Little Moments: February ’14 Edition

After I wrote this post, I started thinking of a million other things I should have said about my boys. I used to record key moments in a journal, but I really don’t have time to duplicate efforts right now by journaling and blogging, so I’m going to make a point of noting the details of each phase with the boys on my blog and call it “Little Moments.” If you’re interested in what my kids are up to these days, then you’re going to love it! If you don’t really care about how “Parker said the funniest thing yesterday,” then these are the posts you’re going to want to skip.

So here goes…

Austin

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Apparently my little Austin goob (*see below for nickname explanation) is growing up because he can walk now!!! He took his first step the day after Christmas, but then there was a bit of a lull. I thought he was going to start walking soon, but even though he would take a step here or there when he was in the mood, not much happened after that. Then all of a sudden about a week and a half ago, Austin just started walking (note: this means he beat Parker’s record by a couple weeks… go Austin!). He was still a bit wobbly, of course. Sometimes he’d make it half way across the room and other times he’d fall after a couple steps, but he was walking! He’s getting so much more comfortable walking with each passing day and is starting to prefer walking to crawling. Clint and I are loving it, of course, and Parker is excited too– he’s looking forward to being able to play chase with Austin. 🙂 I’m looking forward to that too, really– I think Austin’s mobility will lead to them playing together even more.

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My mischievous little mover also loves the stairs. He knows he’s not supposed to be climbing them unsupervised, so he always giggles when you catch him going for the stairs. We have 13 steps, and he can scale them easily. He also loves getting into the dog food and water, and there is no redirecting him from it. Cider (our dog) doesn’t like it when we move her food and water, but we often end up with it up on a table to keep him from getting into it. Another hobby he has is knocking the wine bottles onto the floor. Sure we probably shouldn’t have wine bottles within his reach, but we have a lovely buffet that holds wine, and we really have no other place for them anyway, so it is what it is. Fortunately we haven’t ended up with a broken bottle yet. A new source of entertainment for Austin that I particularly enjoy (enter sarcastic tone here) is the knock all the books from the shelf game. Come on now… mommy doesn’t need more messes to clean up. Speaking of which, I might think the floors are clean, but Austin is always proving me wrong. He has a particular knack for finding small pieces of things, like scraps of paper, shredded bits of dog toys, or dryer lint, and of course they go straight into his mouth. So I guess he has good vision and his pincer grip is coming along nicely, lol. When bath time comes, he finds more goodies… the first thing Austin goes for is the razors (if mommy forgets to move them), then the soap, and he can’t forget to knock the conditioner to the ground. Maybe someday we’ll have a separate shower for us so I don’t have to move everything to the counter and back each night.

Besides walking, Austin’s other big first is his new tooth. It’s broken through the skin, but you can barely see it on the bottom front of his mouth. For whatever reason, both of my boys got their teeth late. Austin’s eating more and more solid foods these days. He can eat the majority of what we eat now, which is nice. He has a pretty good little appetite too and will try most foods we offer him. His favorites are still breads and crackers, but he’s starting to really like yogurt as well. Austin is also learning to drink water out of a cup. Sometimes he does this really well, but a lot of the time he ends up with water all down his front.

Parker

Parker is at an interesting age right now. On one hand, this age seems to come with a lot of drama and boundary testing, which can really wear me out. On the other hand, he can understand and appreciate so many more things, communicate well, and enjoy a variety of new activities, which means this age can be a lot of fun too. Parker’s expressions are a kick. He likes to add “right mommy?” to the end of his sentences sometimes. He’ll say things like, “We all work together, right mommy?” He also announces almost daily that either Clint or I are his “best friend.” This is usually an exclusive and temporary role– some days Daddy is the best friend, in which case mommy can’t be the best friend, and other days mommy is the best friend and “daddy is not my best friend today.” One of my favorite “seeing inside the head of a toddler” moments was when we were on the way to my parents’ house for Christmas and Parker asked, “Do grandma and grandpa have a dog or a cat?” I explained to him that they had neither, but that we had our dog with us. Apparently that wasn’t good enough, and he declared, “Grandma and Grandpa need a pet.” Then he asked, “do they have toys?” Once again I explained to him that they did not. I could just see him thinking why in the world would we go to their house if they don’t have a pet or toys?

