i’ve been trying to teach the turkey buttons for a while now but he hasn’t had the inclination. yesterday, over the weekend, the sequel was playing with daddy’s buttons while brushing teeth and he totally figured it out. that got big brother interested so, yesterday, we got out the button straps that i had made for the busy board that i never assembled and they both worked on them on and off all day. the turkey finally figured it out. this morning, both boys wanted to wear button shirts. the sequel lost interest after the first one but the turkey managed to button the entire shirt by himself! after bathing in watermelon juice this afternoon, he also unbuttoned the whole thing on his own.
in other news, they had their best bike ride ever today. they did about two miles and they both pedaled hard enough to make momma jog the whole time! the sequel asked to take the training wheels off but i told him we’d make daddy cry if we did it while he’s out of town.
two weeks ago, my little baby woke up and declared that he wasn’t going to wear diapers anymore. i tried to talk him out of it. it was monday morning and we were going to be starting a long roadtrip wednesday… the timing, dude! but he was not to be dissuaded. he donned his big boy underpants and hasn’t looked back. we traveled to orlando, spent days at disney, traveled to alabama, and traveled back home. in two weeks, he has had three accidents – all wets. he is totally rocking this! i’ve cancelled our diaper subscription and increased my laundry frequency. my little itty-bitty baby is now a big boy and it breaks my heart but i’m so proud of him.
i sure do love my sequelisms. here lately, he’s coined the term “whobody?” while saying his prayers, he’ll go through and pray for several people and then ask us “whobody else?” when we’re going to see friends, he gets all excited asking which friends we’re going to see and end with “and whobody else?” it cracks me up.
tonight, out of the blue, he declared that “momma makes me happy!”
it’s been a seriously dreary fall/winter around here. so many foggy, rainy, or cloudy days make for restless boys and a depressed momma. however; whenever we have had the slightest window in the weather, we’ve been going down to the pool to drain some energy and collect some smiles. they’ve both been doing really great but today was exceptional. the turkey has been a mostly self-sufficient swimmer for a while now. he started surfacing for breaths a few months ago and he just took off after that. the sequel has been frighteningly brave for a while now… he’ll just jump out into the water with no announcement and expect one of us to know he’s coming and get him. he has not figured out surfacing for breath yet but he doesn’t panic. he just looks up at us from under the water with complete trust that we’ll get him. i’ve been so concerned about his survival abilities.
while he’s been all about swimming to us, he’s been completely unwilling to swim away from us. instead, he’ll swim from the steps to us and then ask us to take him back to the steps. today, he did something completely new. he started jumping off the wall and swimming to me (about 5-6 feet) and then swimming back to the wall to climb out and do it again. i don’t know what got into him but i was so proud and he was having a blast. and now i feel a lot better about his chances of surviving if he were to somehow fall into a pool without us noticing right away.
we have officially joined the dark side and are now living the minivan life. personally, i love it. it’s so spacious and comfy and i couldn’t be happier. and it was so nice to be able to pile my sister and her family into one care to go out to eat.
the sequel is pretty excited about it too since he is now forward facing. he finds the improved view to be quite a momentous occasion.
the sequel’s new favorite phrase is “i don’t know. let’s find out!” i wish i could catch him saying it on video because it’s not just the words but the way he says it. it’s so funny.
the sequel amuses me to no end with what comes out of his mouth. for halloween, i told him as we walked up to each house to say “trick or treat”. i finally got him to say it but he wouldn’t give up his own tagline: “trick or treat i want some!” (one run-on sentence). i couldn’t help laugh even though it came off rather rude. he did at least say “thank you” of his own accord.
for weeks, he’s been on a “you make me feel sad” kick. i’m not even sure where he got this from but the really funny part is his use… he says it when i get onto him to do something like eat or drink or brush his teeth.
his answer to every “why?” is “because i like it.” why did you take your shoes off? because i like it. why is your shirt wet? because i like it. why is there food in your ear? because i like it. it’s the end-all answer.
