Joaquin at 3

When someone asks me about Joaquin, the first thing that comes to mind is how verbal he is. That might not sound as distinguishing from other 3 year olds as it did when he was 1 and 'very verbal' meant he had a big vocabulary. But when I sit down and think about it, maybe the proper way of describing it now is how eloquent he is in his speech. He says things like, "Oh my!", "He will be delighted!", and "That's so interesting" and it is always "No thank you." He corrects his own grammar and entertains himself by quoting his books-the whole book-while he plays. Lately he has been very interested in us naming the author and illustrator of the book so he can start his quotes with the title, author, and illustrator and then quote the rest of the book. His memory is incredible-this is not a kid you can say that you'll do something with the night before and hope that he will forget because he definitely won't.

He loves trucks, trains, and cars right now almost to the exclusion of all other toys. My mom's house is mecca right now because it's got construction happening on all the surrounding streets-so we get to get up close and personal with all those big CAT trucks. On the way home from school we have to look for daddy's car wash on each trip and the only name that has come out of school is apparently the only little girl who plays with the Thomas set.

He sings to himself and kisses and hugs the baby (my belly) regularly. He is very excited about the baby coming and sharing his room with her. Our brother in law recently had a baby and he keeps saying that he is his best friend and that he'll be able to hold mommy's baby all the time. He also seems to think that my belly button either is the baby or is the portal to the baby or something...he won't talk or kiss it unless the belly button is on display.

Finally, and this has been going on or evolving for quite some time now, but I don't think I've put it up here, he's gotten very particular about his grooming and clothing. The pants wars continue at our house in the morning and he will only wear clothes that are soft. That usually translates into Nate's old t-shirts. The latest hair cut and any kind of sunscreen application require a physical tackle and a 2 man team, but he's also doing more on his own...brushing his teeth and hair for instance. He is definitely opinionated about these things and likes to be comfortable!