Winston is at such a wonderful stage of life right now. He is so curious and observant and I'm amazed everyday by the new words he's using or the new goal he's tackled. His personality is really coming through and every night when Tyler and I are laying in bed one of us says, "We have the cutest little boy ever!" And I mean every. single. night. In light of this, I wanted to jot down some of our favorite things he does right now so I don't forget.
Warning: This is a long post because... "We have the cutest little boy ever!"
1. He really, really does not like wind. Every time we are outside and a gust of wind springs up he grabs a hold of whatever he can and/or holds his hands out to the wind and says, "No, no no!" in a worried voice. I always have to remind him that I'll make sure nothing blows away and that the wind feels nice (we are in hot, muggy Texas). Still, if he's in my arms he'll grab me tight to try and keep my hair from blowing around :)
2. He has a set of magnetic letters on the fridge and he'll often go grab a few letters off and play with them or re-arrange them, etc. The thing is, he only ever grabs the same four letters no matter how hard I try to mix them up or how high I place them. It is always Y, X, K, and V. They look similar, but each of them is also a different color: red, yellow, blue, and green. I suspect this has something to do with his choosing them.
3. We absolutely love watching him think hard about what he wants to say and then put two, three, or four words together. He'll start by saying one of the words and then he'll stop and think, mumble a little, say another word a few times and then suddenly spit out a phrase like, "Mama shoot too!" (when we're playing basketball). Once he recognizes he has a phrase I understand he'll say it over and over again throughout the day as if he's trying to memorize it for next time. It's just so fun to watch that little brain work.
4. He really detests all things "yucky". If his hands are ever sticky or dirty, and often mid-meal he'll suddenly say "towel!" and he will not stop saying it until he is able to wipe his hands off. He also notices EVERY little mess around the house and not only tell me that it is yucky and needs to be cleaned up, but he'll usually assign the blame for the mess to someone. Koa takes the fall quite often :)
5. He is really becoming a daddy's boy. I think we have about one melt down a day simply because daddy is not home. It's probably because when daddy does come home he gets to do cool things like airplane rides, play "better" basketball, have tickle/tackle/wrestling matches, and get thrown "high" in the sky. Mama is lame because she has weak arms and is pregnant :(
6. He cannot get enough reading done in one day. He reads by himself, with mama, and with daddy several times a day and will also ask for more. If I ever want him to sit still for a minute, I just pull out a book. He is particularly interested in reading his Elmo book, choo-choo book (Thomas the Train), Nemo book, Jesus book, and pink book (Pinkalicious), though there are several others he loves too.
7. Koa left for training on Sunday and since he's been gone Winston's new best bud is Ariel. Tyler's sister gave us a stuffed Ariel doll for the new babe a little while back and she's been sitting in the baby's room for a week or two. Until Koa left she was just something sitting there, but now she is his buddy. He wants her to come to the market with us, eat dinner with us, etc. But he also gives her rides in the dump truck, reads to her, and teaches her how to shoot a basketball. True story. She sometimes ends up being used as the basketball too. He used to loved having Koa follow him everywhere, and it's cute watching him play with her now. I think we might get him a Buzz Lightyear or something a little more manly though. I'm excited to see how this buddy system translates to the new baby too :)
8. His favorite activity, hands-down, is scootering. He rides a scooter with three wheels, so it's more stable, but he can ride with the best of them. He loves to just go up and around the cul-de-sac and back for hours. And he is getting more daring and has starting sneaking half-way up the driveway and flying down even though I've told him it's not safe. He has yet to have a major crash though and every time he does it he gives me this mischievous/proud smile at the bottom. So, naturally, I let him get away with it :)
9. He has seen a bits and pieces of some basketball games lately because it's the NBA playoffs and dad doesn't count basketball as TV (though it's on TV... ). Anyway, as a result his basketball playing has changed. Instead of standing close to the basket and dunking the ball, he now only shoots from a distance and often while kind of jogging in place. He'll also come running in from another room and chuck the ball up like he's doing a lay-up, which he is pretty good at. And he has starting trying to dribble while he plays which just makes me laugh because it involves him throwing the ball down and slapping it a couple of times, and then picking it up and shooting it.
