Little Guys

I have been TERRIBLE about posting updates. I have been even worse about taking photos. Especially of my kids. Poor Gavin – Carter got every little tiny thing blogged about him and Gavin, well, he is a second kid. But he is an awesome second kid. So funny, so sweet, so wonderful. His latest words are “back” (from when I was trying to teach Carter how to use his legs to propel a swing by himself), “Owl” and “Ball”.  I am sure there are more in there that I am forgetting too. His smile lights up a room and he gets excited about everything – especially new and fun foods. We went out to dinner last weekend and he had strawberry lemonade for the first time and you would have thought he died and had gone to heaven.

Carter is in a MUCH different spot. I thought the two’s were hard, three’s are REALLY giving me a run for my money. The biggest difference is the blatant defiance from him. When he was two, he was learning the ropes and trying to figure it out. At three, he knows. And he doesn’t give a rip. With all that challenge also comes a kid who is extremely curious, smart as a whip (insert the pain of three even more), and so verbal I forget he is only three. Carter loves to ask “why” now for everything. Sometimes because he doesn’t understand. Sometimes because he knows it will piss you off. He can weave a story that includes some parts of his day, some parts of his “shooter-gun” imagination (he is not allowed anything violent since we have been trying to make sure he doesn’t wail on his brother), and all the people he knows. I really need to video him doing it because it is hysterical who he fights, why, and how. And who is involved.

Carter is going to start a new preschool at the end of the month and this will be the one he sticks with until he heads off to kindergarten. We had to fill out a questionnaire and one of the questions asked what we hoped to get from the experience for him. Besides the usual answers (“socialization” “following instructions in a group setting”), Jeremy and I decided to put, “How to read, spell, and write” in there as well. I think that the people running the preschool will think we are crazy, but he is trying to spell things on his own right now. He gets it wrong more often than not, but he is working hard on his phonics and it will come. He can spell his own name easily, knows the letters of the alphabet without thinking, and is already figuring out phonics, so I honestly don’t think it is a long shot. He also recently figured out the patterns for the 20s, 30s, and 40s, so he can easily count to 50 and do simple math problems.

I am writing all of this out because I know I will forget this stuff – the wonderful attributes that make him so unique. Partly because what I see is an independent three year old ALWAYS pushing the boundaries, blatantly disregarding what you say, and challenging everything. And partly because these are attributes I will respect him for having later in life, but at three, sometimes I need the time out because it is exhausting having to repeat, justify, and repeat again.

Here are my boys. Not the best photo, but it shows how sweet and wonderful they are with each other (and how BIG Gavin is getting!):