Update: Colin

To continue with yesterday's post about Colin, I thought I'd give you few more updates.  To start, the picture above is a glimpse into my future - he's reading Daddy's Cat's Pause Basketball Yearbook.  Lord help me survive being the only sane female in the house!

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Having two children now really forces me to utilize my time management skills.  I have to make sure I'm giving both boys equal attention and sometimes that's a bit tricky.  Being Sawyer's only source of nourishment means that the time I spend with him is usually while he's eating.  And he eats a lot.  For the first couple of months Colin seemed fine with this.  He asked to sit next to me and watched me intently, but I wouldn't say there was any jealousy there.  Fast forward to now and now I'm starting to see Mr. Jealousy rear his ugly head.  He wants to be picked up more (not so easy considering he's 35+ pounds), he wants us to sit down with him more, and he has to be in the same room as us at all times.  All of this is perfectly normal and just part of the adjustment stage.  I was expecting it early on and actually thought we had escaped it.  We just try to reinforce that we love him by giving him lots of hugs and kisses.

As I mentioned, he often watches intently as I feed Sawyer.  He told me at one point that Daddy couldn't feed Sawyer because he doesn't have boobies.  True Colin but he does have hands to hold a bottle.  Then last week I had left my pump on the floor in our bedroom and I caught him putting one of the shields up to his chest.  He told me he had boobies too.  I agreed but reminded him only mommies could produce milk and feed their babies.  I can understand his fascination with the pump though, it is pretty amazing. 

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He is thriving at both of his schools.  One of his teachers brags on him all the time and of course I just eat that up.  She said they were working on shapes last week and Colin knew what an octagon and hexagon were before she even told them.  He asked me how come there wasn't a septagon?  Good question, son, I don't know.

He officially knows more Spanish than I do now.  Both schools are teaching it to him - I guess that's the way things are going - and he also hears it from Dora.  I guess he's going to have to tutor me.

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In the mornings he eats his breakfast and watches Martha Speaks (on PBS) as Wes and I get ready for work.  Martha is a talking dog but she's so much more!  She teaches a lot of vocabulary words and encourages children to ask what words mean.  While this is great and all, it is sometimes challenging to think of definitions to words you say and use every day.  I'm not used to trying to define words like suppose, impressive, certainly, actually, or interesting.  I love to hear him use the words in context.  He loves to end sentences with "I suppose" and describe his outfits as "interesting."  It just makes me smile to hear him using such grown up words.

All of us were in the car this weekend and Wes switched lanes to pass a slow-moving car.  Colin, without being prompted, yells, "Pay attention!" to the driver.

Wes just laughed and said, "I wonder who he's been riding with?"

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He had his fork taken away last week at the dinner table for using it in the wrong way (down his shirt, on my arm, on the table).  He promptly told Wes, "You're going to have to give it back to me sooner or later if you want me to eat my food."

Darn that little schemer! 

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The kid not only hears everything but internalizes it and uses it again later.  He has caught us saying "stupid" more times than I can count.  He knows it's not a nice word and loves nothing more to point out when we say it.  Trust me, you don't realize how often you say a word until you live with a 3-year old!

I'm sure there will be more and more of these tales as he grows and learns.  Wes and I have already had to turn our heads to keep from laughing many a times.  I'm sure more head turns are in our future!