Life at 3

1. My parents came to visit this weekend and my dad was joking with Lucas on Friday night saying that he (Lucas) was a monkey. Lucas protested that he was not a monkey but a little boy. Dad was joking that he had a tail and it was just covered by his pants. Then we moved on. Monkeys were not mentioned again. Until. Out of the blue on Sunday at lunch Lucas put his butt up in the air towards my dad and said, "Gramps, I'm a little boy. Not a monkey. See, I don't have a tail, I have a bootie."

2. Generally when Lucas wakes up from his nap, he stirs a bit then yells down "Mama/Dada I'm awake!" In fact, he got really mad at me the other day when I heard him stir and went upstairs before he called for me. Yesterday Abel and I caught up on the season 3 premier of Big Love during Lucas's nap time and were savoring some Sunday afternoon lazy TV watching. I thought I heard him stir, but he never yelled down, so neither of us went up to get him. Then, suddenly it dawned on me that I was hearing cartoon voices through the monitor. I went up and Lucas was sprawled on the guest bed with his arms behind his head watching TV! When I asked why he didn't yell down to tell us that he was awake, he said, "Because, Mo-om, I was tiptoeing!" I called him a sneaky Pete and he replied, quite indignantly: "I'm Lucas not Pete!"

3. Lucas can and does divide the entire world into Dada items, Mama items and Kinky items: large, medium and small, respectively. Anytime there are three of something they are always "Dada, Mama and Kinky". If there are three trees they are Dada tree, Mama tree and Kinky tree. If we drive by a big backhoe and a small backhoe then they are "Dada Scoop" and "Kinky Scoop" (Just as Handy Manny has turned all hammers into "Pat", Bob the Builder has renamed all construction vehicles into names like Scoop, Muck and Dizzy.)


Edited to add: It's funny, I thought I was just writing three cute little stories about Lucas being a 3 year old. But, after hitting publish, I realized these really illustrate his qualities right now at 1 month into being 3: very literal, getting more and more independent (and a little sneaky!), and a strong desire to categorize everything.