Wednesday, July 17, 2024

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. 

19 comments:

  1. What a great recap of life at 3.5. There are always ups and downs and favourite/least-favourite parts to each stage. The cuddles are amazing at that stage (though it's easy to feel "touched out"). Thankfully, I still have one kid who LOVES to snuggle and wants nothing more than really long snuggles each night.

    Pretend play is adorable (and I loved it as long as my kids didn't need me to participate because I'm HORRIBLE at pretend play and last about 2 minutes before losing my mind).

    Yay that potty training is done! And yay that the dreaded drop of the final nap is done. It's so hard to lose that down time in the day but it does make logistic easier + bedtime much faster!

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  2. My two boys are now almost 8 and 10 and boy do I not miss the toddler years! My second was strong willed and a late talker and everything was so challenging with him. I can look at pictures and get whatever I’m missing without the hard parts! I truly feel it just keeps getting better and better and every age is my new favorite!

    I love the Mickey love! My 10 year old has loved “squishies” (any ball/figure of gel or foam that you can squeeze) since he was little! My 7 year old will only wear athletic type clothes and prefers shirts with a sport on it, especially anything for our school (between brother, friends and my husband coaching, we have lots of school gear!) I love seeing their personalities and preferences come thru and seeing the people they are becoming!

    The sand would drive me nuts too! I can’t imagine having to deal with that on a daily basis!

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  3. I love the pics of the bros together-- they remind me so much of Harry and Jack at those ages. Minnie weighs TEN POUNDS MORE than Taco, and I bet she is shorter LOL. Coop used to self-sooth by touching my eyelashes when he was little-- I forgot all about that until I read this-- so, I mean, he'll grow out of all the touching.

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  4. Happy 3.5 to Taco! Just as an aside, I think the posts that we think might be boring are exactly the posts that all of us should be writing. What's the point of having a blog if you're not writing the posts that you want to write? And also - NOT BORING.

    I love the Starbucks tradition. Yes the sandbox is annoying but if he didn't have it he'd just find something else that was messy. And yes yes yes to all play everyday at his age. The interest in reading will come when it is supposed to.

    I came along when the boys were 5 and 8, so I missed the early years but the grade school years were a ton of fun. Each stage of life brings its own challenges and delights.

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  5. I find these posts fascinating and I love "knowing" your kiddos through your blog! Taco is such a sweetheart. Love all the photos of him -- he is so smiley in photos now!

    Being done with diapers and a crib is so wonderful.

    I am highly prone to nostalgia, and if I look at photos of my kid at 3.5, I get a little misty eyed. But if I really THINK about that time, there is very little I would return to. So much chaos! So much energy required to parent and entertain! In a lot of ways, things do get easier. Maybe more complicated, but easier, if that makes sense at all? I have truly loved every stage more than the previous one, and I hope that trend continues.

    LOL that your watch gives you a loud environment notification around the boys.

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  6. I've always loved these posts. And they are especially helpful now that I'm in the thick of the baby stage. I'll probably go through your Paul posts again to see when you were pregnant with Taco, because right now it feels impossible to have a 2nd child to care for. I cannot wait to see what "thing" (Mickey, firetruck, etc) Joe decides is his thing. Right now I'm mostly buy solid color clothes so that if I have a 2nd and it's a girl I can mix and match the clothes I currently have.

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  7. I love these posts and do not find them boring at all! You will really appreciate having these details written down in the years to come. I didn't start my blog until 2008, when my kids were 3 and 4, and I wish I had more of a record of their younger years. As it is, 2004-2007 are pretty much a blur! I don't remember the playgroups having a sandbox but I do remember the water tables, and that was a messy experience for sure!

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  8. Aw this is so sweet. I'm right there with you on the little kid years being not my fave (as we've discussed via BOBW patreon a few times) but I must say the one thing I really miss is the double bath. That was the cutest and my girls would play so well together. And I could contain them while I drank wine on a hard day. No longer as they are 7 and 9. My younger one still loves baths but it's not nearly the same. And the sandbox story cracked me up so much! For our family it's the wood chips at school. They.are.everywhere. So over them!

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  9. I did all those recaps for Sofia but then stopped for lizzy as life got busy. It'd be great if I continued as now my memory about lizzy milestones are very fuzzy. So keep it up!
    the first 5 years of kids life change so much from month to month, then it slowdown.

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  10. Maddy has the same attitude about letters. She also refuses to sing ABCs and will say “nahhh…let’s sing a different song. I don’t like that song” 🤦🏻‍♀️

    He and Maddy would be 2 peas in a pod with the make believe play! It is wild you have two “big” kids on your hands! I am so with you on being ready to move forward- the baby stage is so very hard for me. It’s sweet and special, but I’ll take a toddler any day over a crying baby.

    Love watching Will grow!

    - Abby

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  11. Soak up the cuddles! That is definitely one thing about this phase that I miss now. And, right around the age of 4 is when I felt a big shift with my kids, when things suddenly felt WAY easier. So, it's coming!
    I wouldn't worry one bit or push Taco to learn his letters. All kids are different, but boys are usually too young at that age for anything academic. There is plenty of time, he'll start reading when he's ready and he will NOT be behind! The preschool my kids went to was very play-oriented as opposed to academic, and they both did just fine in regular school.
    I love the Mickey shirts :)

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  12. "He still hates mornings." Oh, Taco, friend, me too. Preach it.

    Done with diapers! What a HUGE moment. Think of all the timesaving!

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  13. LOL, for a minute I forgot Taco's name is actually Will and NOT Taco until I read your sister's comment. Oh, right!! I love that he's Taco on the blog.

    He has PLENTY of time to spend doing education-based skills. At three, being a kid and engaging in lots of playtime is perfect!

    HOORAY for being done with diapers and cribs. What a great feeling!

    Taco and Paul wrestling reminds me of Kelsey talking on the Girl Next Door podcast about the WWE matches her older boys have at nighttime. So I guess you should just prepare for MORE wrestling!

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  14. So many thoughts. Well done, big guy! 3.5 is no small feat ;) Congrats on being diaper-free, what a relief! I don't miss that part of parenting (potty-training), like, at all.
    L was a thumb-sucker to self-soothe, R is a rocker- he rocks his head side to side thus putting himself to sleep. I tried it...feels kind of good ;)

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  15. Happy half-birthday to Taco! He's too darned cute for words and every new batch of photos shows change -- they do so much at that age. Hopefully, the dislikes will be fewer (or more manageable) with every passing month!

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  16. Aww love those Taco updates. Wish I could get our boys together one day - they are similar I think.
    Owen also loves Paw Patrol (his favourites are Rubble and Everest!).
    Hooray for no more diapers (or nappies as we say in Oz), Owen also trained right around April or May I reckon!
    We are in the process of dropping the nap and I’m enjoying the earlier bedtime!

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  17. I love the obsession with Mickey, it's just too cute!!! Regarding the wrestling, I can always identify a younger sibling vs an only child in the nursery. Younger siblings are used to having to hold their own and it is very obvious! Hopefully the bed transition goes super smoothly!!!

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  18. Taco definitely seems high-touch, but he also seems to be making great developmental progress! (I would completely lose it if a kid wanted to be plastered to me 24/7, so I admire your ability to see the positives in it!)

    I kind of hope he stays Mickey-obsessed for a very. long. time. That means, of course, that you'll probably have to hit Disney at some point. I'm sorry. ;)

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  19. I love that you keep these detailed recaps about your boys. They'll be so fun to look back on when they're older. He's so cute and it's so interesting how different he is from Paul. But that's how it goes with siblings!

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