Confessions of a Farm Wife: Our Boy

Our little guy turned three today. So far, we've celebrated with a big family party, and by opening a Big Buzz Lightyear and a Big Wheel. Sense a theme? He enjoys things that are big, for big boys. Not babies, because he's the first one to tell you, he's NOT a baby…which is good, considering the future of his "baby" status in our family. Check in November to see how that's going.

Anyway, it seems cliche to even mention this, but wasn't he just born? When did my little guy, our boy, become this big kid who pedals around, speaks in clear, direct sentences, voicing his opinion, and quoting lines from the 1962 Batman movie like, "No time to lose!"

Cliche or not, these three years have gone by fast, and I am trying, as any mother of multiple children so close together in age and thus so lacking in sleep, mind, and iCloud capacity, to remember all his milestones, memorable quotes and memories.

Right now, our boy is obsessed with superheroes, particularly Batman and Buzz Lightyear (is he really a superhero? nerds, I implore you to debate.). You'll find Jack in a cape about 12 hours of the day, and, thanks to Grandma, a gold utility belt. Once in awhile, you'll catch him humming the Batman theme song as he does various three year old things…unloading folded laundry baskets to get inside and hide, dumping all his toys to find the exact right one for the exact scene he's playing out, prepping to fight crime via the Cozy Coupe Truck and swing set. It's really impressive…the boy can carry a tune, friends.

Either way, our expectations upon having our boy have been exceeded. Superheroes, big wheels, climbing on things…he's done it all. However, Jack is sweet and kind and still so little, even though we'll send him off to preschool next fall. Never meeting someone he couldn't talk to (a genetic trait he receives from BOTH sides), I know he'll be fine, but a little part of me wonders what the next three or thirteen or thirty years will bring for Our Boy.

If I had a magic mirror, I'd love to see what our little man will be like in those time frames, but for now, I'll just enjoy the present. And the presents. The squeals as he takes off on his first ride on his Big Wheel. The begging to go with Papa Ted in the Big Red Semi. The innate way he checks and reports on the calves across the road every. single. time we drive anywhere or are outside, or looking out the window. Our Boy is one of a kind, and while there are days I would prefer a pedicure and a moment of peace over playing the Batman Jail again, I should remind myself that these days are fleeting, and his little boy-isms will fade, just as the cheesy theme song fades to silence in the Batman movie I have watched no less than 9000 times.