Leander Roxas || 3 1/2 Year Old Update

Every year, for the kids’ “half-birthdays”, I take them out & do some fun (typically “themed”) portraits of them. With Braelynn being born in January & Leander born in December, I knew that we would never be able to do “fun”, warm & glowy, outdoor “birthday” portraits – so I have simply compromised with “half-birthday” portraits every year. And it’s so much fun!

This year, I am a little bit late in taking the kids’ “half-birthday” photos (considering Leander and Braelynn have December and January birthdays – the half-way point is June and July – and here it is August!) I have simply been waiting for them not to be sick! It feels like we’ve been sick all summer long, and even though they’re still technically a little sick currently, I declared that we needed to get these photos done – sickness or not. It is simply where we are right now and I did not want to wait any longer.

Here is a little “half-birthday” update on our sweet Leander Roxas:

• To sum up Leander, he’s a stubborn, silly, little BOY. He knows what he wants and if he doesn’t get it – watch out – he will make sure you know that he’s not happy. On the other hand, he has a super silly side and he does things purposefully to make you laugh (which I love). He is so different from Braelynn and I absolutely love it.
• Speaking of Braelynn: he follows her around like a little lost puppy dog. He wants to do everything she does – whether she’s playing outside, creating forts inside, drawing, doing school – he wants to do anything she’s doing. They love each other and generally play really well together (Braelynn loves having someone to follow her around), but just as soon as you think: “Aww, they’re doing so good!” someone does something to make the other person upset and suddenly they’re screaming at each other.
• We’ve started back to school and this year, instead of completely ignoring us and being content to watch some TV alone, Leander is very interested in doing school too! I have a few Pre-K workbooks and so we’ve been doing a few pages every day while Braelynn does her work. His attention span is pretty short (2-3 pages is perfect), but I love that he sees Braelynn working with Mama and learning and he wants to do the same thing.
• He can count to 10 (usually in order), knows his colors and most of his shapes. He loves to sit and be read to and has recently shown an interest in building puzzles! He loves to build train tracks and forts, and would stay outside all day long if I let him.
• He still draws on my couches and walls if he finds markers “unsupervised”. I was hoping that he had grown out of that “phase”, but I just found him last week, hiding behind Braelynn’s bed, drawing all over her wall with a green marker. Braelynn is a “professional” artist and is constantly drawing – markers are her favorite vector of art – and she has a hard time remembering to put them away. At this point, I’ve scrubbed certain sections of my wall so many times that now, I just leave the marker there and call it “art”.
• We have technically been in “potty training mode” since December and Leander still is not 100% potty trained. Part of that is because he simply could care less, and part of it is because by the time he really started to “get it” in late spring, we started traveling, which threw all of our progress out the window. He does pretty good when we’re home for a few days at a time, but if we’re anywhere but home – forget it. He simply does not care. Our traveling schedule is about to come to an end though, so it’ll be back on the hard-core potty training train! Mama is DONE with this whole process and is ready to move on!!
• Speaking of traveling – we have traveled all over the place this year: including all the way down to Florida and all the way out to Missouri! Leander does fantastic in the car and loves when we go on trips!
• Speaking of going on trips to amusement parks (since that’s what our trips consist if): he is slightly scared (okay, sometimes downright terrified: meaning he wraps himself around a pole and refuses to let go) of some “big” rides. I think we kind of scared him a bit when we went to Walt Disney World in the spring – he was just 40″ tall and that means he could ride just about everything with us – so we took him on just about everything. And now, he refuses to ride anything he considers “too big”. Oops. I mean, he is only 3 years old and has already ridden some pretty big rides, so it’s okay. We aren’t worried about it.
• Yes – in case that didn’t quite register – Leander is now over 40″ tall! That means, in the span of the last 12 months, Leander has grown over 4 inches! He is now way up on the growth charts!
• The little dude needs a haircut pretty desperately – he hasn’t had a haircut since the end of February!! He had such a rough time at that last appointment though that we haven’t been in a rush to take him back. He hates having his hair cut, he hates having his head touched in general, but I’ve been working with him lately to be more “okay” with it. I feel like we’re making progress, so I’m feeling a bit more optimistic about when we go (sometime sooner rather than later).
• Leander still loves his blankie. He still attempts to carry it everywhere, but we make him leave it in the car so it won’t get lost/stolen/dirty. He still sleeps with it and still sucks his left hand middle and ring fingers to go to sleep. I know it’s a habit we’ll have to work to break soon, but for now, I still love seeing him do it.
• Leander’s current favorite things to watch are (still) Bluey, Blaze, Cars, Toy Story, and Secret Life of Pets. He will also sit and watch My Little Pony with Braelynn, but only if he doesn’t have another choice.

I really struggled to come up with a “theme” for Leander’s photos this year (I struggled for a “theme” for both Braelynn and Leander!) and ultimately, I just decided to keep it simple. Leander got a little dragon he’s been carrying everywhere at Dutch Wonderland a few weeks ago, so I decided to toss on his cape and call it a day. He decided that he hated wearing the cape, so he pulled it off pretty quickly. In general, Leander isn’t a huge fan of having his photo taken. Let’s just say, it took quite a bit of bribery to get this set of photos (but I don’t regret a moment of it).

If you’d like to compare & contrast this summer’s photos with the summers of the past, you can go back & check out Leander’s 2 1/2 Month Update here, and his 8-Month Update here!