He can't wait to be four. He talks about his birthday pretty often and is sure to tell people that he is "fee and a half" when they ask how old he is. He is a good little talker, but has a bunch of sounds he can't say yet. Just today he started trying to pronounce some sounds he's never been able to do (for some reason, words starting with an s-blend like "school" and "spoon" and "snow" are especially hard for him) and we were all really excited. He has said for months that maybe he'll start trying to say s-words when he's four, haha. I love hearing his little voice talking to himself as he plays with the cars or trains in the toy room during his nap. He has been really good about doing quiet time and entertaining himself, and on the weekends when Dane is home, they really like to play together during quiet time and do a good job of not fighting together.
This is not the most flattering picture of me, but I wanted to remind myself to be silly with them once in a while. Sometimes I'm more of a drill sergeant than I want to be. I was folding the clothes (always folding the clothes!) and Graham was "helping" and I was pretending that his shirt was a hat. He really got a kick out of it and was so cute laughing so hard.
He got flip flops for Christmas and insists on wearing them all the time. Our kids are never dressed appropriately for cold weather because they insist on dressing themselves however they want. It's a good thing we live here where they won't get frostbite for wearing shorts and sandals in January, because that's what they insist on wearing.
He's the captain of the IKEA ship.
I love this age, where they are getting old enough to learn things and to do fun things with me. We can have fun conversations and discussions and he can ask me questions that we can learn about together. We read a book about different types of clouds a few weeks ago and we've been talking about the clouds every day, if they look like they're stratus or cumulus or cirrus clouds. I did a lot more creative learning activities with Dane, things from Pinterest and involving a bit more prepwork, but Graham and I have been doing some workbooks together most weekdays after his nap, and he LOVES doing it. It is the cutest thing. I love that I get some really good one-on-one time with him most days when he's done with his quiet time and Lucy's still asleep. We will either read books or do his workbooks, or sometimes we will work on building a big train track together (which is something that I love delegating to Dane to do with him, but when he's at school I've got to step up).
He started Sunbeams this year, which seems unbelievable, but he LOVES it.
Sometimes when it's just him and Lucy together they just seem like they're on the same level. They're so cute together.
He's been a lot more into "super huge train tracks" lately. He really didn't play with the train tracks hardly at all until a few months ago and then has been SO into them.
I've loved doing Joy School with him this year. The year we did it with Dane it seemed a lot harder--because there were fewer people so I had to teach much more often, and because I was pregnant with Lucy and had her in March that year. This year with Graham has just been a joy all around. Everything has gone so smoothly.
I love his enthusiasm about everything. Like I said, Graham is a man of extremes. If he is excited about something, he will SCREAM with excitement and won't be able to hold still. He loves doing story time at the library (finally! Finally! It's been three years of him refusing to ever sit through any story times at all!) and he was so into this parachute party they had there.
Look at his Lego creation. I love what they come up with during quiet time.
Despite his sweetness, Graham has a serious crusty side. He is very antagonistic to things when they're not his idea, and when he's in a bad mood, he refuses to be comforted. I was singing a line to the Primary song "Gethsemane" in the car the other day: "Gethsemane... Jesus loves me." Graham was grumpy and insisting he "hates" that song, and started singing in the backseat: "Gethsemane... Jesus doesn't like me" over and over again. This is so typical of his grumpiness... he's always saying things like that when he's determined to be in a bad mood. I tried really hard to be serious and calm and tell him to not say that but I was choking down laughter at him at the same time.
Joy School again. Such a joy.
I mean, come on. Does it get any cuter than a three-year-old playing Memory? He was so happy in this picture because he got all the matches and I got none. He may not have been playing by the exact rules of the game... but he did do a really good job.
One of my absolute favorite developments over the year they're three is how they start to be able to follow longer stories. When Graham turned three he never listened to the chapter books I'd read to Dane, but somewhere around October he started to pay attention to Ribsy. He loved that and Henry Huggins and Matilda. But his total favorite has been Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I loved his enthusiasm and excitement about the books as we'd read a few chapters each night. We finished Charlie in less than two weeks because they were begging me to read it all the time. This was his face when the great glass elevator smashed through the roof of the chocolate factory in the movie. This might sound crazy, but I think he will be ready to start reading lessons soon, maybe in the summer. He knows ALL his letter sounds and has for months, and he will sound out words verbally sometimes and tell me what letters he thinks are in them. He is very good with his letters and still says the ABCs is his favorite song.
He's always coming to me with books and begging me to read to him. I have learned that reading to them is a big part of connecting with them and showing them I love them, and it's not just about reading books (although I love that too). I'm so glad they like to read with me as much as I like to read with them.
Okay, get this. He has gotten into the habit of getting paper and markers and saying, "I'm writing you a note because I love you, Mom." Then he draws a picture and asks me to write "To Mom, from Graham. I love you" on it. He also came up to me the other day and gave me a hug, and said, "I gived you a hug because I love you so much." Try not to squeeze that little guy when you hear those sorts of things.
Tommy worked late tonight, so I went to put Lucy to bed and I came out and Dane was sweetly reading Graham his book that he wanted before bed. They all were especially sweet and good today, and this scene especially melted my heart. They read together all the time, but Dane voluntarily coming out from getting dressed and helping Graham with his reading while I was putting tired Lucy to bed just was the cherry on top. They are such good kids. (But sometimes not, of course.)
I love being this boy's mom, although when he's having a hard time the screaming gets to me really fast. (That's one thing that I need to work on--my tolerance to loud noise and screaming is really low and causes problems.) But he has been the best little buddy this year since Dane went to kindergarten, and it has been so fun to get so much more one-on-one time with him these last few months.
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