Some funnies from the funny guy!

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 :).

14. A Bible lesson from Cole: One morning we read the story of the Three Wise Men coming to see Jesus and at the end of the story I flipped the page to put our marker in the story for tomorrow. It's been months since we've last read the story of John the Baptist but Cole sees the picture of John and asks if that's Jesus. "No, that's John. You'll have to wait until tomorrow to see what the story is about," I say with anticipation. "Is that the man that takes ladybugs and bees and grasshoppers and dips them in honey?" he asks...:) close enough

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!

 

March at the Dent Abode



Drinking anything, ESPECIALLY plain old water, is always more fun from a really big cup...without a top on it...with a straw. We have a cool mom.  



Yep, I'm still obsessed with drumming! I entertain myself with some form of drumming, setting up a drum, organizing my drum corner, etc at least 1/3 of the time I'm playing every day. Mom often opens the back of the van when we're playing on the driveway because we love to play in our seats or in the back. This day I found a pressure cooker in the back...Mom took it away, it was just too loud. 

And this is what Tyson does...checks out the vents, sits in my seat, tests the lights... 

One day Mom turned around from cooking to find this: got my saxophone propped in my mouth using my legs to hold it while I drum on a homemade "drum" and a toy drum with both hands.

My favorite animal is the ostrich, but it used to be the llama. And anyone who knows their llama family knows that one of the llama's relatives is the guanaco. This swing is the blue guanaco, and what I'm doing is called "Riding the Guanaco". Tyson has been able to say "Gah-Co!" for months, he likes to ride it too. 

And here's the little show-stopper himself. This is a good example why buying things used works for us. Mom got Tyson these cowboy boots at a consignment sale for $5. The only problem? His chunky legs can barely fit in them so he hobbles around for 20 seconds then wants them off. They'll be back in the "to sell" bucket for the fall. Gotta get slim if you wanna look cool, Ty-ty.

Mom's kind've a neat freak although she tries to let go and let us enjoy life, and today she got the stamps out. I stamped a little but mostly just inked my hands. 

Most kids are afraid of loud noises. Tyson and I both love to help vacuum, watch Daddy mow, and here Daddy even let me use the blower to help him blow off the driveway!

Mom says this picture is the joy of motherhood for her. We were playing in our room nicely together and came in the kitchen to say, "Mom, look at me and Tyson!" and this is what she saw. We think we look cool, she just chuckled and hugged us. 

Best $20 spent - the elephant pool

If you know me, you know I've resurrected my love of garage saling and I'm less likely to buy something new because of how cheap you can find almost anything on a yard sale. But I took the plunge with a pool, and what a good buy this was. You hook the hose up to it and it creates a sprinkler head. They love it!
Tyson really got into splashing in it.

And Cole had a great time throwing water on Daddy. Daddy got more water on Cole, but he was a good sport and let Cole get him a little bit :).

The sweet moments of brotherly comraderie

I have an idea...I'll be a big helper...
Off to help water the flowers. Hmmm...well, the bigger pot doesn't have any flowers...oh well, I can't resist "big" even if it's worthless.

Not only no flowers, there's actually nothing in this pot...kinda trashy mom...the neighbors will talk.

Oh look, I had some leftovers...

Easily distracted.....Cole! There's a dry spot!

Coming Tyson!!!

Whew....just in time, I saved the poor plant from certain demise at the hands of my brown-thumbed mother.

The Little Drummer Boy

I know every child goes through phases of obsession with certain things, but this phase has lasted for a good 3 months now. THE DRUMMING CONTINUES!! Cole drums morning, noon, and night. He drums in the car with his hands, at home with Tinker Toys, outside with sticks, you name it, he drums on it or with it. Our neighborhood has 2 entrances, one that takes you past a field with cows, one that takes you past the lake and ducks. The lake/duck way has fewer stop signs so I often go that way if I'm in a hurry or by myself. But when I started doing that Cole made it a point to tell me that he would rather go by the cows every time. Apparently I went the lake way too many times because now he reminds me EVERY time we pass under the Natchez Trace (which is 100 feet from the decision point of which way we're going) by simply hollering, "COWS!" Sometimes it's soft, most of the time it's loud. One day we were driving home from church and he had been drumming on a basketball that he was holding the whole way home. This time the hand drumming was accompanied by noises with his mouth...some unintelligible instrument interpretation. This had gone on without pause the 10-minutes we'd been driving so I was sure he wasn't paying attention to where we were. But sure enough, without missing a beat he yells "COWS!" and seemlessly continues with the drumming and mouth accompaniment.

In this picture he's set up his little "drum set" by the corner of the wall and the tv. Why the location, you ask? "Mom, I'm in the corner like Mr. Raf." The drum set at church is in a corner, and this was the best corner he found to set up his own set. He has broken both cds I gave him to use as cymbals from too much drumming. I'm hoping to find him a little set on a garage sale. It's a full-fledged obsession.

