Growing up!

I know. He's only 3. But sometimes it feels like my little boy is growing up so fast! Other parents warned me about this phenomenon.So what growing up activities is Spencer engaged in? The biggest right now is potty training. We started about 3 weeks ago, our third attempt. The first 2 were aborted due to lack of cooperation and the complete frustration of all parties involved. This time around went great. I set aside an entire weekend for this, no other plans and no other outings. We stayed in the house all day Saturday and Sunday (almost all day Sunday) and Spencer ran around naked from the waist down. He peed on the floor twice, which he didn't like, so after that it was potty only. He hasn't had a daytime diaper since, and accidents have been rare. We are struggling however with '#2'. It is oddly common for kids to do this (or rather refuse to do it). It's like a toddler conspiracy or something.

Spencer also went horseback riding recently. Not by himself, but of his own volition. No coaxing or prodding. He actually told us he wanted to ride the horse. He went right up to Dancer and hugged his leg, and helped Gamma groom him, and then got right on with each of use for a ride.
He counted to 50 today (he didn't really need help until he got to 40). He also learned about rhyming today, though that one is going to take a little more practice. His reading (or I guess listening) comprehension is really impressive. He understands the more complex stories now and will ask pertinent questions and make accurate statements. It's amazing.We got his first school pictures. He looks more like a 5 year old in the picture. He's doing great in school, except that he thinks he's the boss of everyone. And he fights the teachers a lot. His teacher told me that unlike the other kids who pretty much do what they are told, Spencer has to have options. For example, they can't just say 'Spencer, sit in time out'. They have to say 'Spencer, do you want to sit in the red chair or the blue chair for time out?'. Yep, we have to do this at home too with many different types of situations. He likes things on his terms (but don't we all?).
His trantrums, which show no sign of disappearing anytime soon, are tremendous. He is starting to challenge us more and see how far he can get away with things. He does this thing now when we tell him not to do something he pretends like he doesn't hear us 'what was that? what did you say mommy? huh?'. Huh my butt. Very clever, but very annoying.

This is his last week of school. We'll be starting tiny T-ball in a few weeks. Then next year he goes to preschool 5 days per week. Our little boy is growing up!

Easter (and where the heck is spring?)

I'm not sure where spring is this year. It seemed like we were headed for nice spring weather once or twice, but the past few days it's been windy, cool and rainy. We've had lots of rain. Spencer isn't much deterred by this, and he has discovered how very much fun it is to stomp in puddles. It did make for some chilly Easter egg hunting though. Yep, Spencer did his first Easter egg hunt this year...hunts, actually. The first one was Saturday morning down by the lake at Nanny's house, and the second was Sunday afternoon at a friend's house. The lake egg hunt was more of a 'get as many eggs as you can' as the eggs were not so much hidden as just strewn around the beach. The second hunt was really more of a hunt with hidden eggs, but luckily he had 2 older friends to help him.
The Easter Bunny also visited Spencer for the first time. EB 'hid' Spencer's basket but he found it pretty quickly. It was filled with Easter chalk, a plastic Peep chick light up bath toy (the light was much like something you would see at a rave...it was very intense, colorful, crazy flashy. Fortunately it had a short lifespan), a monster truck, some Easter themed play doh, and a few very small pieces of chocolate. All the fun Easter toys got pushed aside for the chocolate...that's my boy! EB also visited Nanny's house...that bunny sure gets around.
We had a nice Easter and we (ok I) am very much looking forward to real spring and outdoor activities.

The things kids say!

These are some of my favorite Spencer quotes from the past 2 years.

You can't always get what you want, mommy.

That's the biggest penis ever! (Talking about himself, of course.)

Daddy, what is 'crap'? (That was my fault for not doing a good enough job cleaning up my language.)

Hhhmmm...I have an idea...let's watch (insert name of show here)!

I make the rules.

Mommy, are you happy? Are you happy mommy?!? Get happy mommy! GET HAPPY!!!!! (This is the new thing when I get mad. He asks me if I'm happy and if I say no he freaks out and starts screaming for me to 'get happy'.)

Not right now daddy, I'm checking my e-mail.

When I was a boy...

And a great quote from Fred from dinner the other night when Spencer was dangling 2 pieces of spaghetti in the air: Spaghetti is for eating, not for dancing.

I'm sure there are a bunch more, but that's all I could remember at the moment.

Imagination

Spencer has really been using his imagination lately. He likes to pretend like he is a character from books or movies. Spencer's alter egos include Tramp (Lady and the Tramp), Lightning McQueen (Cars), Bambi, Scoop (Bob the Builder), Balto (the Alaskan sled dog), Winnie the Pooh and most recently Roary (Roary Racing Car or something like that). Spencer also assigns character names to Fred and I, usually I get to be the leading lady or whoever the female character is (he doesn't know the name of the female car that is friends with Roary, so my name ends up being 'pink car'). Sometimes he gets upset if we call him the wrong name (No, it's not Spencer! I'm (insert current character name here)!). And if it's a new character he'll sometimes ask me to remind him what his name is...'Mommy, what's my name?' 'Spencer.' 'No, what's my name?'. Oh. 'Roary?' 'Yes, my name's Roary, Pink Car!'