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I love watching Parker’s skills develop. He’s so smart and so curious. We used to get a lot of “why” questions– these days we get a lot of “how” questions. He wants to understand everything. Parker still loves books and is getting really good at puzzles now. He can recognize all of the letters and knows their sounds as well as how to spell his name. One thing that particularly amazes me is that he already understands basic math! Math is not my strong suit, so this just blows my mind. He’ll ask things like, “What does two and one make?” and he’ll often know the answer… crazy! His physical strength is really taking off as well. He can climb just about anything, and he’s strong enough now to support his own weight hanging off of the monkey bars. He’s fast too, so he loves a good game of what he calls “neener neener” or “Gingerbread Man” (“you can’t catch me, I’m the Gingerbread Man”). We try to do lots of good outdoor time to let him explore and run around… keeps us both sane. 🙂

I find it really fascinating seeing Parker with other kids. He has friends at school that he has known and enjoyed since he was an infant. He plays with both boys and girls, and this can lead to some interesting expressions. Parker will talk about things being “fashionable” or ask me questions like, “Do knights in shining armor always go to the castle?” Some people he has an instant connection with, like his cousin Quinn that he absolutely adores. He also met a girl at church recently that he formed an instant relationship with. My favorite moment was when she started swaying to the music, so he started swaying, and it looked like they were slow dancing in the aisle. Anyone within viewing distance had a big grin on their face just like us as we watched this unfold. Sometimes though kids will want to play with him, and he won’t want anything to do with them. It’s hard to say why with some kids it clicks and others it doesn’t.

Back to some of the challenges of this age, Parker seems to have reached the point where fears begin to set in. He’s started caring about things like whether the light is on in the hallway as he’s going to sleep or not, and it seems like he’s having occasional nightmares (heartbreaking). He also seems to have developed what I’m thinking might be a fear of change or maybe of losing things. We’re hearing a lot of things like, “maybe they can go back” and “maybe we can get it back.” What’s weird is that he says this about things he doesn’t care about, like trash– literally a bag of trash– he likes to think we can get it back from the trash man. I’ve given up trying to reason against this because he’ll just keep saying “maybe,” so I just agree, “maybe.” Anything is possible, right? When I suggested giving some toys that we don’t use often to other kids that don’t have many toys, he freaked at the idea of losing them– like had a breakdown, not a temper tantrum. We also walk past an elementary school near our house sometimes, and when he asked about it I told him that that’s a school you go to when you get older. He said, “that school makes me cry,” and he says this about basically any school we see other than his own. The scared of the dark thing I would have expected, but all this other stuff is a bit odd to me– not sure what to make of it. Sometimes I think he gets it from me– I would have described childhood Jennifer as being sentimental and resistant to change. Other times I think maybe it’s just another aspect of the emotional three year old phase.  Any mom’s out there have a child that went through a similar phase?

The Boys

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As I’ve said before, I just can’t get enough of watching the relationship between my boys develop. When they wake up at the same time, they often enjoy chatting with each other across the room. One morning Parker said, “We’re talking to each other. Leave us in our beds.” So cute! They also really enjoy taking baths together. One of their favorite games is splash. I’m not a big fan of the wet floor, but I’ll often put up with it to some degree for love of this game. Basically Parker kicks his feet, creating big splashes and cracking Austin up. Then Austin gets in on the game and starts slapping his hands on the top of the water to create his own splashes. They laugh and they laugh, and I just love it! Parker really enjoys hide and seek these days, and surprisingly Austin understands this game pretty well. Parker will hide under a blanket, and Austin will climb on top of him or tap on him and laugh until Parker pops out from beneath it. Sometimes Parker plays too rough and makes Austin upset, and sometimes Austin wants to play when Parker would prefer to play by himself. Most of the time though, Parker tells us about how much he loves his brother, and Austin’s face makes it clear that the feeling is mutual.

*Nickname explanation from above: We often call Austin various names based off Goober, like Goob or Gooby. Parker’s nicknames are based around Goose… often Silly Goose… thus how the site name came to be. I assumed I would use this same nickname with Austin too, but Goober is what seemed to stick for him. I have no idea where either of these names came from (I mean, they came from me, but why those names… who knows!) or why I seem to have a fondness for nicknames starting with “g.” Then again, lately I have found myself calling Parker Buhbuh or Buhbee or sometimes even Magoo. Austin’s other nickname is Spirit, which can be used alone or in conjunction with other words, like Happy Spirit and Gooby Spirit. Some of the names are interchangeable between the boys too. Fortunately they respond to whatever crazy name I decide to call them. Conclusion here: Jennifer is random and maybe a little crazy.

I hope you enjoy all the little moments with your loved ones this weekend!

2 thoughts on “Little Moments: February ’14 Edition

  1. Oh my goodness, I forgot about that stage. The stage that Parker is in and I did the same thing “maybe”. It was just easier to say. As the saying goes”this to shall pass” it is true with this stage. My son went through that stage. I was blessed to have my mom at that time of life, so when she would take him is when I would lighten the unplayed with toy load. At first I hide the toys in the attic, then when I realised he didn’t miss them they went into the yard sale or donated. Enjoy this season with your boys.
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