"Mom, you can bake cookies with me."

A few days ago I decided to let Mommy bake cookies with me, and I told her so. She had a recipe she wanted to try so we whipped some up. I'm a really good helper but Mommy always seems to be wound a little tight when we bake together. I don't know why. I'm really good at stirring, sometimes I'm so good that the flour goes flying or I miss the bowl by a little bit and dump the baking soda onto the counter. I try to assure her it's no big deal, but you know women...they get a little high-strung sometimes.
See? I even help her by telling her that I MUST do it by myself. She seems to think it matters if I get half a teaspoon of salt or a heaping spoonful. She must not know that all the great chefs don't measure exactly.

My boys - more funnies from the family

Daddy was gone one night and we needed an activity....a homemade trampoline! I left the room and came back to this, Cole telling Tyson all about the picture he was looking at. They fight a good half the time they're together, so this is great encouragement for my often-frustrated parenting spirit :).
Some funnies to brighten the day:
1. One day after Christmas Cole walked by the Christmas tree (which had shed a good 3/4 of its needles...not sure what I did wrong) and said, "Momm, we need to sweep." Me: "Why?" Cole: "Because there's all this....junk!" Me: "What is it?" Cole (after thinking a minute): "Christmas grass".

2. Cole asks EVERY DAY, EVERY TIME HIS CLOTHES ARE CHANGED, if he can wear sweatpants. He hates jeans, hates khakis, hates anything except sweat pants. He really is a child obsessed. If there aren't any clean ones in his drawer, he goes to the dryer and sorts through any clothes in there to see if just maybe there's some clean ones that haven't been put away yet. He was tickled pink when I showed him 1 pair of his shorts that are made out of sweatpants material and would rather wear them than anything else.

3. One day at lunch I came back into the kitchen to see Cole eating his raisins like a heathen. Instead of taking bites, he had a big handful and was chewing WHILE holding the raisins up to his mouth - there were too many to fit in his mouth so he just extended his mouth with his hand. "Cole, don't just hold the raisins next to your mouth!" I say. "But I'm eating all the juice," he says. Yuck, yuck, yuck. There should NOT BE JUICE!

4. Can't remember if I already said this, but Cole was 100% potty trained by Christmas, at 3 years and 2 months. He still wears pullups at night and nap, but otherwise he's a big boy!

5. One day I was again in the other room while Cole was eating his breakfast. I walk back in to find him sitting in his chair, tearing off bits of waffle and throwing them down to Tyson who is scurrying all over the floor to get each one, eating them like a little squirrel. Where do they get this stuff?

6. Cole's tender heart has continued from birth. One day a long time ago I forgot my purse in the house so I had to run back in after I put the boys in the van. Several weeks ago as we were pulling out of the driveway Cole asked, "Mom, do you have your purse?" "Yes, why?" "I was just making sure you didn't forget it," he says. He asks me regularly now if I have my purse and always follows it with, "I was just making sure you didn't forget it." The last several days I have been inundated with flowers that he picks me. The little white flowers that spring up everywhere get picked and picked and picked, always brought to me with much excitement. "Mommy, look what I picked for you!" I have to be careful because he asks me later in the day where my flowers are :).

7. One of the sweet ongoing things that Cole does is taking care of his stuffed animals. He used to have about 12 of them on his bed, and we eventually pared that down to 5 because taking care of 12 animals at bedtime just plain takes too long. He always wanted to set them up in a row, all facing correctly, along the wall of his bed. This had to be done one-by-one. He would take an animal, look to see which one it was, then say, "Bear, you sit right HERE" as he shoved it into place, "and Eeyore, you sit right HERE" as he gets shoved next to bear. Now we've moved past that but he still has to have the 5 animals covered with a blanket "or they will be cold!" His favorite animal is Piglet, so fitting. His personality is so much like Piglets :). Each night he would wrap Piglet up in his burp cloth, making sure it only came up to his neck, and if I laid too close to Piglet while I was singing him songs I would be reprimanded for "squishing him." And heaven forbid that I move the blanket in such a fashion that it go over Piglet's face, because "He can't breathe!"

8. Thomas started a little game with Cole where they would pretend that his stuffed Pooh Bear was eating honey in bed. Cole would cackle with delight while Thomas very seriously questioned Pooh whether or not he had been eating honey in bed at naptime. :)

9. Quoting from books is also a favorite activity of Cole's. He hopped in the back of the van one day and said, "I'm going to sit in the back while Ma drives!" - from Cars and Trucks and Things That Go. He does this in his bed while he's falling asleep. I listened one day to a page of quotes again from Cars & Trucks & Things that Go.

