In the last few months I’ve watch my little boy grow and develop in leaps and bounds.  This year he turned three years old and, in the back of my mind, I’ve been a bit sad that he is outgrowing his toddler years.  Since he has been able to walk and talk we’ve been able to bond so much as father and son, as guys and as best friends.  It has been a dream come true for me.  I could go on and on about the things I will miss about our toddler years because I really, really will miss them.

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Now I’m seeing lots of signs that he is not my precious little toddler any more.  He no longer fits perfectly in my arms, he is almost too big to rock to sleep in my arms.  When we go out he often doesn’t want to hold my hand.  He speaks in full sentences, sometimes surprising me with how articulate he is becoming.  He sometimes prefers to play with his friends instead of me.

Consequently, I’ve been forced to find new comforts in the interaction and relationship with my ever growing son.  A new favorite is that if I am not at home with him I can make a phone call and he will actually talk to me and hold a conversation with me.  He loves telling stories of what has happened in the day, even though he sometimes struggles to find the words he is looking for.  He also loves helping in the kitchen.  He is quite independent, often insisting on doing something himself instead of getting help from us.  It honestly puts a smile on my face seeing him grow up but that also comes with mixed feelings.

He is growing up faster than I am ready for and that’s some what frightening.  I don’t know everything there is to know in the world and I’m already getting fifty “Why”s from him every day.  As he enter’s preschool in a few months I know there’s bound to be a situation I’m going to fumble.  I have looked forward to fatherhood and I love fatherhood but I’ve never foreseen myself past this point.  Past the stage where my little boy is no so little anymore.  I have been forced to do what every man must do from time to time, adapt.  So, as my son is taking three-years-old by the horns, I realize that I also have to grow up as a dad.  With the comfort of the aforementioned new appreciations in fatherhood, I can now humbly pat myself on the back for turning three years old, in “dad years”.

As a dad I love Twitter because it's an awesome place to share the awesome little moments of fatherhood.  However, Twitter does not make it easy to go back and read, reminisce or save the great moments I've shared–and I do want to save some of these moments/tweets.  So here are some of the great moments/tweets I just had to preserve in my blog because I have multiple, automatic backups for my blog and I just couldn't let them become lost in the twitterverse.  They are chronologically ordered from the newest to the oldest so if you allow me to take up a few minutes of your time, here they are.

