Three

Before Charlie arrived into this world, I was expecting a carbon copy of his big brother. But instead, we received a nine pound bundle of joy with white blonde hair (the nurses were so taken by his hair that they kept taking it in turns to come and see him ;)), a boy who is so different from his older brother in so many ways.

From the moment he arrived, Charlie tried to make it easy as possible on his mother, who was struggling with the transition from one child to two. He was my angel baby – happy, calm, a good feeder and sleeper (well, for the most part), and surprisingly in love with Sam, despite being poked in the eye almost daily by his then 21-month old brother and needing some quality protection. Charlie was not hard to love. He continued to be an ‘easy kid’ as he grew, happy in his own company, low maintenance and cute as a button. Charlie was by no means a pushover – he was certainly able to assert himself – but for the most part he was easygoing with a beaming smile. I often described Charlie as ‘my delight’ and secretly wondered how I got so lucky with this boy.

Oh, but as three approached, this little man decided it was time for Mum and Dad to start earning their stripes. As the rollercoaster of parenthood continues to demonstrate, just as Sam has matured and started taking it a little easier on us, Charlie has picked up the baton and is going for gold on testing the boundaries. Of course, our middle child is completely different to his brother when it comes to discipline and has broadened our parenting creativity no end as we learn what works and what, clearly, doesn’t. I’ve decided that being three must be pretty exhausting, as the emotional rollercoaster Charlie’s on can be very bumpy at times! He challenges us, and yet he is still such a delightful kid…although, God knows some days it’s lucky he’s pretty cute 😉

Our beautiful medium-sized boy turned three in March. As each of our children do, Charlie brings a unique set of characteristics, qualities, gifts and joys into our family.

Chopsie, on your third birthday, here is a list of some of my favourite things about you…

* Your boundless imagination that enables you to make something out of anything. You can be a ninja, a puppy dog, a king or a ‘builder man’ at any moment in time depending on what you have at your disposal. The world is your oyster and your creativity never ceases to amaze us.

* Your own special language. Your language skills and vocabulary have expanded exponentially in the past year, but we still love listening to some of your quirky expressions – such as when a string isn’t just tangled, it’s ‘rectangled’, all toast is ‘fruit toast’, and every adult male is a ‘daddy’ and every female a ‘mummy’. The way you copy some of Sam’s mannerisms make me laugh.

* The conversations we have when you don’t have to compete for attention. You are smart, funny, energetic, interesting. I love listening to everything you have to say. If you don’t have anything that needs saying, you will find a way of stating the obvious.

* The love you have for your brothers, ‘Nitty’ and ‘Sammy’. They do sometimes drive you a bit crazy, especially the big one, but you love having Sam’s buy-in with a plan and being part of his schemes, and you always  look out for your favourite baby and make sure I’m doing the right thing by him (except when it diverts attention from you ;)).

* You are an apple monster. Most dramatic situations can be alleviated with the introduction of an apple, and there would be no limit to how many apples you could consume in a day if it were up to you.

* You sleep in. Enough said.

* Your mop of blonde hair, which you’d be quite happy if we never had cut, and your beautiful smile.

* You are happiest at home with your family. You love going out and doing new things, but you would be just as happy playing at home with us. Even if better if the activity involved sitting ‘with’ us (aka. ‘on’ us).

Charlie, thanks for being you, buddy. Love you to bits x