Thirty-six months. 1,096 days. 13,149 hours. 3,124 diapers. 104 gallons of milk. 12 states. Hundreds of tiny plastic toys lost under the couch. Thousands of tantrums. Millions of hugs and kisses. Today, Evan is 3 years old.

This age, it is awesome. And horrible. Totally horrible. But also so so awesome. Instead of feeling like I’m constantly catering to a helpless baby’s needs, I feel like I have a little friend who hangs out with me all day. He’s cooler than I am, and funnier, and cuter, and has more friends, but he still likes me best and that’s pretty neat. He gives me hugs in public and wants kisses when he has a booboo and wants to be carried sometimes and I’m going to encourage that behavior for as long as possible. Because when he’s not being adorable and cuddly he’s screaming his head off, punching me in the face and refusing to eat a single bite of his dinner. What is WITH the not eating?! He never holds still, how can he not be starving?

Evan is super friendly and will talk to anyone who talks to him. He tells the old ladies in the grocery store about how Captain Hook tried to take Pirate Mommy’s treasure and Pirate Evan came to the rescue! And he says it just like that: “To the RESCUE!” with his hands on his hips like Superman. His trains have crazy adventures with plots more complicated and twisty than a Christopher Nolan movie. How someone who’s only been alive for 36 months has so much imagination is beyond me, but I will do everything in my power to make sure he keeps on using it forever.

Because he LIKES being the center of attention, when he’s not the center of attention he gets a little…loud. Like hey guys, looks at me check this out GUYS I’m SERIOUS look at what I AM DOING RIGHT NOW MOMMY LOOK LOOK LOOK MOMMY LOOK AT MEEEEEEE. I mean, I suppose that isn’t SURPRISING, since on daily basis I spend 13 hours a day with him and only 2 with E, but sometimes I don’t WANT to talk about his boogers. Evan’s boogers, I mean. E normally keeps his boogers to himself.

Speaking of, uh, speaking, Evan says about a zillion adorable things on a daily basis. We’ve started having family dinner at the table every night and he tells us all about his day. He calls Caroline “Baby Sister” and says “Baby Sister gives the best hugs!” and “C’mon Baby Sister!” when he takes her hand and they run around the house together. He tells the dog he’s a “Good boy, Brutus Brutus.” When E gets home Evan says “Daddy, missed you ALL DAY.” He’s been talking non-stop about his birthday party when he’ll see “all my friends”. As much as I’m looking forward to the party on Saturday, I’m also looking forward to Sunday, when I’m sure Evan will have TONS to tell me about how much fun he had. It makes all the work so worth it.

Honestly, no matter how many tantrums and how much attitude he pulls he is such a good kid. I’m not even going to pretend I’m super sad about him not being a baby anymore because you know what is better than a baby? A kid who craps in the toilet.

Evan’s likes include running, kicking things, his tricycle, gymnastics (finally!), Baby Sister, dogs, kitty, helping me around the house, friends, Daddy, bathtime, sleeping, milk, coloring, talking, singing, chocolate, strawberries, dinosaurs, cheeseburgers, lemonade, books, pirates, The Disney Channel, his cousins, counting, pillows, and elevators.

Dislikes include being tired, band-aids, falling down, being ignored, spiders, and being forced to pose for pictures.

And now for some totally unbelievable photos from Evan’s last 3 birthdays:

Birth Day

Tiny puke machine

12 months

OMG

24 months

36 months

You're in my way, Mom.

Most serious face ever

Attitude to the max

I'm sorry, when did he turn FIFTEEN?

Best siblings ever

Blurry, laughing picture is perfectly accurate

35 Month Milestones (from BabyCenter, as usual)

Mastered Skills (most kids can do)
• Describes how two objects are used – He knows the iPhone is for Angry Birds and the TV is for Disney, so we’re good right?
• Uses three to four words in a sentence – On Wednesday, he woke me up by saying “Mommy, I got poop in my butt!” So that’s seven words.
• Names two actions (e.g., skipping, jumping) – He often demands that I RUN FASTER at Stroller Strides or that I do HIGH KNEES when we’re shopping. He’s a tiny personal trainer.

Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)
• Hops and skips – Someone last month said I should ask him to skip for the lulz…and they were right.
• Follows a two- or three-part command – He can get himself to the bathroom, take off his pants, flush and wash his hands all by himself. It’s the BEST SKILL ever to emerge.
• Separates fairly easily from parents – Yes, he likes us OK but realizes other people still fall for his “I’m so cute give me a cookie” routine. The real test will be preschool, which I was super excited about but now I’m dragging my feet.
• Rides a tricycle – Yes, on flat ground. And now he has an awesome bike helmet thanks to his Mormor.

Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)
• Balances on each foot for three seconds – Yes. The kid can walk the beam at gymnastics too.
• Gets dressed without help – He got caught in his shirt trying to pull it over his head (of course I immediately rushed to help him without laughing even a tiny bit) and it was kind of traumatic so now he won’t take off his own shirt. But he CAN dress/undress himself.

Happy Birthday my wonderful, special boy!

I’d like to believe my vacation was so magical it totally changed my life, but I suspect daylight savings time and the freakishly warm weather we’re having is to thank for my good mood. There’s nothing like tiny dirty bare baby feet to help me not care at all about the laundry I still haven’t put away. Heck, I can’t even be bothered to care about putting on real pants since we’re too busy swinging on the porch to leave the house.

Caroline has decided she hates clothes and rips them off while screaming bloody murder every morning…but hey, that’s fine! Whatever! Be free, naked toddler, run and feel the breeze against your chubby belly! Enjoy it while you can, since it will probably be 35 degrees next week. Damn you Connecticut.

I did convince her to wear one of my old sundresses today, so of course I documented it with 200 pictures. Ok, I’m lying, 248 pictures. She might be the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life. If we could figure out how to power cars using squeeees of cuteness, Caroline could solve this gas price problem in a single afternoon.

(Pictures are unedited except for size – I’ve been inspired by Mandy and Jill to work on my shooting-in-manual skills again.)

Uh oh, dirty feet

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P.S. I TOTALLY forgot to pick a winner for my Changing the Universe giveaway before I left and I’m so sorry. I let Random.org choose for me and it picked #12, Kim from Try It Mom! Congrats Kim, I’ll send Nicci your email so she can help you collect your winnings. And if you didn’t win, may I suggest heading over to the shop and buying youself a special treat to cheer yourself up?

Linking up with Miss Elaine because it’s her birthday and she’s awesome!

You have to imagine a lollipop stuck through the card so it looks like it’s in his hand. It makes more sense that way.

XOXO Interwebs. You’ll always be my real Valentine.

That’s a total lie. I just got SUPER DUPER LUCKY with the VERY FIRST SHOT I took yesterday morning when I tried my hand at a holiday twinkle lights bokeh photo shoot  (inspired by Jill & Pinterest).

Like I said, this is the very first shot, straight out of the camera. No Photoshop or processing.

Of course, the rest of my shots look like this:

For some reason when I set my camera (Nikon D90) on the A setting (which I am told stands for Aperture Preferred) so I can manually choose to shoot at 1.8 only 1 out of every 3 shots comes out right. The first one is good, the second is dark, the third is darker. Every time. I’m not switching angles or settings or anything, so I don’t know why the camera keeps changing its mind, but if someone could make it just always shoot like that first photo that would be super awesome.

Oh my God I am the WORST. I have this fancy, expensive camera and a whole bag full of lenses and I shoot in auto almost all the time with no real intentions of learning how to use manual. Like I said, THE WORST.

Here’s a couple more I managed to salvage with some editing:

Since I was trying to get photos to use on the mantle for Caroline’s party I went out and bought a silver sparkly dress (because the theme is sparkly snowflakes with lots of silver, light blue and light pink). So now she will match her decorations (CRAZY ALERT DING DING). But I ALSO bought an outfit for her to wear TO the party, because I didn’t want her to be wearing the same dress in the decorations as on the day (DING DING DING DING EFFING DING). I’ll try the twinkly light shoot again this weekend when E is home to a) help get the baby to look/smile and b) help me use my camera since he’s the one who read the instruction book.

Today I am thankful that my best friend Erin discovered her love and talent for photography. Check her out on Facebook here on her website here.