All About the Boys

It's been so long since I've posted a blog. I don't even know where to begin. The boys are growing up so fast. They continue to amaze us everyday. They still get along great. Tanner is getting to the stage where he wants everything Joey is playing with, but Joey handles it great. We're trying to get Tanner to understand about taking turns and sharing, but he obviously isn't sold on that yet. Joey loves when Tanner gets to dress the same as him. He likes picking out their clothes, especially ones with dinosaurs on them.

Joey starts Kindergarten after Labor Day next month. He's extremely excited. He'll be going to the same place he went for Pre-K and preschool the past 2 years, so he's not nervous at all. He's started a new collection of things, besides dinosaurs and ZhuZhu pets, he now collects Backyard Safari gear and patches. They are like boy scout stuff, with missions he has to do in nature, with bugs and creatures and hiking and identifying and using all the Backyard Safari gadgets. It's really neat. When he completes the missions, he gets to have the patches sewn on his vest. It's really a great thing he loves doing with his daddy. And you know Earl is loving it too. (In fact, they are off on a bird-watching mission as I type this.) He does great. He's called birds with his bird callers, he's caught fish all by his self with his net, he's sucked up bugs with his Bug Vac.

I'm positive he's away ahead on his reading skills. He sounds out everything (except for those tons of words he doesn't have to sound out anymore because he has them down pat.) He even can read long dinosaur names.

He's still a picky eater. He lives mostly off chicken nuggets and cereal. He's also having some issues about not wanting to sleep alone or fall asleep alone. He has to leave his light on in his room almost everyday. And most nights he ends up coming in our bed in the middle of the night. I'm hoping he'll grow out of this phase soon.

He cracks me up daily with some of the things he says. His new exclamation is "Oh Crud!" (We have his friend Eric Webb to thank for that one.) This morning as he was walking out the door to go on this mission, I told him to have fun. He replied, "Why would I not?" Point taken.

He still loves TaeKwonDo--going twice a week to his cub class. In a couple months, he'll be testing for his next belt: green I think.

His favorite TV show is still Dino Dan. His favorite color is still Red, but he says he also loves Camoflauge. In fact, he's already started planning his 6th birthday party: he wants a Camo theme. He's thinking he wants to be a dinosaur for Halloween. Of course. We haven't decided on what Tanner will be yet, but I'm sure Joey will want to be part of that decision.

He loves helping in the kitchen, making toast and mixing batter and anything else he can help with. He does not love cleaning: comes by that honest. We're working on starting a chore chart for him, so he can "earn" all these collections we have to buy for him.

He's still the clumsiest person on the face of the earth.

Tanner is going through his copying stage. He loves copying Joey the most, but mimics me and Earl too. And other kids. He loves wearing shoes (Joey didn't as a baby). He tells me when he needs a diaper change (well, sometimes), by saying "dype" and leading me to the diapers, handing me one, then laying down spread eagle for a change. He loves the bath, loves playing in any water (including the dog bowls--we find all kinds of things in there). He's still growing well. He was wearing 18 month clothes long before he was 1, and now, at 15 months old, he's wearing all Joey's old 24 month clothes. He still has to be put to sleep, but is gradually learning to go to his crib awake. Joey was falling asleep by himself in the crib as a newborn, so this is so different for us. He still wakes up throughout the night and needs us to lay him back down. He has 8 teeth now, 6 on top (including 2 molars) and 2 front ones on bottom.

I wish I kept a running list of the words he says. He's not as articulate and as good as an inunciator as Joey was, but we can usually make out these words even if no one else can:

Mama, Dada (or sometimes it's just Da), Jo Jo (usually Da-do), trash, bath, water, dog, woof, cow, moo, thank you, tree, hot, aahh ahh (monkey sound), uh-oh, ball, more, milk, yes, this, that, throw, car, hi, bye bye, shoes, feet, "cheese!" dinosaur, duck, quack quack, night night, ow, pacifier (pass or "das"). That's all I can think of off the top of my head. He can find his belly, and head. He's working on nose, eyes, ear and hair. He smacks his lips when asked if he's hungry. He loves using things to hit balls with (he might be a baseball player). He loves seeing planes and helicopters in the sky. If he's looking for something, he goes around "calling" it--"pass, pass" when looking for his pacifier. One of his favorite places to play is on my bed, so him and Joey and I spend lots of time there during the day. Anytime he sees or hears a motorcycle, he says dada. He likes to color or draw, for a second or two.
I think his favorite animal is a dog. Anything he sees a picture of one he goes crazy. You'd think he didn't have 2 of his own at home.

He discovered how to turn on the stove eyes with the knobs (why would they make knobs on the front!?) so we had to buy the child-proof covers for those. He loves the vacuum and tries to help with that. He likes helping pick up toys (but also likes getting them right back out again). For some reason, when he picks up a toy gun, he makes a "ssssss" sound for it. (Joey used to actually say, "shoot shoot.")
He likes to dance and sing (which Joey never did). Like Joey, he loves looking at books, especially with animals or babies in them. He can give hugs and kisses when asked (if he wants to). When he sees a picture of an animal, he says "awwww" and gives himself a hug, like he's hugging the animal.