1. We still love to read books, and there are a few things that are regular parts of any book reading. Cole still wants to hear something read from every page, even the blank ones. One day I was on the copyright/dedication page and apparently I picked a different item to read than previously because he said, "No, you're supposed to read the part that says 'To my wonderful mom'." Sure enough, that's who the book was dedicated to.
2. Reading a Christmas book by Laura Ingalls Wilder I was reminded again that at 3 he has a lot of these books memorized. I was reading sloppily and read, "They played outside in the soft snow." "No, Mom," Cole admonishes, "They played outside in the soft DEEP snow." Correct again.
3. Cole is very aware of facial expressions in books. I love to see him look at details like this, and often his question is, "Mom, what are they doing with their eyes?" So I show him using my eyes and describe the emotion the illustrator is trying to show by what their eyes are doing.
4. We read a Bible story most mornings at breakfast out of "The Jesus Storybook Bible." As do all kids, they want to see the pictures close up. So every morning Cole would ask, "Mom, move it closer." And I would hold it up just out of reach of his sticky fingers and he would look hard at the pictures. Now Tyson, who is a little motor mouth, chants "Move it closer, Mom!" from the moment I open the book until I move it close to him. Every page turn elicits another round of "Move it closer!"
5. Cole's favorite songs for a long time have been "I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever" which he calls "The Mercies", "The Lord said to Noah" which he calls "The Noah", and "Onward Christian Soldiers" which sounds like "Tus-tan Soul-ders". Those are always his requests before bed. "The Mercies" is far and away his favorite song of all time at this point in his life.
6. I guess it's that old sin nature rearing its head...Cole loves all things that are "bad." He wants to be a BAD monkey, or a BAD ostrich, or eat BAD, or look at me BAD. He lowers his voice to a growl and furrows his brow and growls out, "I'm looking at you BAD" when he's upset. One time he told me, "I'm gonna be a BAD example for Tyson." He gets disciplined for it, but there's something about it that appeals to him that's worth the discipline. If you ask him if he's a GOOD tiger he always comes back with, "No, I'm a BAD tiger" and squints his eyes at you. Sometimes it's done to be cute, other times it garners a spanking :).
7. Along the line of number 6, I had sent Cole to his room for being disrespectful. After time-out I went in to talk to him and explained that if he did said thing again he would get a spanking next time. He replies, under his breath..."I'll spank myself....I have a long hand."
8. I mentioned the book "Sector 7" in a recent post. The book has lots of clouds in it that are personified with faces, arms, and such. They're characters in the book but they still look like clouds. Because it's wordless I just explain the pictures or pretend like I'm reading a story. One day Cole looked for awhile at a page with some of the cloud people on it and said, "They have bad hair...I don't like them." It made me chuckle but I'm not even sure what he was referring to because none of the clouds have "hair" drawn on them.
9. Cole has just gotten into having certain favorite cups, plates, colors of things, etc. And with that has come along a desire to ask other family members which item they would like of the 2 he has in his hands. The problem is, he has no intention of giving you the item you want. His plan all along is to give you whichever one he doesn't want, but he goes out of his way to ask. I've tried to explain that this is ugly, but it hasn't deterred him. It goes like this: He spends extra time to find 2 sippy cups even though Tyson hasn't even asked for one...Cole's the one who's thirsty. "Tyson," says Cole triumphantly as he presents the 2 cups to Tyson, "Which one would you want?" And no matter which one Tyson points to, he always gets the one with the "dogs and stars" on it because Cole doesn't like that one. If Tyson points to the blank cup (the one Cole wants), Cole says, "Well, that's the one that I'm going to have. Here, you have this one." It repeats itself with anything that there is more than 1 of. Lots of offers, but really there's only one option for the one being questioned.
10. One morning Cole came to me and showed me a scratch on his knee. "I got this bobo at my work...it's kinda by Millie and Simon's house...you go down Old Canton and it's kind've over there...kinda by Evan's house." - I fell out when he threw "Old Canton" in there...it's a real street in Jackson!
11. Most people I hear who have 2 kids say that they can't understand the younger one but the older one translates for them and can understand them much better than the parents can. That is definitely not the case in our house. Actually, if you listen to Cole's interpretation of Tyson, you'll be further from reality than if you just listen to Tyson. It usually goes like this. Tyson says what sounds like, "I see gee-a-woe". I say, "What did you say, Tyson? You see green..." I trail off as I'm trying to think of what he could be talking about. He has an extensive vocabulary and can form 4-word sentences with it, so I know he's saying something coherent when he repeats it several times. Cole pipes in immediately, "NO, Mom, he's not saying that. He's saying 'I see GEE-A-WOE". Turns out he was saying "I see kangaroo". Or this one: "Mommy, mih pay!" Me: "Are you saying something about playing?" "NO, Mom, he's saying, 'Mommy, MIH PAY!" He was actually saying that I "missed a page" in the book we were reading and he wanted to turn back to it. But thanks for the suggestions, Cole.
12. Each night before the boys go to bed Thomas or I pray with them. Sometimes Cole follows up the prayer with something he wants to pray for. One night he had seen pictures of his 3rd birthday where Daddy took him out on a Father-Son celebration and he said, "Mommy! You forgot to pray for Chuck E. Cheese and the ice cream store!" Usually I can think of some way to incorporate it into a prayer, but this one left me thinking....we thanked God for a good daddy who does fun things with us :).
13. One day they're playing in the other room and I can hear that difficulty is brewing. Cole comes flying out to the living room looking gleeful while I hear Tyson bellowing in the back room still. "What's wrong with Tyson?" I ask Cole. He replies, giggling, "He wants to hit me with his shoe!" Sure enough, no sooner were the words out of his mouth than here comes Tyson charging around the corner looking like an ornery bull, with his shoe raised as he chases after Cole :).
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15. Another Bible musing from Cole: I was recapping yesterday's Bible story of Jesus' birth (no room at the inn, they had to stay in the stable) to Cole at breakfast before we read about the shepherds coming to see Baby JEsus. Cole thoughtfully says, "I'll call Daddy and see if he can make a house for the lady and the donkey and the little boy. One for each of them. I think he will be able to."
What a joy to be here for all these sweet, funny, frustrating, but wondeful times with my boys!
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