About Three

Thoughts on having a three-year-old around ...

Karston loves his safety scissors, an early (by more than a month) birthday present. The danger is that you must look at what he's holding when he says I want to cut! his birthday kite no longer has streamer tails ...

He's really interested in tools and repairs. He often says, I want to fix it!!! and you'd better be ready to let him help you. He said his playhouse, a birthday present that Karston and Daddy built with tools (all screws received finishing taps from Karston's plastic hammer), needed two door handles, inside and outside. Karston picked out the handles he wanted. He instructed Daddy where to drill, and he screwed both handles in all the way. Oh, and now that he has a playhouse, he doesn't build castles in his sandbox, he builds playhouses. And still laughs while kicking them down.

Karston also has a strong sense of identity. Last weekend in his cousin's play, he played a monkey, but he kept saying no, I Karston! -Who's Mommy's jumper? No, I'm Karston! -Who's Daddy's little helper? No, I'm Karston! -Who's Cale's big brother? Even that's not enough to get him to budge.