My firstborn - one of my great joys

You might know from previous blogs that one of Cole's jobs is putting away all of his clean laundry. A skill that works perfectly with that is picking out clothes and dressing himself which he's been doing for about 5 months. They go so well together because it insures that I don't have to look in his drawers. I try to keep clothes pared down so that the drawers still close easily even if the clothes in them are all out of sorts from having been dug through. For the obsessive types like me, this is great. I don't see it, it doesn't bother me, and the kid comes out dressed every day...who knew. I tell him whether it's church clothes or play clothes, short sleeved or long sleeved, and he picks out what he likes and gets dressed. This will insure that if there is an orange shirt and orange shorts in the drawer, they WILL be worn together. And 99% of the time I'm able to swallow my pride and let him wear what even his fashion-challenged mother knows is a clashing outfit. But he's so proud of the skill, I try to keep my mouth clamped. It's one thing he can do to be helpful and independent and he loves it.

 

One of his funniest quirks that tickles me every time is his aversion to broken food. If it's a sandwich, he wants it whole. If it's a chip or cracker, he wants no parts broken off of it. He's so particular about this that he separates chips into piles...one for broken ones, one for whole ones. He keeps the whole ones, then presents Tyson with the broken ones with an offer to trade. Tyson couldn't care less what shape his chips are in and he always agrees to a trade. But even if Tyson has inhaled all of his chips and doesn't have any to trade, Cole will 80% of the time give his broken chips to Tyson anyway just because he doesn't like broken chips. I love this little guy! :)