The week before Callum’s birthday it kind of hit me in the gut and took my breath away – my Danger Man was turning THREE. I had been a mom for THREE years already. It blew my mind, and it really threw me off.

This past year has been really busy – we moved into a new house, Gareth renovated a ton of it, and as I was adjusting to life with 2 kids, I was right back to work.

This all meant that Callum pretty much growing out of the baby phase, and into the little boy phase, kind of sort of took me by surprise. Yes, I noticed his speech was a thousand times better, his imagination had grown into a crazy amazing tool he used to create new worlds and build stories in his mind. But I don’t think that I actually let it all sink in. I don’t think I took the time to really and truly appreciate the change that was happening.

As Gareth seems to do for me time and time again, he knew something was up. And he came up with the most amazing idea to celebrate Callum.

Easel set up, paint all lined up, him and Callum came up with a plan to create a painting to show him at 3.

I made myself a cup of tea, sat back out of their way. And I watched. And listened. With tears in my eyes watching this boy of mine, he told us about all of his plans for the blank canvas, he talked about which colours were just perfect, how to stroke his brush. He congratulated himself and told himself when things looked “just perfect”, which made me realize just how much he’s listening to every single word we say.

He created a masterpiece that we’ve now hung up in his room. This is Callum. This is Callum at 3. I’ll forever look at that painting and remember him describing the blue road he painted all around the outside. How he put his brush down when he was finished and said “There, it’s bootiful now”. I’m so glad I didn’t rush back down to work when they started. I’m so glad I just sat back and took the time to see him.

I’ll remember taking the time to sit back and watch him create. Because that’s what 3 is. He’s learning to create, to find his own way, to develop his own ideas.

Danger Man is 3. How I love him so.