Being Barrett

It is tough finding a place to start in talking about my son.  He is growing up so fast as he becomes his own, independent person.   

·         Barrett is starting to show his sense of humor.  As a three-year-old, it primarily revolves around calling things by the incorrect names and laughing hysterically about it.  In particular, Barrett likes to call things “hot dog.”  People, inanimate objects, other foods…it’s all hot dog to him.  He also gets a kick out of calling his Papa Bill “Willie, “ Nana “Nanny” and Stella “Stelly.”  

 

·         Barrett is working hard on his shapes and alphabet.  He knows his name starts with a B, and every time we see a capital B on something, he has to point it out.  He also likes to tell us what shape his food is during dinner.  Audrey is quick to correct him when he’s wrong, so we’re encouraging her to give him hints to help instead of just giving him the answer.

·         Barrett is finally completely potty trained.  I guess it’s actually been a couple of months, but he just started going poop at school last week.  He would hold it until he was at home, so almost every night during dinner, he would have to get up and go.  We’re still doing pull-ups at night, but one big box of pull-ups lasts us two months! 

·         Barrett is loud.  It doesn’t matter what he is doing, he always does it several decibels louder than his sister.  When pretends just about every toy he owns has a motor, and he makes accompanying noises for each.  When he sings a song, it is so loud I can barely understand what the words are.  When he plays dolls with his sister, his baby cries louder than I bet any real baby would.  We have been talking a lot about inside and outside voices; I don’t think he’s figured out yet that the car is considered inside.

 

 

·         Barrett loves to play pretend.  He is extremely imaginative, and his sister gets frustrated when his imagination varies from her own.  His pretend scenarios typically involve traveling somewhere in some motorized device; boats, monster trucks, stand up wave runners, helicopters, motorcycles, and fire trucks are his favorites.   

 

·         Barrett has started becoming attached to random things and trying to hoard them.  Some recent examples are acorns, rocks, and leaves.  When I try to tell him those things belong outside, his response is inevitably, “but I love them.”  He says it in the most gentle, innocent way that it almost makes me want to give in.  Every time he says it, I can also see his older sister saying the same thing, and then I realize where he learned that from. 

·         Barrett loves to wear sunglasses.  He has several pair that he likes to rotate out.  

 

 

·         Barrett is gearing up to play hockey.  We’ve taken him ice skating a few times, and he has his own skates.  He has a few more months before he can start, but I think he will definitely need some ice skating lessons before he joins a team.  We can’t get him to try to skate on his own without using something for balance.