Tyson talking here. Let me update you on our life over the last 9 months. Our neighbor did some yard work and had a mini-excavator for a couple days. Can you say AWESOME! He not only let us sit in it, he let us DRIVE IT with him! Up and down the driveway and everything. He has solidified himself as the coolest neighbor so far...there's not much above driving an excavator for small boys.
We got to play Mini Golf for the first time in our lives. It was pretty much awesome, especially when you use your club as a "guide" instead of just whacking the ball a few times. Lowers your score considerably if you only actually lose contact with the ball 1 time between the tee and the hole.
Our family at the beach in Gulf Shores, May 2013. Aunt Rachel had the coolest idea of glow stick freeze tag on the beach at night, one highlight of the trip. That's the moon between the 'rents heads.
We went to an alligator farm too. Guess which person below is the most nervous? I'll give you a hint...his age is in the double digits.
I'm a little bookworm. I love to sit on the couch with a good stack for a cozy look-through. In December Mom read us our first chapter book that doesn't have pictures on every page, "Little House in the Big Woods." Even I, at 3 years old, will sit through all the words. It's a good thing she can't see what's going on in my mind, I'm in 4 different worlds while she's reading...at the same time. It's called a good imagination, it helps me through the pages with no pictures. Then we read "Stuart Little" and now we're working on "Little House on the Prairie" and "The Mouse and the Motorcycle."
Below I am "fishing" with a stick poked in the water down by the lake. I couldn't say my "th" sounds yet and had picked up some sayings from who knows where. The current declaration of coolness, which I used for this stick standing up in the water, was, "Hey Mom, look at this fancy thing!" Which sounds like "fancy fang" and they all thought it was just the cutest thing they'd ever heard.
Cole and I had swimming lessons in the spring. Well, let me clarify. Cole had lessons, I spent all of the first lesson 20 feet away from the pool and was mercifully allowed to discontinue after that. But sometimes being reluctant gets you some stuff, and we got goggles to help us brave putting our heads in the water...and wore them from the store, all the way home.
"Cars" and "Cars 2" still figure VERY prominently in our lives...we've been collecting more characters over the year, most of which have been welcome...except for the sorry lot of them that Momma got from a consignment sale...she didn't realize they were rubber and the wheels didn't move...it's hard to race a car that won't race.
Cole and I continue to be just about best friends. We both think Freeman is our best friend, but Momma thinks we're actually each other's best friends, we play almost always very nicely together and have a great time. Here we are enjoying shelling some peanuts for a snack. Momma says this reminds her of Grandpa Dennis, he loved to shell peanuts on a cookie sheet on the living room floor together...especially at Christmas.
We spend a lot of time outside, just hangin' around.
And I got a bike so now I can ride too...well, I COULD ride, if the van hadn't inadvertently demolished one of my training wheels...and if the replacement training wheels we bought had actually fit. Right now I'm afraid that my bike has training wheels on it that hold the back tire off the ground...so it's basically an exercise bike for 3 year olds right now. I'm holding out hope for a new one for my birthday.
One of Cole's favorite pastimes continues to be "going on a trash hunt." We take a trash bag, "the grabber," a long-handled net, and our ingenuity, and then I mostly sit in the stroller and Cole hunts and finds and finagles trash out of anywhere he sees it on the trails or in the lake or ditch, and puts it in the bag. It's all about the hunt and the triumph for him. If it was all out in the open it would lose his interest. He loves it because there are half-submerged bottles full of mud, and cans that are too big for the grabber, and plastic bags with a rock on top, etc. He can't touch the trash with his hands so he has to be creative and figure out how to get it out and get it back to Momma and the bag. He's a little engineer at work.
Below is one of his proudest accomplishments from the 20 times we went trash hunting this year. He balanced a pail upside down on top of a bottle so he could get them both in only one trip up from the ditch.
