Luke's Three

Life with Luke has been very difficult.  If you come for a visit you can expect to be screamed at, defied, bossed around, laughed at, hugged, kissed, teased, jumped on, played with, sung to, and adored within about half an hour.  Is he bi-polar?  Is he a juvenile delinquent?  Is he a stand-up comic, an angel, an imp?

He is three.  Well, technically not until Sunday, but my little boy is a three year-old.  I don't care what they say about two, so far three is far worse.  In the last week alone we have dealt with:
Mater (the tow truck), down the toilet.  We had to call the plumber in to unplug the toilet and retrieve Mater.
Pooping on the garage floor.
Peeing on the rug in the bathroom.
Dumping the dog water out.
Putting race cars in the water glasses on the dining room table.
Writing on the walls.
Cutting his hair.
Cutting his bedsheets.  (!)
Cutting my string line for sweet peas.
Pulling dirt out of houseplants and spreading it on the floor.
Screaming at Grammy
Screaming at Grampa
Screaming at Mommy
Screaming at Daddy
Screaming
Stomping on plants in the flower bed
Getting out of bed eighty gazillion times
Crying when it's time to take a bath
Crying when it's time to get out of the bath
Crying when we have to run errands
Crying when we have to go home
Crying because Seamus is crying
Crying because time-outs are no fun
Painting his shoes with oil based primer
Dumping gasoline all over the garage floor
Complaining that he's hungry
Refusing to eat supper

And that's just what I remember right now, off the top of my head.  Now, I don't mean to make my boy sound like a total terror, because I am frequently reminded what a good-hearted child he is.  He isn't a bully, a thief or a liar.  He's imaginative, very sociable, generally wakes up on the sunny side of bed, and loves people passionately (even ones who don't seem to like him).  He has quick and creative answers to funny questions like, "What would you do if you had an elephant as a pet?"  (he would "take it for a walk on a very long leash in the morning time").  And he says things like:

I'm just boinging on the couch
How was your day, Linus?
I saw the sark Grammy!  A sark?  No, a sark!  Oh, a shark?  Yeah, a sark.
Can my birthday cupcakes have stripes?
What do I keep you safe from Luke?  Not frogs because frogs are good and they love me because I'm a good boy!
Good-night Luke, you're the best big boy.  You're the best girl, Mom.
Seamus loves me. That's why he's kicking his legs!

This boy is a handful.  A sometimes disobedient, always loud, great hugger, creative, willful, stubborn, sweet, 36 pound, handful.  And he's three.

Baby or a big boy?  Big boy.