Today is the day that Beau turns 3. But before we look forward to this next year, let’s see how Beau did on the goals we set for him as a 2-year-old…

Goal: Develop his speech
Achieved?: ✔ Beau’s vocabulary and pronunciation exploded as a 2-year-old.

Goal: Practice diplomacy with his sister
Achieved?: 🙈 Debatable…

Goal: Stay out of the ER
Achieved?: ❌ We were on track until Thanksgiving.

Today Beau is 3 years old! (photo courtesy of Nicole Lynn Photos)

So in terms of goals, it was a mixed bag for Beau. But specific benchmarks aside, it was still a year of resounding growth. His cognitive skills increased dramatically, he developed friendships with other children, and he started daycare. His mischievous side that became apparent as a 1-year-old didn’t go anywhere as a 2-year-old but his affectionate side fortunately stuck around too.

Beau was a very active 2-year-old but he remained very affectionate as well.

Beau’s personality and preferences became more pronounced over the past year. He watched a million episodes of “PJ Masks.” He always asked for warm milk in the morning and never turned down a sucker. In terms of real food, he ate chicken nugget after chicken nugget. Play-Doh and balls proved to occupy him…at least for a little bit. He aspired to do everything that his sister and cousins did. He continued to obsess over his grandma.

Beau knows what he likes.

What is in store for Beau as a 3-year-old? He will eventually enter pre-school and go to St. Mary with his sister. Visiting his family in South Carolina will occur at some point. He will experience a WSU football game in the fall. We are crossing our fingers that his attention span improves. Hopefully his tendency to climb into bed with Sid and I in the middle of the night is reversed.

I love this little dude so much.

But what we hope most for Beau as a 3-year-old is that he continues to crush the fourth goal we set for him a year ago: to embrace his loving and carefree spirit ✔. If Beau continues to master that, we can be more understanding about the occasional spat with his sister or that pesky emergency room visit. Don’t Blink.

If Sidney wants to embarrass me a bit and draw a laugh, she will tell the people or group we are with one of my quirks. My wife will explain that I feel a pressing need to pick out my clothes the night before.

Sidney will then mischievously tell everyone that I don’t simply hang up or neatly fold my next day’s wardrobe. Instead, and this is how Sid explains it, I will lay them out in a way that resembles “a crime scene” when a dead person’s body is outlined in chalk. By the time she gets to this part of the story, she is always howling in laughter and the other people are usually too.

I always lay out my clothes the night before.

What can I say? One of the traits of a Type A-obsessed person like myself is to plan ahead. When I lay my clothes out, my thinking is that it will expedite how long it takes to get dressed in the morning. By placing everything in front of me, it saves time compared to if I had to take things off hangers or unfold my shirt and pants.

It just isn’t clothes. I try to do as much the night before as possible. That means making my lunch and packing any necessary bags. When the morning hits, I want to be as efficient and prepared as possible.

Of course my Type A personality goes way beyond preparing for the next morning. But some of those stories and methods are for future blogs. For now, it is just important to know that I create a mock crime scene every night. Don’t Blink.