I can't believe that I have a 3 year old.  How did that happen?  This year it's really hitting me that I don't have a little baby any more.  It really goes by too fast.  I feel like the first year I barely remember and then the second year flew by too fast.  This past year was definitely the year of the terrible twos.  Luckily it's also been filled with lots of memories that I can look back on and truly appreciate.  Jack has really grown into his own little person in the last 12 months.  As a first time parent it's finally clicking that I need to just stress less and soak in all these days with him while he's little like this.
There are so many things that I want to remember about Jack right now.  He is so full of life.  He is always acting something out in his head.  I love the way he says "Thank you mommy, your welcome" or "Hello boys and girls" or "hey what's going on here".  He has so many cute catch phrases that he says right now.  He's really getting good at talking, which makes it a little easier at times.  He's a very sweet little boy.  As active as he is, he always stops to give me a hug and a kiss.  He's still a pretty big mommy's boy.  He's always with me and he watches everything I do, which he sometimes acts out.
Jack has been loving his school this last year.  Last year he made the big move from the infant room to the toddler room and it took him a while to adjust, but now he runs the class.  He loves learning.  His teachers tell me that circle time is his favorite time of the day.  He has a photographic memory and if you tell him something once, he remembers it.  He's known the entire alphabet since he was 18 months old.  People are always impressed and they ask me what we did to teach him.  I tell them YouTube kids.  He just memorized the letters from watching videos, plus he has a lot of letter puzzles and letter toys to play with. 

Taking pictures with a letter board and a letter obsessed child does not work.

There are still a lot of challenges with Jack.  His tantrums are becoming less often, but when he has them now, they are much more intense.  I've been a lot more patient with him lately, because he has more words and can actually tell me what he wants now.  I've been using a lot of the techniques that I use at work with my preschool children and he's been responding pretty well to it.  All my training in Positive Behavior Support is really paying off.  It still is hard for me though.  Jack is extremely stubborn and a little OCD.  Things have to go just perfectly and if they don't, he has a complete melt down and we have to repeat everything from the beginning.  One morning he had a meltdown because all week long I wore my blue winter coat to work, and on Friday it was a little warmer outside, so I wore a different coat.  He threw himself down on the ground and I had to carry him to the car kicking and screaming.  He cried all the way to school.  All because I wasn't wearing my blue coat.  Night time is when I lose my temper the most with him, because he fights me on bed time sometimes.  He wants to stay up until 10 or 11, but I try to get him in bed between 8:30 and 9.  I'm hoping once we get him a big boy bed this year he will sleep better.  I'm praying he will, because having a child who does not sleep through the night, has been the hardest part of parenting so far.

We are trying to start potty training, but that's not going so well.  Jack wants nothing to do with the potty.  I try to get him to sit on it as often as I can, but he fights me.  When I ask him if he wants to sit on the potty he quickly responds with "nope".  I'm pretty sure he will learn how to read before he learns to poop in the toilet.  I'm praying that when he's ready it just clicks, but for now it's a big frustration for me.

Even though it's not always easy, I honestly don't know how I ever lived without this little angle in my life.  He fills my world with love.  I say this all the time, but there is no grater title I have than being "Jack's mom".