Bantam3 Becomes...

Bantam4!

We can’t believe it. How quickly that three-year-old year went by!!! Three isn’t exactly my favorite age—I remember in several cases wondering why people always talked about the terrible twos, when it seemed like three was so much worse—but in Bantam4’s case, three has come and gone (sniff) as nice as you please!

B4 is such a fun mix of physical, rough-and-tumble “all boy” with gentle, sweet, comical charm. He may greet his friends with a bear hug that takes them both to the ground, but in many ways he is the most winsomely compliant male toddler we have raised! The first thing I heard, on the morning of his birthday, was the birthday boy’s voice raised in a song of his own creation—a happily frequent utterance.

For his birthday (yesterday), he received: a Spiderman coloring book (from the dollar store), a Batman t-shirt (from Goodwill), Batman socks (from the dollar aisle at Target), a Disney polo shirt adorned with likenesses of Lightning McQueen and ‘Mater (from Goodwill), a “Cars” toothbrush/ holder/cup gift set (50% off after Christmas) and then the one gift I paid full price for—a baby doll.

Here’s why. Ever since Chicklet received her special doll for Christmas, she has been such a good mommy that, following her example, B3 re-adopted one of her old dolls. Under his tender loving care previously, it had lost both arms and all its clothes except for its pants. With renewed devotion, he’s resumed caring for it recently.

Last week, he was distressed because Mom found some old doll clothes that fit Chicklet’s doll, but nothing that would fit his pathetic little armless doll. In a moment of compassion, I looked deep into his little boy eyes, and said, “Honey, would you like a new doll?”

“Yes,” he sniffed. And I headed out to Walmart that afternoon.

I found a similar doll, dressed in blue clothing and accompanied by a turtle, which delighted our new 4-year-old. He christened him "Joe."

Like I said--what a mixture of boyish roughness and sweet tenderness our little Bantam4 is!!

(I know, I know...pictures are in order! We have another birthday and multiple rehearsals and appointments this week, but we'll see what we can do.)