3 years old --> What?!

Today my boy turns 3.  I don't really know how this is happening, but I'm told there is nothing I can do to stop it.

My big boy before school on his 3rd birthday!

Yesterday, I had to work Collin's room during the first service at our church.  That's the service we would normally attend, but since Jarrod was playing djembe with the worship group, I really wanted to stay for second service and see him.  Well, Collin had already spent over an hour in the pre-school room, and I didn't think I could get away with leaving him again while I went to second service.  So Collin Henry got to sit through church like a big boy.  Aside from eating all the PEZ I keep in my purse for emergencies, he did pretty well.  At one point, during worship, he didn't want me to hold him any more, and he wanted to stand in his chair on his own.  We were singing Kristian Stanfill's version of Jesus Paid It All when I looked back to make sure Collin was still okay, and I saw my sweet boy with his hand raised and worshiping.  I looked over Collin's head and across the aisle and met eyes with our youth minister who was also taking in this sweetness, and I was almost reduced to a puddle in that moment.

Our boy, who is 3 now, is learning every day and constantly taking in his surroundings.  He has changed our lives so much.  Jarrod and I have a new sort of "normal" that we never could have imagined when we were pregnant with Collin.  I remember looking around our house while I was pregnant and thinking, "One day there will be toys and little boy things laying all over the place."  These days I look around and think, "I can hardly remember what it was like to live somewhere that didn't have little boy things littering every room of the house."

No idea what this is supposed to be!

I see him in everything now.  There is no point in keeping all of my nail polishes in the bag I have designated for them under the counter in my bathroom, because most mornings they are building blocks for Collin.  Yook Mommy, I'm building a BIGGGG house!  Or they are little people in his class at daycare...You go sit in timeout!  You face the wall and do not talk.  His imagination amazes me and keeps me highly entertained!

I find random items in random places, and I can't help but laugh.  If I ask him about it he always has the most rational explanation, I was just cleaning, Mommy.

Last night we gave him his bath and got his jammies on him for bedtime.  I was hugging on him and soaking up the "freshly bathed boy" smell.  Jarrod chose to put him to bed last night, so he said to Collin, "Go give your mommy a kiss.  It's your last 2-year-old-kiss!"  Collin gave me a big smooch and then blew Landry a kiss as Jarrod was carrying him off to his room, and I may or may not have been overcome with emotion.

He is teaching me so many things.  Like how being pregnant is a blessing beyond all blessings, and I should have appreciated it more when I was pregnant with him.  That silently lamenting over the difficulties of a newborn, and secretly wishing they would be a "fun toddler" already, will come back to bite you.  That the way you speak to, and about, people will be noticed and absorbed by him.  That I may be desensitized to many things of this world, but he is not.  He is still new and pure, and I long to protect him from so many things as long as possible.  That the way I worship our Creator will be noticed and imitated by him.

There is so much emphasis on the things we teach him.  Making certain he reaches milestones and develops "normally", but sometimes I feel like the way he is shaping and changing us is far, far greater.