3 years

talan cash turned 3 years old today. which means i will be putting the bear to rest now. i may continue to take his picture with it on his birthday every year, but no more every month.
talan continues to be a funny, outgoing, energetic little boy. he learns new words and phrases every day and is doing quite well with his speech. several times, jessica has told us that over the phone he has even sounded a lot like hayden.
if he doesn't "like someone" or want to look at them or talk to them, he tells me it's because "i shy." yeah, right. he's only "shy" in circumstances where he knows he's not necessarily the center of attention!
he still loves music...playing the drums, guitar, harmonica, or singing. really, anything musical he loves. we moved the fireflight cd's into his bedroom and he'll go in there and play on his guitar along with the music. he still has really good taste in music, but it gets annoying when he is constantly telling us what songs he wants to listen to in the car. he somehow thinks he's the dj and he always gets to pick. we, of course, don't always allow it, but i am thankful he doesn't request barney or something like that. it's usually fireflight, kings of leon, pink, the meters, the white stripes, silversun pickups...stuff like that. ya know, what most kids love!
talan still is not even close to being potty trained. hayden was about 3 and 2 months by the time we officially potty trained him, but talan seems to be further behind that hayden was with it. he's never even gone on the toilet at all. he's sat there for long periods of time, but he's never gone. so soon and very soon we'll have to find a week when we know we have no plans and won't be leaving the house and we'll just put the underwear on and see how many accidents we have to clean up before he finally gets it! not looking forward to that week!
talan has become a horrible eater at dinner time. most evenings he doesn't eat at all. he still does typically like lots of fruits and veggies, so if he eats anything at dinner, that would be what he eats...which is good. he usually does eat a fairly good lunch though, but still only really picks in the morning and never really eats a "real" breakfast.
he seems to love sharing a room with hayden and having a bunk bed. the boys have been talking and playing around quite a bit more than the did in the first month or two of sharing, but they still do pretty well. talan now does wake up pretty much at 7 or before that with hayden. but he stays in the room (and i think his bed) until hayden tells him it's 7 and time to come out.
he still loves to make messes and hates cleaning up. when we tell him to clean he'll just sit there saying "i can't do it!" over and over. he also has become quite bad about leaving something somewhere and not being able to find it. he used to be so good about this...guess he's been taking notes from hayden!
talan continues to have a very short attention span, which is why the messes are so huge. he doesn't play with a toy for along before he tosses it aside and heads for the next thing. he likes watching movies and tv, but many times he doesn't even sit through all of a program before getting up and moving on to something else.
he loves being outside. basketball seems to be one of his most favorite things and he's really quite good at it. i have a feeling he'll be outside quite a bit this summer. hopefully learning how to actually peddle on his bike!
i honestly cannot believe how much talan has changed in 3 years. not just in growth but in personality. he is no longer that always happy, calm, easy-going baby. he is a full blown toddler with a huge attitude. he can still be as sweet as can be, but he's typically much more filled with "no's" and yelling and temper tantrums. he's constantly going and has little or no time for just sitting and cuddling with you. sometimes it's hard to remember what a great baby he really was because of how different he is now. he's not bad...he's just so different.
looking back, it seems like so long ago that he was that little baby. but on the other hand, it's so hard to believe that he is 3 years old already. oh how i wish i could stop time for a bit!
we love you so much t-money. you will always be our favorite talan. happy 3rd birthday!!!