10. The memory of a 3-year-old is scary. We went to vote a few weeks ago but it was in a different building than in November. I didn't know that, so I drove through the parking lot of the old building. I had told Cole we were going to vote but he said he didn't know what that was so I assumed he didn't remember. But as we drove through the parking lot he said, "The last time we came to vote, I fell down in the parking lot." He was right, I could barely remember that he had taken a tumble in the parking lot on our way in. He hadn't even hurt himself, but he remembered.

These are a few of my favorite....books!

It's no secret that we love to read around here, but if you're like me you go into the library and feel like you may as well walk out because how on earth will you ever find the good books with so many choices? And if your kids are WITH you, why even try?

Let me encourage you to read the book "Honey For a Child's Heart" by Gladys Hunt. I already loved reading to my kids before I read it, but it really lit a fire under me to take the time to find them GOOD books, and MAKE the time to read aloud to them. It also convinced me of the good in reading them poetry, the necessity of fairy tales, the importance of reading them Scripture as a Christian parent, and singlehandedly 99% convinced me to let my kids do the whole "Santa Claus" thing. Interesting, huh? Santa Claus and Scripture right next to each other. You'll have to read for yourself but it really is a phenomenal book to encourage you to push against the "mile-a-minute" culture and make time to invest in your kids and help them embrace the wonder of childhood. So much of who they are and what they know is developed and fed by what they read and what is read TO them. I can't recommend this book enough on so many levels. It also has a bibliography by age in the back with book recommendations. This has become my library companion! Some of our favorites currently:

Tyson:

Anything by Nancy Tafuri - her illustrations are captivating for an 18-month-old

Anything by Byron Barton - same thing - great illustrations

Hide & Seek Animals - Sarah Davis - I thought we were going to wear the binding out before it went back to the library. Both boys love the way the illustrations are done.

The Big Red Barn - Margaret Wise Brown - this is one of my top 3 favorite children's books for kids under 5. Both boys have adored this book.

Cars & Trucks & Things That Go - Richard Scarry - both boys could look at this for hours.

Cole:

The "Arthur" series by Marc Brown - I cut out parts of his sassy little sister, but Cole loves these stories.

The "Arthur" series by Lillian Hoban - I would think these are over Cole's comprehension, but he loves them. I loved these as a child.

Anthing of Peter Spier - a lot of his books are wordless, his illustrations are amazing. Cole PORES over these pictures.

Duck on a Bike - David Shannon - happened upon this one in the church library. We read it so many times that one day in the car I heard Cole quoting almost the entire book word for word to himself complete with sentences like, "Duck was peddling faster now." It warmed my heart :).

Anything illustrated by Mark Teague - he illustrates the popular "How Does a Dinosaur" series written by Jane Yolen. Cole loves these books as well as others that Mark Teague illustrated and wrote himself.

The "If you Give" series by Laura Numeroff. Tyson loves these as well.

The Happy Lion - Louise Fatio - another treasure from the church library.

The "Olivia" series by Ian Falconer - I would think too "old", but he loves.

Alvin Tresselt's books, especially "The Mitten".

"Inch By Inch" by Leo Leonni

The "Frog" series by Mercer Mayer - wordless, fantastic illustrations

The "Thomas the Train" series by Christopher Awdry. I was skeptical, but he reads any of these over and over.

"Deep in the Forest" by Brinton Turkle - another wordless one, amazing illustrations

"Sector 7" by David Wiesner - wordless, a little too old for Cole, but brilliantly imaginitive story told with clever illustrations - I explained each picture and he loved it.

Gladys Hunt says that you need to get acquainted with authors and illustrators to make your reading aloud most enjoyable. I agree! There are reems of children's books published that hold ZERO interest for kids, but when you find an author that has the gift of writing through a child's eyes, look for more of their stuff! They're few and far between.

We also use the bibliography out of "The Read-Aloud Handbook" by Jim Trelease. It's SO helpful to have a list of what I'm looking for when we go to the library, and to end up with books we love instead of books that don't interest the kids or have a story-line I don't want them hearing. What a joy books are!

Getting my craftiness on!

For months I've been planning the best way to get my jewelry, particularly earrings, in a viewable storage system so I can see them. After lots of "planning", I finally took some old junky picture frames that I already had, took the glass out and put wire mesh in, and spray painted them. TaDa! Now all my earrings plus necklaces and bracelets are nicely "viewable" :).

Daddy time!

If I'm not available to read Tyson a book, he finds someone else who is.
But Daddy can't lay on the floor for more than 30 seconds before we hear, "Wrestle Time!!" and both boys are jumping, sitting, rolling, and pummeling him. They love to play "Steamroller" where they roll across the floor yelling, "Here comes the steamroller!" until they run into someone. Thomas is a great dad, he gets down and wrestles with them almost every day when he gets home from work or after dinner. Cole talks during the day about how he's going to wrestle daddy when he gets home.