Look at that adorable boy!! He got up on that bench and struck this pose with no instruction from me. So I had to snag a picture. Last year Atlas turning 3 seemed crazy to me, like how could he already be that old?? This year 4 seems right. Maybe because I feel ready for it! At least with Jane the 4 and 5 age range has been my favorite to date, so I've been looking forward to Atlas turning 4. He has been doing a lot of growing up in the last month or two. Almost like he was preparing to be 4. He still struggles with listening the first time, whining and overreacting, but I have been seeing lots of improvement lately. I just have to make sure I react to his acting out very calmly and he will calm down pretty quickly most of the time too. I've realized he's a very tenderhearted kid. He is very sensitive to others hurting his feelings, but also sensitive to other's feelings being hurt too. My dad took a controlled spill on the skateboard recently and once Atlas saw what happened he ran full speed to his side to make sure my dad was ok! He cares very deeply about things being fair. I'm trying to realize whenever he gets worked up about something it's just because his tender heart is feeling overwhelmed and he doesn't know how else to deal with it.
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| He's so big! This was his prize for learning to go #2 on the potty! |
I had to learn how to be the best mom for Atlas.(I'm still learning) Jane and Atlas are almost complete opposites. So when Jane needs a firm, urgent and sometimes loud voice to help her understand I'm serious, Atlas actually needs a gentle and calm voice instead to help him relax and listen. I feel like we tried everything to help Atlas learn to poop on the toilet, he had been pee trained for at least 6 months already! All Jane normally needs is a firm voice telling her what she needs to do and knowing she could earn or lose a reward. I found Atlas only needs a reminder and then sometimes he needs me to help him accomplish his task at first and then I can ween him off of my help after a while. He genuinely wanted to go on the toilet but couldn't figure out how. So we told him he could poop on the potty with a diaper at first and then after a while he tried without and he did it!(He uses the Kindle to help him relax and get the deed done too) Once he discovers a new found aspect of independence, he does not want to go backwards! In fact once he figured out the toilet he decided he could do a lot more on his own, like getting dressed and brushing his teeth for example. On a lot of other things he's started refusing my help, insisting he can do it himself. I love it! It is hard when we're in a hurry and it would be so much faster for me to do it for him, but I know once we get through the learning period it will be sooo helpful!
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| Ready to swim in January! :D |
Age three brought back a little bit of my sweet, chill little dude that he was at age 1. He gives me lots of hugs and kisses. But he is still a little boy! So he's busy, rough and destructive a lot of the time. I've caught him in a few lies, but I think it has more to do with him having a hard time realizing that what he wants to be true and what is factually true can be different things and not that he is actually trying to be deceiving. His focus is so much better than Jane's! He can stay playing with a toy much longer than her and on his own. He has continued to be sensory sensitive. He does not like loud noises even though he can be quite loud himself! But it has everything to do with not choosing to be around the loud noise. He can want to be next to a loud motorcycle and have no problems, but if he doesn't have the choice to experience the loudness it will be very overwhelming for him. It's so interesting that I've realized it's almost all about choice though, because he loves to swim and play in the rain but if he gets wet when he doesn't want to it makes him very upset! Even two drops of water on his clothes is too much and he wants to change immediately. He hates jeans and any stiff feeling clothes. Stamps and stickers cannot be on his skin or he will have a cow! Again, I'm learning to be more patient with him and his sensitivities and realizing when I need to push him out of his comfort zone.
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| He loves kinetic sand! |
Atlas's favorite things are still all stereotypical boy things!! All vehicle related things are the best to him. Monster Trucks and construction trucks especially. When we got kinetic sand for his 3rd birthday it was perfect for him!! He will play for an hour with the sand and construction trucks on his own. Awesome! He's picking up some things from Jane's Kindergarten lessons and he will ask to do his preschool book sometimes, but I don't require him to do any school yet. Hopefully I'll get myself a little more organized for the fall when Flynn is not a newborn and have some more preschool time just for Atlas. He shows interest in reading and learning. He loves to draw monsters!
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| The classic upside down with Pappaw! |
Atlas continues to heavily prefer to hang out with dudes instead of ladies. If Sam is an option he will definitely pick him over me. Unless he needs a little motherly comfort for an owie or sickness that is and I'm ok with that. :) Whenever we go to my parents house he calls it Pappaw's house. He loves to hear stories of the cave monster from Pappaw and imagine what they sound and look like. Atlas will go and find any dad like person where ever we go and start talking to them. And that can be hard to do since we do a lot of home school activities and there are normally only mom's but if there is a dad, he will find them! haha! If there's not a dad for him to hang out with he'll find an older boy to play with. He regularly says his best friend is a park friend that's 7 years older than him.
