too, and it seems to work well. Taco of course has Mickey bedding! 

Brother relationship: The boys mostly play pretty well together but there is of course some fighting over toys. They also like to wrestle which is not my favorite thing because someone always seems to end up crying. 

Bath time shenanigans. Bath time is LOUD. I often get a loud environment notification on my apple watch.

They loved going to Frog and Toad!

My 2 water babies!

It's kind of hard to believe that Taco is over 3.5 years old now but at the same time we also feel like we've felt every day of those 3.5 years if that makes sense? Time is weird. Most of my friends have much older kids and often tell me how I will miss these years. People told me I'd miss the baby years, too, though, and I honestly do not miss that stage. I enjoyed it for what it was and soaked up lots of cuddling and rocking of babies, but was nothing but happy when our kids exited that stage. But I seem to be fairly immune to nostalgia for whatever reason so time will tell if I miss the toddler stage. 

I do feel as though things are getting a little bit easier as Taco approaches age 4, though. So I'm soaking up his cuddles and desire to be as close to me as humanly possible while also recognizing that I seem to be best suited for parenting elementary-aged kiddos.