He also pretend plays a lot now with his other toys. For a while he was playing 'Lady and the Tramp' with matchbox cars and trucks. He had 2 trucks, one named Lady and one named Tramp. He had a pile of other cars that were the 'pack of dogs' that chase Lady in the story (Tramp saves the day and chases the pack of dogs away). He rolls his little cars around reenacting that scene.

He also loves Play-Doh. However, usually playing with the stuff involves him pestering Fred or I to make things for him. Generally I don't mind, but sometimes the requests get complicated, like making a combine tractor or a tree shredder. Thanks to his imagination he doesn't need these things to be precise so a block with round things resembling wheels will often suffice. He is however very particular and orderly (I really have no idea where he gets that from) so if you make a combine one day he wants it the same way the next day.

It's just amazing to watch his little mind at work!

Happy Birthday Spencer!

Wow, it's been a while since I've done any updates. Our holidays were great...we stayed home and had family come visit for a few days. It was really nice and relaxing for all of us. The month of January basically passed in a blur and here we are, February 1st, Spencer's 3rd birthday! So hard to believe.

We decided not to do anything too formal in the way of a birthday party this year. It's amazing what people do to celebrate their kids birthdays, and quite honestly I'm completely intimidated and not exactly in favor of the blowout birthday party for toddlers. I'm not good at organizing, decorating, doing gift bags, or any of that stuff parents seem to do these days. So we opted for the non-birthday birthday.

In the morning we took MARTA to the Children's Museum downtown. A couple of friends met us there, not for a birthday thing, but just a 'hey we're going if you want to go too...and it just happens to be Spencer's birthday' sort of thing. When we got done at the museum we ended up eating lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. Very strange, but there aren't a whole lot of options in downtown Atlanta on a Sunday believe it or not. And of course I had forgotten that the Chik-Fil-A at the museum would be closed. Fred's parents came over for dinner and cake and ice cream in the evening. Spencer got a few gifts...just enough, but not too many. He kept trying to give his gifts away, even the unopened ones saying things like 'no, that's mommy's gift!' and giving it to me. Maybe he was thinking it was like Christmas?

In all it was a very enjoyable, but very busy and exhausting 3rd birthday. Happy Birthday to Spencer!

'Fishing' in the pond at the museumFavorite birthday gift...a set of mini 'Cars' (the movie) figurines from Aunt AHelping himself to his birthday cake (yellow cake w/chocolate frosting)

Thanksgiving and a visit with Santa

We hope everyone is enjoying the holidays. For Thanksgiving we spent a few days visiting family in northern VA. Spencer did great in transit (he loves buses, trains, planes, shuttles) but doesn't sleep too well in a new environment. So, we had cranky, obstinate Spencer for much of the time we were there. At least he got to spend some time with great grandma, and got to help great aunt J in her pottery studio.




















I'm glad we are not traveling for Christmas or New Years this year. We have some family coming to visit, but it will be much more pleasant to have Spencer in his natural environment. Spencer is getting the Christmas spirit, though I don't think he completely understands it all yet. He has been asking for snow, but he decided that 'the trees are too tall and the wind blew all the snow away'. That's apparently why we don't see snow in GA. Last week he actually asked to go see Santa! I was amazed, considering last year he was terrified of the jolly old man and I had to be in the picture with him. So we took him for pictures with Santa, and though he was a little shy at first he was mostly all smiles. He asked Santa for Play-Doh for Christmas...so Fred and I will have an easy time playing Santa this year! He also wants to make cookies for Santa, and feed Santa's reindeer (one of his friends in preschool gave him some 'reindeer food' - oatmeal - to spread on the ground for the reindeer). There are no presents under the tree yet, but I'm sure he'll quickly learn the concept of opening gifts.


The joy of holidays with a little one!

Halloween III...

...the return of Spencer! It's hard to believe that this was Spencer's 3rd Halloween. The past 2 Halloweens were fun. The first one we spent doing Boo at the Zoo with some friends (Spencer was a pumpkin), the second Halloween was spent at Boo at the Zoo and a friend's Halloween party (Spencer was a jedi).

This year we went to our friend's second annual Halloween party, then went trick-or-treating with our neighbors and some friends. It didn't take Spencer long to learn that if he went to a house and held out his bag with the other kids, he would get candy. Mostly though, he had fun running down the road like a little mad man yelling 'Roar!' in his lion costume. By the way, it took a week to get him to even try on the costume, and what finally worked was telling him we were going to a Halloween party so he needed to wear it. He associates the word 'party' with cake, so that totally did the trick. Then of course he didn't want to take the costume off. Spencer was born with an unusually large head, so the hood part of the costume didn't fit him. Oh well, it was still cute.

Lion Spencer getting candy at the Halloween party.

Trick or treating (trying to get the lion
ears and mane to stay on)

This was also Spencer's first experience carving pumpkins, though he did already know what it was all about (he instructed us to cut triangles in the pumpkin for eyes and nose).

Helping Daddy clean out a pumpkin.

No knives for Spencer's pumpkin...I probably
shouldn't have given him a Sharpie, either.

Is it just me, or does Spencer actually
look like our jack-o-lanterns?In all, it was a really fun Halloween, and Fred and I...I mean Spencer, got a lot of good candy. We also got more trick or treaters than previous years, and almost ran out of candy. We had to start giving out Spencer's candy, but that was probably for the best. It's fun this year being able to really share our holiday traditions with Spencer...I'm looking forward to more!