1. Reading up on night terrors, I think Squirt had one the other night. – May 18, 2010
2. Talking with my 3 yr old son is so much fun now. He is becoming so articulate and I love how he gestures with his hands. – May 15, 2010
3. Lol, I keep pronouncing words that begin with s-w like my son pronounces them, with a f-w sound. "Sweet" becomes "fweet". – May 12, 2010
4. Today Squirt was giving nods to pedestrians. One guy noded back to him and he was so happy. Wanted to buy that guy a beer or something. – May 12, 2010
5. Watching Diego with Squirt. I just learned that iguanas hibernate. – May 10, 2010
6. Squirt's gesturing with his arms while talking to me. #awestruck #prouddad – May 09, 2010
7. He's eating his 2nd ear of corn on the cob now. – May 09, 2010
8. My 3 yr old loves corn on the cob. Today he was husking a couple of them so I could steam them. – May 09, 2010
9. Just registered Squirt to start preschool in September. – May 07, 2010
10. Oh crap lol, now he's turning off all the lights and asking me, "Dad, you ready to go sleep?" – May 06, 2010
11. Father/son moment? Everyone's asleep but Squirt and I are being couch potatoes and watching Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. – May 06, 2010
12. Just got Squirt a Matchbox R/C car. He's grasping the concept pretty good. My boy's in heaven. – May 06, 2010
13. Marketing does work. My 3 yr old son saw the Burger King commercial now he wants to go for the Ironman toys. – May 06, 2010
14. I love when my 3 yr old son and I have things in common but this has got to be one of the coolest: he's an AC/DC fan. – May 05, 2010
15. Yes, yes it is RT @spudsgotstonz: @BusyDadBlog Whiskey is like band-aids for dads – May 04, 2010
16. We play Ironman too, I throw him up and he pretends he is flying off into the sky. Ironman has always been his hero. – May 03, 2010
17. Ha, Squirt: "Mom you're NOT Ironman. Daddy and I are Ironman." Can't wait to take him to see Ironman 2. – May 03, 2010
18. Trying to relax with a couple cold beers but Squirt wants to go ride his bike out by the sea wall. Brb. #fatherhood – Apr 25, 2010
19. Sweet all done, I'm gonna put a huge canvas of all Squirt's childhood paints on the wall. – Apr 21, 2010
20. Scanning Squirt's paintings into my computer. – Apr 21, 2010
21. Today Squirt and I will be scouting preschools. – Apr 13, 2010
22. Squirt got restless at home, took him window shopping for half an hour. He was so polite, saying "excuse me" to everyone in his way. – Apr 12, 2010
23. Spent the afternoon watching Squirt swim at the beach. He had a great time. – Jul 03, 2009
24. It's not easy to sleep in when your 2yr old son is prying your eyes open with two of his fingers. – Jul 03, 2009
25. Ahh, Mommy just frightened Kai with the blender. – Jun 27, 2009
26. My little Squirt's been playing with the neighbors little boy all evening. It's interesting watching him play with someone he doesn't know. – Jun 26, 2009
27. With a toddler, its almost impossible to have a nice home. It's like we spend every minute cleaning some part of the house. – Jun 26, 2009
28. Wife just handed me a cold six pack & my 2 yr old son just sang Happy Birthday to me. Can't beat that. Great Bday and Father's Day. – Jun 21, 2009
29. Watching Squirt run around endlessly. It's so cool. – Jun 17, 2009
30. Had Mommy's Bday party yday. Squirt was playing the yard & ended up scraping his knees for the 1st time. He was having so much fun b4 that. – Jun 13, 2009
31. Just got back from our nightly ritual of taking Squirt for a drive until he falls asleep. Seems the best way on these hot summer nights. – Jun 10, 2009
32. Squirt's stayed at Grandma's house the other night. She told us he slept the whole night in big boy underwear and no accidents. AWESOME! – Jun 04, 2009
33. Spent the whole morning hanging with Squirt. Wish I had more days like this. – May 29, 2009
34. Just got home. Enjoying PBnJ sandwiches with Squirt on the verandah. – May 26, 2009
35. Squirt just fell on the tile and got a bloody lip. Awful way to end the night. (sigh) – May 21, 2009
36. Have to take Squirt for a blood test today. Not one of our better days to say the least. – May 15, 2009
37. 4 am: Squirt's up with a fever. He wants to watch Diego. No idea where his Diego DVD is. – May 14, 2009
38. Squirt peeed all by himself…on the step but we were still proud of him. He just pulled down the front of his shorts and did his thing. – May 12, 2009
39. Squirt just got up to pee in the bathroom instead of wetting his daiper. Big milestone – May 10, 2009
40. On the agenda today: I will try to teach Squirt how play on the Wii. Get him started on the right foot you know. – May 02, 2009
41. It's fun watching Diego with Squirt, he knows all the songs and dances with the characters. – May 01, 2009
42. Took Squirt for his 2nd MMR shot & a flu shot today. 2nd month in a row he's gotten two shots in one day. Stay away swine flu. – Apr 27, 2009
43. We took Squirt to the carnival that's in town. He went on his very 1st carnival ride and he liked it. – Apr 27, 2009
44. Got Squirt a haircut this week but looks like I'm the only one that thinks he looks cute. Mommy likes him with longer hair it seems. – Apr 18, 2009
45. Squirt says that dogs say arf, cats say meow, cows say moo and lions say I LIKE TO MOVE IT MOVE IT! Parents with toddlers may get this. – Apr 16, 2009
46. Sweet! My iPod still works. – Apr 16, 2009
47. GREAT, Squirt got a hold of my iPod Touch again and put it in the pool. Its just blinking and the screen is blank now. – Apr 10, 2009
48. …LOL, had to pull over–Squirt had to pee. First time in public. Kind of a father son moment. – Apr 09, 2009
49. AWESOME!! Squirt and I were headbanging to Metallica in the car. m/ – Apr 09, 2009
50. With a toddler, we're always referring to ourselves in the third-person, sometimes, even when he's not around. – Apr 09, 2009
51. Yeah! Squirt just put his shirt on by himself for the first time! – Apr 03, 2009
52. 4:45 am: Squirt's up already but after Mommy changed his diaper he put on his own pants for the first time so that made my day – Apr 01, 2009
53. I need a beer. – Mar 29, 2009
54. LOL I'm washing the car and Squirts running through the puddles. – Mar 28, 2009
55. LOL, Squirt's trying to do cartwheels like his sister. – Mar 26, 2009
56. Squirt's out grown his 1st Calvin Klien jeans. It was a cool pair too. – Mar 20, 2009
57. LOL, I mean IN the living room. – Mar 20, 2009
58. 2:30 am: squirt can't sleep so we're watching TV on the living room. – Mar 20, 2009
59. Squirt's 2yrs old now, had a great party, played dodgeball, we did not win, got hit. Afterwards he played on my old skateboard til bedtime. – Mar 19, 2009
60. Sweet! Got my iPod to work again, it crapped out after I let Squirt get a hold of it yesterday. (sighs of relief) – Mar 18, 2009
61. today's adventures: buying a new tv remote (I suspect squirt drooled all over the old one) then, filling in as his horsey – Mar 12, 2009
62. Had to pull over to the side of the road for squirt to pee (1st time in public) but, it was a false alarm – Mar 11, 2009
63. there's nothing like having my son fall asleep on my chest, makes up for having to stay up til past 11pm last night to get him to sleep – Mar 11, 2009
64. tried to catch up on sleep but squirt didn't let me so we went for a bike ride to the park and back – Mar 10, 2009
65. yday squirt and I went to the park to fly his new kite. I found out its hard to chase a toddler and fly a kite at the same time. – Mar 10, 2009

I used My Tweebo to download all of my past tweets in PDF form, if you are interested in saving your own tweets.