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| Classic Video games with all the sibs! |
Atlas loves his siblings! I gave him the roll of protector and he takes it seriously. That doesn't mean he doesn't hit when he shouldn't sometimes. But that comes from being a middle child and trying to stick up for himself. He cares a whole lot if everyone is ok. Jane and Atlas are great friends! They disagree on what to play a lot, but always want each other around. Most mornings as soon as breakfast is over they run off either to their shared room or to the backyard to play. They can play together almost all day with no fighting at all and then on the off days it's like they are fighting every 5 minutes. Just recently Atlas and Alexandria have started playing together. Atlas is a little small for his age and Xan is big so they are almost on a level playing field when they wrestle. Also because he doesn't get to rough with her on purpose. He takes care of his little sister. While Atlas loves his sisters, he really LOVES FLYNN! When he found out we were having a 4th kid he was convinced it was a brother and as soon as Flynn was born he was showering him with kisses. He cannot wait until he is old enough to play. I'm so happy he has a brother to grow up with. I pray they will all be best friends! <3
Weight
Birth: 8lbs 7oz
1 Year Old: 22 lbs
2 Years Old: 27 lbs
3 Years Old: 32 lbs
4 Years Old: 35 1/2 lbs
Atlas has only gained a couple pounds in a whole year. It probably comes from being a picky eater. We're going to be working on trying new foods this year now that he's 4. Seriously I don't think it's even worth it before then. It doesn't kill kids to be picky, we've got plenty of time to work on it. He's a healthy kid!
Height
Birth: 21 1/2"
1 Year Old: 29"
2 Years Old: 33"
3 Years Old: 36"
4 Years Old: 3' 2.5" (38.5")
Despite being long at birth, Atlas is on the small side as far as height goes. Based on mine and Sam's height he was projected to be 5' 11" but taking his current height into account he is projected to be 5' 7-8". With having both short and tall genes in our family there is no telling where he'll end up. Since he seems to take after Sam on a whole lot of things, I still feel pretty confident he'll be tall.
Firsts
It is now time for my favorite part of my birthday blog posts! This is Atlas's list of unconventional firsts I've found throughout the past year. I found a first from almost every month of the year and it includes things like first time at the beach, first bike and first brother! It's so fun to see all the things he's experienced in just one year.
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| Chicken Pox - Early March 2019 |
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| County Fair - End of March 2019 Roller Coaster too! (didn't get a picture though) |
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| Learning to Swim! - May 2019 |
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| Playing Sonic - May 2019 |
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| Potty Training! - June 2019 |
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| Forward Facing Car Seat! - June 2019 |
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| Very chill preschool - August 2019 |
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| Beach! - September 2019 |
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| Recognizable Drawing - October 2019 |
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| Dentist Appointment - October 2019 |
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| Climbing a tree solo! - November 2019 |
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| Brother!! - December 2019 |
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| Solo Sparkler! - January 2020 |
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| Bike of his own - January 2020 |
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| Gymnastics Class - February 2020 |
Favorites
His love for being outside hasn't changed. I love that Xan, Jane and Atlas can all go to the backyard together and play while I get some work done and watch from the window. He loves to play in the dirt. Every time we go to park days he's covered in dirt when we get home from playing trucks in the dirt with his friends. Atlas doesn't let his clumsiness get in the way of his adventurous side. I would think if he got hurt doing something then he wouldn't want to do it again, but not Atlas. He gets up and immediately tries to do what just hurt him again. He's hard headed and thinks he's invincible sometimes. He's usually has some bruise or cut on him somewhere. A lot of those bruises are from running into a doorknob or just the wall. That's something he gets from me. Wish I could have given you something better than clumsiness dude, sorry! Just a kiss from me and he's better and on his way again most of the time. He has gotten so brave over the past year! He used to be scared of jump houses and things like that, but now he loves them! He's started to trust me when I say something is safe! I was completely floored when he told me he wanted to go on the mini roller coaster at the County Fair. He did it and loved it!! So proud. He can still be afraid of things that I don't expect, but he really has learned to try things.
