Busy Boys

At this moment, there is a 3 year old boy snuggled up against my arm while wearing his Spiderman costume and watching "Dora the Explorer". We're having one of those quiet mornings, which suits me just fine. Alex is taking his 1 nap of the day, which means I'm permitted to have a break from following the Stunt Man around.
Since I have some free time, I thought I'd post a little blog update. It's either this or clean the kitchen, so the choice was an easy one.

Alex

When Jacob was little, I bought him a shirt from Target that I thought was cute. I pulled it out of a storage bin recently, and found that it fits Alex perfectly in size and sentiment. The shirt reads "I do all my own stunts" with a picture of a stick figure falling. Yep, that's Alex. As previously mentioned, he climbs on everything. And I mean "everything" quite literally. He climbs on our coffee table, our family room chairs, the computer desk, the sofa, and kitchen chairs. He has been using the kitchen chairs as a stepping stone to the kitchen table. It's gotten to the point that I can't even leave the chairs around the table when we aren't eating so they're all lined up against the walls or at the bar. This worked for a while, but now he has realized that all he has to do is slide them over to the table in order to climb. This is one of his favorite pastimes. He also continues to enjoy dumping Hailey's water bowl out. He likes to show me when he's done something he shouldn't. After the water bowl is emptied, he'll hold it up high and say, "Eh?!" And when he walks into his room and pulls the plastic shield off of his nightlight, he'll always find me and hold it up & grin. And just as I'm reaching for it, he spins on his heel and takes off running.
As I always say, he's my little wild man. But as wild as he is, he's also an affectionate little sweetie pie. He initiates countless hugs. My favorite is when he walks up to me out of the blue, gives me a hug for a few seconds, then resumes playing.
He has also learned to shake his head "no". At first, he was just shaking his head back & forth for fun. And he & Jacob would laugh and have head shaking competitions to find out who could do it the longest. Now he's actually shaking his head at appropriate times. "Do you want this toy, Alex?" He'll shake his head and walk away. "Want another bite?" And as I guide the spoon toward his mouth, he'll put his hands out and shake his head. I think it's funny & adorable.

Jacob

Jacob is loving preschool. He has made 3 really cute crafts already, and boy, is it sweet to watch his face light up when you compliment his work. He's so proud of himself when we're proud of him. He just had his school picture taken yesterday. He looked so handsome with his new haircut, khakis, and red polo shirt. So grown up. I'm fairly certain he's also the tallest 3 year old in his class. I can't wait to see the pictures. It got off to a slightly rough start when the photographer accidentally poked him in the eye with the prop, but Jacob soldiered through it.

And now for my latest edition of, "The Cute Things Jacob Says":

Yesterday, Jacob told me he didn't want to see me ever again. I'm not sure exactly where he learned this phrase. I've certainly not said it. And I know he doesn't fully grasp the concept of what that means, but it still hurt my feelings. So I told him he hurt my feelings & made me sad. He came up to me, and said, "I DO want to see you!"
This morning, he came up to me at the table.
Jacob: "I make your feelings hurt?"
Me: "No. My feelings aren't hurt."
Jacob: "Oh. I hurt MY feelings?"
Me: "No, I don't think you did." Then, out of curiosity, "Where are your feelings?"
Jacob: "Right here." (and points to where his love handles would be if he had any)
Me: (laughing) "That's not where your feelings are, silly."
Jacob: "Oh. Here my feelings?" (this time, he points to his shoulders)
So I explained to him that his feelings are on the inside and pointed to where his heart is.
Jacob: "Ohhhh. Dere's my feelings! They not hurtin'!"

Like most (all?) 3 year olds, Jacob has episodes of talking back, whining, saying "No!", and pouting. Sometimes it's all I can do not to laugh at his mad face. He does the traditional sticking out of his bottom lip, but for some reason, he combines that look with puffed out cheeks. So it looks like he's holding his breath while poking out his bottom lip. And he furrows his brows like he's REALLY mad. Sometimes he even pounds his fist on a piece of furniture for added emphasis.
The other day, when Jacob was in a horrible, grumpy mood, and demonstrating some of the aforementioned antics, I couldn't do or say anything right. I grumbled to myself, "Gosh, you've got an attitude right now" and started to walk away to give him time to cool off. Well, he heard me, and it made him giggle. "I no have a rattitude!"
Then this morning, he walked up to me with a grin and said, "You have a hattitude!"
I'm guessing he still doesn't know what an attitude is. :)

During her trip out of town, Grandmom picked up a couple of beaded necklaces with a little totem dangling from it for the boys. When she was here briefly to deliver these items upon her return from the airport, I suppose a pair of her reading glasses fell out of her car. We found them on our driveway (sorry, Grandmom- looks like someone ran over them) and told Jacob they belonged to Grandmom.
The other day, I watched Jacob as he put both necklaces over his head and put the glasses on his face. They're so dented, he had to hold them on with one hand. Then he hopped on the ride on car Alex got for his birthday and drove around saying, "Look! I'm Drandmom! See? I'm Drandmom!"
Grandmom is always wearing dented glasses & totem necklaces. :)

On Monday, while Alex was taking his nap, Jacob & I were spooning on the couch and watching TV. During our spooning session (I was the spooner and he was the spoonee), he said, "I like being in your hands." Meaning, of course, he liked being in my arms as I held him.
Me: "You're so cute."
Jacob: (reaches his arm back blindly & pats my face) "You're cute too."
Me: (laughing) "You're funny, Jacob."
Jacob: "I know."

The boys & I were driving the other day, when all of a sudden, a huge pile of bird poop splattered on the windshield.
Me: "Oh, gross."
Jacob: "What, mommy? What's dross?"
Me: "A bird pooped all over the car."
Jacob: "Where?" (craning his neck to see)
Me: "Right there. See it?"
Jacob: "Oh. A white bird do dat."
Me: "A white bird? How do you know it was a white bird?"
Jacob: "The poop is white."

And there you have it! White birds = white poop.


And there's my update. Signing off for now because Alex is up from his nap. The chase is on.