Momma was starting to get to her wit's end trying to figure out how to curb a few key behaviors in us, and one day these showed up on the fridge. One sticker for every time we say "Please" the first time when we ask for something. 10 stickers equals a new Matchbox car - she got a whole case of 60 or so of them at a garage sale, but we can't play with them unless we earn them...one by one...and then they can be added to our current collection. But everyone knows that it doesn't matter if a boy has 50 matchbox cars, the lure of the 51st is just as exciting. The charts have made DRASTIC improvements in our demands for things. So drastic that we no longer get stickers for saying "please," the charts have been repurposed for doing something the first time we're asked. That's a little harder for me because I don't usually come back to earth from whatever imaginary planet I'm on until the 2nd or 3rd time I'm asked, but I'm working on it. She also got some sand timers, 3, 5, and 7 minutes. Most kids have a hard time grasping time and doing things quickly...I have an impossible time with it. Because I live on other planets in my mind most of the time, focusing on a task at hand almost blows my mind. The timers have done the trick, though. I have no excuse when I can see with my own eyeballs how much sand I have left to finish emptying the dishwasher or picking up the Tinker Toys. Good investment, she says. Now if I see her going for the timer I yell, "No!!! I can do it without the timer!!"
Lots of summer fun. Boys put some nasty stuff in their mouths, they'll drink anything out of anything. But really, who wouldn't want to drink out of an old hoze nozzle?
A couple times a year we wash the van, and one day we decided to give Daddy's truck a little run-down. These dollar-store spray bottles have been a continual good investment...little boys just love a stream of water they can squirt anywhere their heart desires.
I told you, we're buddies.
Best buddies.
Now for the birthdays! Momma isn't a party planner, so we don't have a big hoopla party with clever games and activities. She focuses her energies on whatever cake we choose. This year I had several choices so she picked the one she thought I'd like most which was "Red", the fire truck from the Cars movie for my 3rd birthday. I loved it.
Oh right, we do have parents. Here they are. They went on a weekend getaway to the beach and we got to stay at Mimi's house. They said they're happier now than the day they got married. I tried to tell them that's because I'm around, but they still left us out of the trip. Oh well, they do seem pretty happy to be married to each other so I guess I can sacrifice a little.
AHA! They must've felt bad, they took us to the beach a month later! Well, actually Mimi and Grandpa and Mamena did and Mom and Dad just came along with us, but who needs to split hairs. Cole and I actually got INTO THE WATER and swam! There was a God-given sandbar where we were staying that made a lovely big "pool" for us to swim in, and a huge sandbar to play on where the waves weren't crazy and scary. We had a GREAT time in the water and on the sand.
We went to Pensacola Beach this time, and the water was crystal clear. We chased schools of minnows and caught crabs in our nets...well, Momma did, but again, who needs to split hairs?
Grandpa's good at catching things too.
"Mom, I'm the little boy, and this is my schoolbus (as I climb onto the swing), and this is my lunchbox (the birdhouse) and now I'm all ready for school."
Momma took us to the store for Halloween costumes. Cole decided to wear his monster costume again from last year, and I picked the Rooster one. I got called a chicken several times, but people these days don't know their animals...I was a ROOSTER.
Cole wanted a "Cars" cake and Momma made him a racetrack cake with frosted rice krispie treats for the stands and everything. Cole's 5 now, that means he's very cool.
Momma tried to do one of those "you're the best mom EVER" things and make edible acorns for us to take to preschool. Mind you, usually when you're trying to do those kinds of things, you're really trying to impress other moms and not us kids. We don't really care so much about edible acorns...and they're always WAY HARDER than they looked in the picture. But she and Cole got it done and we hauled them off to preschool. From the way she was muttering, though, I'm not holding out too much hope that we'll be making other edible elements of nature.
Daddy's birthday was in December and he decided he didn't want to be left out of the cool cakes. He wanted a Mr. T cake from the A-Team, one of his favorite shows as a kid. Momma didn't think she could do it, with him having an actual face and all, but Daddy says that after this she should feel that she can conquer ANY request. She's nervous about what's going to be asked for next year.
And then the biggest life change this year, Mommy and Daddy are halfway through being certified as a foster family with the state of Mississippi for kids my age and younger. They hope to be certified by the end of the school year. I don't know what that will mean for me except that they talk to us about it a lot and how we'll have to share our toys and share their time and it'll be hard, but they also talk to us about kids that need a safe place to live for a little while until they can go home to their Mommas and Daddys again. They know that God made each one of those kids in His image, He loves them, and they are important to Him...just like I'm important to Him. I know Mommy and Daddy believe 100% that God wants us to open our home to those kids that God loves just as much as He loves me. It'll be hard, but they say that God promises to give us all that we need for what He calls us to...moment by moment. He holds the future in His loving hands, even when it's really really hard. Sometimes I get up early and sit with them while they pray and I hear them praying for God to guide us, help us, and keep us faithful to follow Him, the God whose faithfulness to us never falters.
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