Grant-O

First of all, the 3rd boy sure makes the house noisier, smellier, and naughtier. That's all I'll say about that for now.

Grant is cute. He has a killer smile. Today he told me he loved me several times. He even said, "Guess what?" before it once. He's really starting to talk like a big boy which is fun because he didn't really TALK until about a year ago when he was around 18 months old.

He has to do everything himself. He tries to dress himself lately which is pretty funny. He takes off his diaper before a bath which cracks me up because the other boys never really did that. He doesn't like baby things anymore so the booster at the table is gone, the bib is forbidden and the lids on cups are starting to be uncool. I guess he can't be my baby forever.

He's a climber. The other boys never ventured into that arena, but Grant has climbed on about everything from the kitchen counter to the sink in my bathroom. The good part of this is that he is very able at the playground and can do everything his brothers do.

Right now he's learning his colors and it's pretty cute. He always asks for blue dishes, so I guess that's his favorite, although today he told me that he loves pancakes and then said that they were his favorite color. Funny.

He likes Lighting McQueen although he's never watched the movie all the way through. This is weird because he does sit through movies but the couple of times I've put it on for them he ends up ditching the movie and finding me.

Grant loves to help around the house. I give him a wet rag and he thinks he's pretty special. He also likes to empty the clothes from the dryer into the laundry basket. He also likes to help put laundry away, which is hard because he doesn't know where stuff goes really, so I will give him Silas's socks or something and tell him to put them on our bed. Whatever makes him feel helpful.

He has a cute face. Seriously.

When he wakes up from his nap, the first thing he says is, "Mom, I wake up!" I love it.

The timing on this post is a little ridiculous. If I would have written about Grant two weeks ago it would not include this: He doesn't listen to a word I say. I guess he has finally entered the terrible twos. Bleh!

All in all though, I am pretty happy to have him in our family.

Ryan

Ryan is...funny. He's the class clown of the family. He loves to boss us all around when he's pretending. "Mom, you say..." and so forth. He quotes movie lines a lot, which real emotion. I can imagine him getting into drama someday.

He's pretty athletic although he hasn't been in any organized sport yet.

He's my fashionista, so far anyway. He is quite creative. For example, he often wears his cowboy books with shorts. The cutest part is that he doesn't know that it's weird or whatever. I love this about him.

Ryan is very musically inclined. Since he was a baby I have thought this. Sometimes I wonder if I should get him into some kind of lessons now (he's only 4) but mostly I think that we'll wait until he's a little older. He loves listening to music and memorizes songs really fast. Just like with the movie quotes, his singing gets pretty intense. He makes serious or sad faces and then gets a little embarrassed when I watch him. In the car he is always asking for me to turn on the music, which means the CDs we've made. Some of his favorites are: Pop! Goes my Heart from the movie Music and Lyrics, Come to my window by Melissa Etheridge, The Great Beyond by REM and Free Falling by Tom Petty. He also sits at the piano and sings Primary songs with me. Love that.

Speaking of primary, he LOVES it and is the kid that raises his hand for everything, just to talk about something. His teachers love him and even when we visit, the teachers say how good he was.

Ryan's birthday is August 9th, so he will barely be old enough for Kindergarten this fall, but we decided to put him in because he's been reading for about a month now. It makes me a little nervous because he'll be the little guy, but he is very social and smart so I think he'll be fine. He is super excited about going to school.

Ryan loves to figure out someone's relationship to another person. For example, if I say something about Grandma Aitchison, he says, "You mean Dad's mom?" Little nerd.

Oh yes, he STILL sucks his thumb but only with his blankie so I try to have him keep that on his bed. It doesn't always work. Luckily, he doesn't push on his front teeth so it's not causing any of those problems.

He's getting to be a screamer. He's loud and yells at his brothers a lot, but being the middle boy is hard for him sometimes I think. I'm trying to teach him to talk nicely when he has a problem, but he's 4 so it's a slow process.

When Ryan laughs, you can't help but laugh too. And his smile is adorable.

I could go on and on about this kid. He has such an interesting personality. I'm glad he's my boy!

Cleod

I've been thinking for a while about posting something about each of my kids...but when they drive you crazy it's a little hard. Tonight I was thinking about how I focus on the negative a lot and I need to look at the good in my kids. So...here goes.

Cleod is smart. That's the truth. He's a crazy, good reader. We've known this for a while, but now that he's starting to do more math at school, we've realized that he's good at math too and already can do much more than his age/grade level. I have been printing out first grade math worksheets for him because he likes doing homework and doesn't get much from school. I like this because I want to be in control of his education and not leave it all up to the school. I am a little worried that he's going to be just as bored next year as he has been this year, but that's another story.

Cleod's favorite song from church is "I Lived in Heaven."

He loves his sister and helps me out a lot. He's always willing to get diapers or blankets, or hold her for a bit while I do something (like clean toilets).

He loves watching movies, TV and playing computer. We do not have a video gaming system for many reasons, but one of them is that Cleod would want to be on it all day. He is really good at getting his "jobs" done before computer or TV time though, so it's not really a big deal.

He's a "gleaner" as my mom would say and he has an excellent memory. He learns from everything and remembers everything. He'll tell me random facts he's read in books or tell me about something he watched a year ago.

Cleod loves pizza, crepes, and hamburgers.

He's sensitive and cries more than your average 6 year old boy, but that's ok.

He loves playing with friends. I haven't figured out if he's a leader or a follower because really, he's both. He's the oldest so he leaders a lot, but I think he wants to be accepted at school and church so he follows the stronger personalities (not always a good thing, but ya know).

I'm not sure why we've been butting heads so much lately, but I sure don't know what I would do without my Cleod.