The age of why’s and because

My son turned 3 a few days ago. Might sound odd, but I was looking forward to it. He’s at this interesting, talkative, thoughtful, engaging, but all with a hint of rebellion and tantrums age. The why age. Get dressed! Why? Eat your food. Why? Stop hitting your sister, it hurts. Why? Stop stuffing Playdoh in your Legos! Why? Omg! Stop pouring milk on our sheets!!! Why? It’s… non-stop. There is truly never a dull moment and I get it now. I’ve been forewarned by other mothers and I finally get it. It’s beautiful. And crazy… but beautiful. Sort of. Maybe? They’re little ticking time bombs. A full melt down can surprise-attack you at any given moment and over anything. I mean anything. Dear mamas before me, I get it now. However, the main reason I was looking forward to this age was because we now have relatively informative, and sometimes very insightful, conversations. I actually tried to remember some of our engaging convos, but mommy brain is productively at work, so here’s a couple of his short observations for giggles…

While hiking on our day trip, hubby decides to ‘get back to nature’ by relieving his bladder on the side of the trail. Bosh goes to stand beside him and looks attentively at hubby’s hosing execution. As hubby winds down to a finish, Bosh points at his stream and encourages, “Daddy! You would be a great fireman!” 

We listen to a lot of pop music together and among the many that he likes, there is a song called, Lust for Life, by Lana Del Rey and The Weekend. There’s a line in the chorus that says, “take off, take off, take off all your clothes.” When this particular song came on the radio he was ecstatic and he recognizes it right away. We ask him what the song is called and he screams with excitement, “Take off your pants!!!” 

I take them to Monkey Mania (kids indoor playground) often. Almost weekly, because I get coupons and deals for it whenever I can. The kids absolutely love it and I love it because it keeps them busy and active. It’s securely gated and I can catch up with friends or my work (social media time) over a coffee. One day, Bosh met a little girl and they were inseparable. They were in the “racetrack” riding around in their Fisher Price and Little Tikes and I see little girl standing on the back of his car. He tuk tuks with his feet around the course and he stops and gets out of the car. I usually leave him to play but I decided to be present at that moment and ask him what happened. He replies, “mommy, I’m out of petrol! I need to pour petrol so I can drive my girlfriend home!” 

These are the little bloopers I get to hear now. They’re entertaining and awe inspiring, as any mother of 3 year olds can confirm. I had the opportunity to take him and his sister to the aquarium for his birthday so they could find Nemo and Dory and it was such a fun experience even for me. Their curious nature and simple observations really puts things in perspective. Especially now that he can communicate kind of clearly, I find myself holding on a little more. I am feeling the bittersweetness of our children growing up. I feel it mamas. I am not looking forward to him outgrowing me. Not looking forward to the day he no longer needs me to take him out. How does one deal with all these emotions?