of course, “all by myself” and “i’m big boy” or “i’m a big man” are hugely popular as well. he is stubbornly independent and over-confident. the turkey has a lot of quit; the sequel doesn’t know the meaning of quit.
we have had some major breakthroughs on the swimming front over the last month. the turkey is now swimming under the water like a little fish. he’s swimming all around the steps and out-and-back between us and the steps for a good 10-15 feet. today, for the first time, he started popping up to take a breath of air in the middle of his swimming. he’ll be going the whole distance before we know it.
the sequel was doing great but has become more cautious in the last few weeks which has led to a bit of a regression. today, however, he grabbed the kickboard and figured out how to balance himself on it and kick around all by himself. he’ll swim between us and the steps up to 5 feet but he’s not as eager about it as he used to be.
we were having a great time playing at the kiddie park area of the local aquatic center for the first time this morning. unfortunately, the sequel missed a step one of his times climbing up and down the slides and hit his mouth. at first, i thought he just caught the bottom of his chin and it was no big deal. unfortunately, when i sat him down to inspect him more thoroughly, i found that he had knocked his lower front teeth loose too. hard to tell the extent but one of them is sticking further forward and twisted to the side a bit now. i feel so badly. when we got home, i made him a nice soft lunch but it still hurt him and he kept asking me every few bites to kiss his teeth. it broke my heart… my kisses are supposed to make all the hurt stop and he just kept looking at me like “why isn’t it working, momma?” i am praying that he’ll have the restraint to stop touching and tonguing at them so that maybe they can re-seat themselves and it’ll all be fine. we’ll baby his poor mouth for the holiday weekend and keep a close watch and evaluate on tuesday whether he needs to see a dentist.
i was snuggling with the sequel, who is a big thumb-sucker, this morning. i went to take his night shirt off to start getting ready for the day and when i took his left hand to take the sleeve off, he shouted “no, no, no! snuggle finger!” i laughed and laughed. he’s never used that term before and it was just too adorable.
The boys have been making giant strides in the pool this week. They are both diving diving under to get pool toys, first couple steps for the sequel and up to 3.5 feet for the turkey. This is huge for the turkey who has a generally cautious personality. He’s also started swimming back and forth across the steps. The sequel, on the other hand, is completely fearless. He’ll jump into the deep and just float under the surface staring up at us with complete trust that we’ll get him.
over the last few weeks, the boys’ favorite play has been “worship service.” they have lego pieces they’ve declared to be microphones (although we accidentally left those in AL this week so we’ve had to make new ones) and they get up on the trampoline, plug in their mics, and ask if we’re all ready for the service. then they joyfully jump up and down while singing (read: shouting) “power in the name of jesus” or “what a beautiful name it is.” they raise their hands and get all into it. the turkey has even started taking a break between songs to bow his head and say a prayer.
every time i feel like we’re completely failing at this parenting stuff, they do something to make me think we can’t be messing up too badly.
the sequel made the move from three to two wheels on his balance bike this weekend and he’s doing great. he can already coast again!
we want to get the turkey a real bike for his birthday but we still have to push him to ride his trike where he can practice pedaling. he’s so fast and good on his balance bike, he just doesn’t want to move on!
the turkey really pedaled his tricycle for the first time today. he had a major meltdown about it but he did it and he was able to pedal himself around for quite a while before we finally gave into the tantrum and let him go back to his balance bike. he might not have been too happy about it but hubby and i were very excited and encouraging. if he can get the pedaling piece down, i think he’ll be ready for a real big boy bike.
meanwhile, the sequel decided this week that he’s a bike-rider too. he’s been riding his little mini balance trike all over the place. he’s turning and steering and doing so great. he also started driving brother’s cozy coupe car today. he’s been able to make it go backward for a while now but today was the first time he was able to flinstone it forward. these boys are growing so fast!
the sequel has the most endearing sense of manners right now. he says “please” for something and then follows up with “thank you.” when we respond with “you’re welcome,” he shouts in his beautifully joyful voice “i welcome!” i seriously love these exchanges.