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“What should I write in Paul’s birthday card this year?”, I asked Dan in the middle of our spring break vacation to Georgia.“Put something in there about his spunk and charisma”.Paul is spunky and charismatic, ferociously loyal and stubbornly independent. And he’s entered into the threes. And we’re enjoying them so far. 🙂

Lydia is a people watcher. She likes attention and praise, but she’ll watch what other people do and imitate them. Abby is a follower. She’ll sweetly follow just about anyone, anywhere, doing anything. Paul is his own man. He struts around like he’s in charge. He takes matters into his own hands. When he gets an idea in his head, nothing can stop him. He’s adorably independent and doesn’t care if anyone is leading or following.He’s also super cute. 😀He loves the colors orange and blue and he’s obsessed with baseball. He picks little items and obsesses over them for a while, bringing them in the car, to the dinner table, and even to bed. Some of his little obsessions over the past year have included: his little orange New Testament (which was really mine and I never offered it to him, but he declared it “My Bible” and was so persistent that no one bothered to fight him), a plastic toy crow bar, a parrot puppet, my kitchen tongs, a whisk, and Elijah’s long-abandoned pacifier.Despite all his independence, Paul gets overwhelmed the most easily out of our four children. In those moments, he sits on my lap, holds my hair in one hand, sucks his two favorite fingers, and periodically looks up and me and says, “Hi Mommy”. As soon as his basic needs are met (food, sleep, and some snuggles if things are getting to overwhelming) he’s back to his confident self.

It’s hard to capture Paul’s personality in just a few words. He’s so unique, friends with everybody, and acts very cool. He’s an endearing little trend-setter. He’s also surprisingly bright.I say surprisingly because Paul wasn’t very quick to start talking. He still doesn’t say a ton, but he picks up on things easily and often surprises us with what he knows. Often I’ll ask the girls to do a task or tell Paul we can do something fun (play baseball or go outside, usually) after we finish a chore. The girls are slower to help and often get distracted, but not Paul. Paul is all business helping set or clear the table, sweep, or put away groceries. In fact, he often jumps in just to be helpful without my asking or mentioning any incentive. And, though he’s still learning, his helping often is actually helpful, even doing things I’ve never taught or consciously shown him how to do.Last year we were struggling to get Paul to speak. We would ask questions, read stories, point at the pictures or facial features and ask him what they were. Nothing. Then, on some random day, he would start spouting off all these words we never knew he knew. He’s sharp, for sure, but doesn’t like to show off.Even though Paul is not the youngest, he often ends up being the one who gets his way. “Orange bowl”. “Music on”. “Watch baseball!”. “No, Abby! Off the field! Lydia, play baseball with me!”. He’s so confident, insistent, and cute, that once we understand what he wants, he usually gets it.Oh, and Paul loves music. He loves the singing at church and he loves instruments. If we let him, he likes to hang out up front when church is over by all the instruments. He latched on to Lydia’s toy drum from when she was a baby and it has become his. We got him a real box (cajon) drum for his birthday and he loves dragging it around the house to play while the girls dance, music plays in the computer, someone is singing, or we have a guest over playing a ukulele (which also fascinated him).So there’s a glimpse of our three-year-old in a nutshell. He’s really and endearing little boy everyone should get to know. We enjoy having him around immensely.Happy birthday Paul! We love you!