Atlas has continued to be a picky eater throughout the age of 3. I'm hoping we see great improvement in his 4s. That's when Jane improved a whole lot. Atlas would like to survive off of french fries, gogurt, chicken nuggets, fruit snacks and chips. Other favorites are, smokies, Sharp white cheddar cheese, white cheddar mac & chesse, sausage, buttered biscuits, cereal, strawberries, spaghetti and meatballs, chocolate and hamburger helper. He'll drink water, milk, Capri Sun and light blue Gatorade. At least water is his favorite drink. That's healthy! I'll take it. ;)
Atlas definitely enjoys playing with toys more than Jane. He really loves his Paw Patrol Big Wheel! It has been recently dethroned by his big kid bike he got for Christmas. Other favorites are all his hot wheels cars, his Mater dreamlite and duplo blocks. He used to hide toys all the time and I wouldn't find them for weeks! Thankfully it hasn't happened in a long time. Maybe it's just because he can remember and tell me where they are now. Of course we're missing his new Duke Kaboom toy that he JUST got for his birthday... I'm pretty sure Xan was the culprit this time though. ;)
Oh man, Atlas's love for TV hasn't changed. His favorite shows at the moment are Blaze and the Monster Machines, Paw Patrol, Paddington Bear, Peppa Pig, Sonic, Zig and Sharko, Sarah and Duck and Transformers. But he has gotten better about not whining when we have to turn off the show. Also he has started liking playing video games more. He still loves the Kindle, but his newest obsession is Super Mario 3D World for the Wii U. He asks to play it all the time! He needs me to play it with him though so he doesn't get overly frustrated. Other favorites are Sonic Racing, Mario Kart 8 and Old School Sonic. Just the other day Jane and Atlas played Super Smash Brothers on the Switch for an hour together and loved it! I have them play on team mode and they get so excited when they win together. I overhead Jane say, "I love you Atlas!" while they were playing. <3 He does like movies, but I think he gets tired of them before they are over sometimes, his favorites are Toy Story 1-4, Wall-E, Lego Batman, Monster Trucks and the new Sonic The Hedgehog. He got to go see Sonic in the theater with Dad for their both their birthdays. It was their first one on one movie. :)
I love Atlas's love for books! I can't wait until he can actually read the letters on the page. He already knows some letter sounds. He's got a head start since he's absorbing Jane's Kindergarten a little. I foresee having to have limits on how long his light can be on reading at bedtime. I already have to put limits on books we can read at bedtime because he never wants me to stop and if we don't have time for at least two books it makes him so sad to only be able to pick one. I do my best to make sure we have time for two or three books. Some of his favorites from this year are Build Your Own Robots Sticker book (awesome books that once we finished the book we can keep reading about the robots again and again), A Squirrel's Tale, Nibbles, It's Christmastime, You Choose, and many, many more.
Atlas has always loved the water, but once he learned to swim on his own I could barely get him out of the pool anymore! He's such a little fish now and can swim from one side of the pool to the other without any help. He can still make me nervous, but he always surprises me with how far he can go. Jumping on the trampoline is pretty much tied with swimming for his favorite activity. Other favorite activities are wrestling with Sam or playing whatever game they come up with in the evenings, monster tag, Riding on Pappaw's shoulders, going on walks, and imagining in the backyard with Jane and Xan. I love that the TV can be on in the morning while I'm trying to finish up work and the kids will decide they would rather go outside together and play. It's the best.
My once little homebody is a full fledged goer! He asks every morning where we are going that day. If I tell him we're staying home he gets super disappointed. I mean, most days we do end up going at least one place even if it's just to the store to do a curbside pick up. On that note, since we do curbside most of the time now, Atlas gets really excited about actually getting to go inside the grocery store. ;) It's become one of his favorite places. Haha! I would say his favorite place to go would be the beach! He prays to go back to the beach every night. His second cousin Collin's house is number two. He prays about that one a lot too. He also loves to go to Urban Air, Jumpalooza, Pump it up, the park, Marmee & Pappaw's house, Scott & Anna's house and the library. He gets excited about going anywhere though!
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| His much anticipated Chuck E. Cheese Birthday Party! |
Sometimes I wonder what Atlas would be like if he would have been a first born or at least not having Jane as a big sister. Because even though Jane and Atlas are good friends, Jane knows every button to press to make Atlas upset and she likes the drama and pushes those buttons often and sets him off. On the very rare times that I have Atlas to myself he is such a chill and sweet little boy who thinks deeply. But being the middle child that he is he fights for attention and to defend himself. That brings a lot of emotional outbursts from him. As he grows and gains more logic he is figuring out how to get the right kind of attention and that using words is a way better way to communicate what he wants than crying or whining. Also, I'm trying to help him realize that responding to Jane in a dramatic way is exactly what she wants, so if he responds calmly eventually she'll stop pushing those buttons. I think having Jane as a big sister will be really good for him in the long run, even though it can be hard for him now. He doesn't let things bother him for long. He picks things up fast. He's a smart kid and a sweet boy. <3 I can't wait to keep watching him learn and grow through life.
Happy 4th Birthday Atlas! We love ya bud!
Isaiah 40:10-11
Behold, the Lord God shall come with a strong hand,
And His arm shall rule for Him;
Behold, His reward is with Him,
And His work before Him.
He will feed His flock like a shepherd;
He will gather the lambs with His arm,
And carry them in His bosom,
And gently lead those who are with young.
