My little baby turned THREE a few weeks ago.

This is what he looked like at TWO years old.

This is when he was a ONE year old.

This is him at 7 months.

And this was him at 4 months.

Gah, it makes my heart weep to scroll through these photos. Because that’s how fast the years seemed to have flown by – ZOOM.

Anyway, turning THREE was a very exciting moment for Liam. We have been talking about the BIG THREE, for months. We talked up all the cool things that would happen to him.

On the day of his actual birthday, I made him whatever he wanted to eat for dinner.

It turned out to be meatballs and jam.

Which ain’t so bad. Nutritionally, it could have been worse, like toffee popcorn and fish fingers? Or mud pies and bubblegum?

Speaking about nutritional disasters. I bought him a mini dinosaur cake to have that evening (we were going to hold a huge birthday celebration, with a big-ass ice cream cake, on another date).

It wasn’t actually a cake… they were two dino-donuts in his favourite colours (pink and blue). At $2.80 each it was the best birthday cake ever. Ha!

You cannot believe how sparkly-eyed-and-twinkly-toed-excited he was about these dinosaurs!

He was sooooooo happy. He blew out the candles, shouted “THE BLUE ONE IS MINE!!”, grabbed the blue one, and chomped off his head in 2 seconds flat.

I was very quick to laugh at myself – Ahhh, I believe my first and second children had cakes made by me, from scratch, with all organic ingredients, and with no artificial food colourings.

They were lovingly cut and shaped into a creative 3D form (a duck, a plane, a train, spiderman) and painstakingly decorated the night before. And my poor third child? He gets pre-made meatballs and some counter-bought donuts for his birthday… *Chuckle*

Starting School

Liam has been itching to turn 3 so that he could go to school, just like his older brothers.

But now that he is finally 3, he FRICKING HATES SCHOOL.

Trying to *get* to his pre-kindergarten session is a huge drama. He wails and screams at home. He rolls on the floor and flops his body over bits of furniture. He throws his head and arms about as I change him into his kindy clothes. Shoes and socks are impossible. The sight of his Kindy drink bottle makes him howl like you won’t believe.

He cries and shouts, “I DON’T WANT TO GO TO KINDEEEE. AAAARRRGHHH! I WANT TO STAY HOME WITH MUMMMMYYY! I DON’T WANT TO GO! PLEASE DON’T LEAVE ME THERE! STAY WITH ME DON’T GOOOOO!! AAAAAAHHH!!!” And it just goes on and on and on.

He fully does the whole spider monkey trick when I’m trying to take him out of the car – wrapping his arms, fingers, legs and toes around anything that he can grab. And I have to pry off his fingers off various objects, one at a time.

Then he has his hands and legs extended out and flapping around like a crazy starfish while I walk, which makes it impossible to move gracefully into the school building.

All the other mums in the car park look at me empathetically. They all have nice and encouraging things to say, that make me feel a little better.

The teachers are WONDERFULLY nice too. My kid is screaming and shouting at the top of his lungs FOR THEM TO GO TO HELL and yet they scoop him kindly into their arms, while I say bye and make a run for it.

Sigh. It is *such* a horrible feeling. I am completely filled with self-doubt. Maybe I got it all wrong, maybe he really is too young? Maybe he is better off at home? Maybe all those parenting experts are right about kids staying home longer? Maybe we’ll wait one more term until he’s a bit older? Or more mature? You’d think that –me– after having 2 other kids, I would know how to handle all this. Nup. I just feel like shit.

Having said that…

When I go pick him up AFTER pre-kindy, he’s like all best buddies with the teachers, telling jokes with them, smiling, giggling, and he is happy as can be. He skips into my arms with the biggest, proudest and happiest smile on his face ever. He has stories to tell me, craft to show me and paintings to explain to me.

So he IS actually having a good and valuable time there. And this pre-kindergarten is one of the best in the area, with excellent teachers and wonderful facilities. So I guess deep down, I DO feel good about it, and I DO feel that I’ve made the best decision for my son. I just wish he didn’t have to string me along his emotional episodes!

Overall… Liam is still super active, super mischievous, super talkative and super loud. And yet he is a sweet little kid and always soooo adorable and funny. Liam has a big personality and I love him dearly!