Texas Schleichers: Ian turns three and a half!

Our oldest boy is now 3 ½! It has been fun to watch how his personality and imagination and mind have grown, even just over the past six months!

Ian is much more willing to go places without us, like to Sunday school or a friend’s house. As long as Ian knows what to expect, he can handle it well! He is finally starting to participate by doing some actions and singing along with the songs in Sunday school, even though he’s been singing them at home for months! :)

Not only does Ian WANT to do many things on his own, he now IS able to do them! He loves getting his milk out of the fridge, getting himself undressed and undressed, turning on the lights (he can actually reach the switches when he’s on tiptoe!), putting on his shoes, and washing his hands. He is so proud of being able to “read” with a book on CD and turning the pages when the bell chimes. He loves choosing his own books when we go to the library. In typical three year old fashion, though, he’ll swing back and forth between wanting to be completely independent and wanting us to help him with nearly everything.

Ian’s love for stories about “a girl named Sally who’s a bad listener” has continued. Now, though, Ian prefers to have all stories end tragically. For example, Bad Listener Sally breaks her favorite doll but no one can fix it, all the stores have run out of dolls, and Sally has to live the rest of her life without a doll. Very sad. :)

There are some things that haven’t changed much. Ian’s love for literacy continues. He still looks forward to being read to multiple times every day. He’s fascinated with letters, often spelling out words that he sees while we’re driving around and wanting to know what they spell. He is proud that he can determine the beginning sound of many words, and will randomly report things like, “There’s a tree. Tree begins with T!” He still is a huge fan of rhyming as well and currently thinks the song “Down by the Bay” is hilarious. He loves to come up with his own rhymes for the part, “Have you ever seen a ___ down by the bay?” His rhymes aren’t always real words, but he thinks they’re hilarious!

For a while, he was on a kick of abbreviating everyone’s name. We were “Ma” and “Da” and Ryan was either “Ry-Ry” or “Little ‘nel” (short for Ryan-el). Now he’s back to calling his friends and our extended family by their full names, but we’re “Mom” and “Dad” almost as often as we are “Momma” and “Daddy.” (Kind of sad!) Lately, Ian’s comments crack us up so often. For example …

· “Look, Ma! A dead bandaid!” (when he noticed a bandaid lying next to the trashcan outside)

· “You don’t love me TOO much!” (when Kim said that she loved Ian too much to let him ride in the car without being strapped into the carseat)

· “And … I love myself!” (after our typical “Momma loves you, Daddy loves you, Ryan loves you, and Jesus loves you most of all” line at bedtime)

· “That’s NOT a dump truck. That’s an articulated truck!” (while in the car)

· “I’ll just pretend like I’m three.” (after being asked what it felt like to be 3 ½ )

· “Can I have another scoop of ice cream because I was helpful at Ryan’s doctor’s appointment?” (replace ice cream with ANY treat and Ryan’s doctor’s appointment with ANYTHING he thinks is a milestone or accomplishment … we’ve got a master negotiator on our hands!)

Ian still likes to be wherever Momma or Daddy is, especially if it means helping with a chore. He loves yard work, cooking, baking, dusting, vacuuming, washing things, helping to pull the car into the garage (while sitting on our lap), and sweeping. Sometimes Momma will give Ian a choice of what he’d like to do with her while Ryan is napping. Ian will often choose a project like dusting over playing with toys!

In general, Ian still seems to be in a time of testing the limits and exploring boundaries. He’ll sometimes get a little overzealous with Ryan or deliberately poke/pester/annoy Ryan just to get our attention. He has just realized that there are “good” and “bad” things to say and carefully watches our reaction when he’ll say something that he knows he shouldn’t (and doesn’t even mean), like calling another person “a piece of junk.” Some days involve a lot of redirection and timeouts, but other days (especially days when he has gotten adequate sleep :)) we see the same ol’ eager-to-please, happy, compliant, excellent big-brother Ian! Let’s just say we’re certainly thankful our Heavenly Father is guiding us along every step of this parenting journey. Parenting is definitely challenging, humbling, puzzling, wonderful, and thrilling all at the same time.

Some of Ian’s favorites include pickles, noticing hitches on various trucks & SUVs, trains, Curious George, his fireman rain boots, flashlights, Duplo blocks, and vehicles of all kinds. He still loves playing outside and most prefers tricycling, playing with the hose, or sweeping with Daddy’s big push broom while outdoors.

We can hardly remember what life was like before God sent us our precious firstborn son. Ian has taught us so much and brought us so much joy! We love you, little man!

We celebrated Ian's half birthday by going with Ian's friend Caleb to Bouncin' Bears and then having half-sprinkled cupcakes at home ...