three and a half

Today my oldest child is three and a half.  Time is flying so fast.  I want to pause life with my three children and stop time for a while.  Yesterday our whole family was taking a walk.  The two younger kids were in the double stroller.  Callan was walking beside me and said, "Hold me, Mommy."  I told him he was too big for Mommy to carry while we walked.  His reply was, "Mommy, I'm not growing up."  Some days I wish he wasn't...

He's come such a long way since a year ago.  Last year at this time we were having lots of problems with him throwing tantrums (especially in public).  Now I love taking him on errands with me.  He's matured a lot in a year.  (I keep telling myself that when I see Kins now going through a similar phase.)

These days he is still SO cuddly and hands-on.  Meaning he loves to kiss his sister and brother every other second of the day and always be touching them.  It drives his sister crazy.  

He's also currently obsessed with Mario, as in Mario and Luigi from Nintendo.  He's going to be Mario for Halloween, and his sister is going to be Luigi.  Whenever he asks for a plate for dinner he always says, "I'll take the red plate like Mario."  (Mario is red while Luigi is green.)  His mind is constantly thinking, breathing, living Mario.  

He loves to play Mario on the Wii...so much so that we created a calendar just for him where we put a picture of Mario on certain days so he knows when he can and cannot play Wii.  It's become an idol that we've had to control.  Daddy made a sign for him with the verse, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols."  --1 John 5:21 on it that he's memorized and has to say before playing Wii.  We recite that verse often throughout the day.  

Gene has a Mario and Luigi chess set.  Callan insists on taking out a Mario piece to use as his marker while playing Candy Land.  Any where that he can sneak in Mario into his playtime he does.  He also has a Mario blanket that someone got for him.  

When the kid finds something he loves, he becomes obsessed with it.  What a crazy kid.  I love him.