10. He is very into singing hymns in church and participating in prayers. He folds his arms and closes his eyes (or at least squints) for the prayers and his "Amen!" is always very enthusiastic. For the hymns he likes to sit on Tyler's lap with the book open and sing loud and high. No real words ever (except when we sing fun primary songs at home), and he starts and ends with the music, not waiting for the prelude. A couple of weeks ago I caught one of the Young Men not-so-secretly filming Winston as he sang the closing him. I guess it's that cute.
11. Another fun activity he does a million times a day is fake crashing. Sometimes on his scooter and sometimes just while running down the hall. Every time he lays down on the floor and says, "Mama, sha." He also whispers it as if the crash has knocked the wind out of him or something. He also likes me to help him up from these amazing crashes and will just lie there, hands up in the air saying, "Mama, sha." over and over again until I do. Occasionally, he prefaces a major crash with an, "Oh mama, oh wow!" I guess this is a boy thing?!
12. He is very into doing things on his own as much as possible. One thing in particular is climbing into the car and into his seat on his own. If I try to help him he holds up his index finger and looks at me very seriously and says, "No, please, no."
13. He often prances/skips around the house rather than walking or running. If I ask him to bring me something he'll skip across the room and back. He also does this silly little side-skip thing all over the place while singing, "Lai, lai, lai." over and over again in a super high-pitched voice. We seriously have no idea where this came from, but when he gets going he'll do it for a good 10-15 minutes at a time, throughout the whole house. I like that he can entertain himself like that, but I really would like to know what it is too.
14. When Winston sets his mind on learning to do something, he practices endlessly until he has mastered it. A couple of these things have been scootering, climbing the "big kid" ladders at the park, and punting a ball. He saw an older neighbor punt the ball once and literally worked on it for months. He's had it down for a while now, but we're still pretty amazed at his punting accuracy and how high he kicks it too.
15. I love when I put him in bed at night and sing him a couple of songs and after every song he puts his arm around me and tries to hold me close so I won't leave. When I do finally get up and leave he says, "No mama, no.", but once I close the door he is absolutely silent. When he wakes up in the morning he often just starts talking and waits for us to come find him. Lately I've heard him talking to Ariel about hiding in the blankets, but once he woke up and just starting listing all of Nemo's friends over and over again (Gill, Jacques, Bubbles, Peach, Flo, Bloat, etc.).
16. Also, he still thinks he can't get off his bed (a twin mattress on the floor) unless I'm in the room and will sometimes sit on the very edge staring at a book or toy and when I open the door he flies off and grabs it as if he's been waiting for hours to get it. Haha, poor guy. There has been just a couple of times where I hear a weird clanking or something on the monitor instead of him saying "mama" and I've gone in to find that he has gotten up and brought a toy back into bed with him. Both times he had tucked the blankets around him and would give me this innocent smile as if to say, "This was here all along." We have never told him he can't get off his bed so it's pretty funny that he thinks he's breaking a rule. I know we probably won't be so lucky with our other kids :(
16. Before Koa left, Winston loved to have Koa do everything with him, and often refused to let Koa nap as a result. He also blamed Koa for just about every mess and every bruise :) I haven't loved having Koa so much yet, but I did love hearing Winston call for him and talking to him all the time. He was also good at keeping Koa in check so that I didn't have to, and usually when I heard him say, "No Koa, no!", a few seconds later he would come to let me know he had stopped Koa from digging, or chewing on a ball, or from bringing sticks into the house. I actually find his OCD rather helpful most of the time :)
Honestly, I could go on and on, but I think this gives a good glimpse of his personality right now. He is cute, sweet, determined, independent, and so awesome! And we love him soooo much!
** I tried to do a little impromptu photo shoot with him this morning while he was playing on my bed. Most of the photos are a little blurry because he just does not stop moving when he's awake! But that's who he is and I'll take it :)
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