I must inform you all that my Handsome Dude is changing a bit.
I think the days of his extreme shenanigans are coming to be a thing of the past.
Yes! I'm serious, Reader!
These days, he prides himself on doing what he is supposed to do. For example, here is a conversation Handsome Dude and I had right after swimming in the pool at the hotel this weekend:
HD (short for Handsome Dude . . . keep up, people!): Mom?! Did I splash? Or no?
He was standing in the hotel room, dripping wet, with his hand up in the air, almost as if he were taking an oath.
Me: No! You did not! You listened to Mommy. Thank you, buddy!
HD: Mom!? Alex! Did Alex splash in the pool?
Alex is Handsome Dude's uncle. Remember Alex?
Alex is basically a grown up version of my dudes. You never can be sure of what he is going to do next and you must always keep an eye on him.
Me: Yes. Uncle Alex did splash a bit in the pool.
Alex was doing cannon balls and cartwheels into the pool and roaring and chasing and all sorts of naughty things of the like.
HD: But I not! No! Not me!
His hand is still in oath-taking position.
HD: Alex needs a time out.
Yes. Now, Handsome Dude prides himself on making the right choice. And he is assuming position of the morality police and starting to become a bit of an informer of the wrongs of others.
Kind of annoying, but much better than his previous position of Chief of Driving Mother Insane.
Now, my Handsome Dude, loves to help me out. Without me asking, he will go throughout the house, gather each hamper, and deliver all of the dirty clothes to the laundry room for me. He also loves to round up all of the trash cans, empty them into the main trash, and take the trash out for me. He even asks if he can go pick up trash outside.
Oh.
Be.
Still.
My.
Heart.
And, yes. We have garbage outside. We are some of those people. But it is not our fault. It is the fault of our dog, Lucy.
LucyFur
Anyways. I figure I am always telling you all of the naughtiness my Handsome Dude causes. But I wanted to make sure I remember to tell you that he is also a precious boy who warms my heart.
When I handed him his ironed shirt the other day, he hugged me and said, "Thanks, Mom! You're the best! The BEST!"
When his Aunt Lisa had surprised him with some new clothes she found for him while garage saleing, he was overcome with joy, hugged the clothes and shouted, "Mom! Lisa is Ca-Ray-Zay!"
Attention Lisa: I am pretty sure he means "crazy" in a good way in this instance.
When he opened his gift from Jason and Amy for his services as Ring Bearer Extraordinaire, he proclaimed, "Amazing! Just amazing! Thank you!"
The Dude is ravenous these days.
It is not uncommon for him to eat TWO sandwiches at lunch and then tell me he is "wee hungry" about an hour later.
"Mom! I just so hungry all the time!"
Yesterday, I pulled a fast one on him and fed him a tuna sandwich instead of his favorite peanut butter and jelly.
"Mom! I just can't eat this! It's so icks-dusting!"
Lest any of you are confused, icks-dusting is more commonly pronounced "disgusting."
But my starving boy ate every morsel of his icks-dusting sandwich and even informed me moments later:
"Mom! I just so hungry all the time!"
I know the doctor told me he was going to grow to be about 6'4", but I did not expect for it to happen before he turned 5.
***
Random Topic Quick-Change!
I decided to try and do a little preschool with the dudes yesterday. My girls knew far more about letters and such at the boys' ages than the boys do now and I am feeling a tiddly-bit worried about it.
So, yesterday we started with the letter "A."
A fine place to start, don't you think?
I wrote a letter "A" on each of their papers and asked them to try to copy it.
Oh, for the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.
They just cried and drew circles.
It was almost as if their hands were possessed and could only move in a circular fashion.
It was incredulous.
I fear I have a long journey ahead of me, dear Reader.
But, they learned what the "A" says. So that's encouraging. And they also learned the number "1."
And we had a breakthrough.
They were both able to write the number "1" and it did not look like a circle!
Progress!
So, now Little Dude has another chant that he repeats over and over again.
Remember his original chant?
"My bunny's name is Screamer. I'm two. I'm this many!"
(He would say it holding up 5 fingers)
Now he repeats:
"A says 'a' like apple. One!"
***
Random Topic Quick-Change!
I was having an issue with my IPod. You see, dear readers, we had this laptop many moons ago that had our ITunes on it.
But it broke, on account of the children.
Fun fact: We blame everything on the children.
Anyways, it broke and now our Itunes is locked away on this broken laptop, rendering our IPod frozen in time.
Because, and correct me if I am wrong, if I tried to ever load another song on it from a new ITunes account, I would lose all my other songs.
I think.
So, I have this friend. Her name is Brandi. And her husband is one of those computer genius types.
So, he told me to bring me the IPod and new laptop and he would fix me right up.
And he did!
Holla, Bob!
But I had a horrifying remebrance as we drove away from Bob and Brandi's house.
David got me that IPod for Christmas one year. Apparently, you are supposed to "name" your IPod.
Well. My husband named my IPOD:
"Taylor the Hottie."
Now, I fear that Bob thinks I am uber conceited
Plus he goes to my church.
And he leads the music.
Awkward.
Bob and Brandi have a three year old boy. He was very excited to see David and I when we were there picking up our laptop and conceited IPod.
David is his teacher at church.
Anyways, David and Bob were talking manly-man computer-ish stuff and Brandi and I were bemoaning the fact that she was 39 weeks pregnant and saw no end in sight.
Her little boy came up to me and squeezed me in the *ahem* northern regions and happily said:
"I'm gentle-gentle!"
Now, that's stinkin' funny.
And awkward.
Poor little guy. He had to have a lecture when we left about not groping guests.
Happy Wednesday!
As the mom of an almost 17-year old son, I can say, from experience, that watching boys grow up is truly a privilege. Please understand, though, that they do regress from time to time. What keeps you going are the moments that you are experiencing right now, so bookmark this post. You might need to return to it. :)
ReplyDeleteOh no now we are famous lol...couldn't you have named us Rob and Randi :-D
ReplyDeleteBut Taylor - you are a "hottie" !
ReplyDeleteLoving the transformation of Handsome Dude - what a sweetie!
My little boy is going to end up being 6' 3". He eats like he is a teenager and he's 4. Between your boy and mine, they must eat all the snacks at Awanas. :-)
ReplyDeleteOh. How sweet. I don't have a little boy to melt my heart...
ReplyDeletebut I do two girls who are nine and ten and in an uber naught stage.
I guess raising boys helps you understand why men are the way they are : )
ReplyDeleteMaybe don't worry about writing letters on paper just yet...start with tracing in sand, shaving cream or pudding. Sounds like just the sort of thing you want to add to your day, doesn't it?
That hungry-all-the-time thing does not get better with age. We are currently considering selling one of our boys so that we can continue to feed the other four. : )
ReplyDeleteThanks Taylor for giving me hope. My nearly 2 year old son is currently in the naughty pants stage and I fear there is no end to it. Believe me when I say that I know all about the weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth. I'm also quite familiar with the stomping of feet, flailing like a crazy person and writhing on the floor. It can happen at any moment for any reason. I dream of the day when he will be a well mannered little angel. Thanks for all the stories. You are such an inspiration.
ReplyDeleteHaving homeschooled both a boy and a girl I can tell you- Don't worry about the boys learning things at the same speed that your girls did. ;) They are completely different. Boys develop fine-motor skills much, much later than girls. At this point with boys ages 3 and 4 I would keep everything oral unless you're doing tactile type stuff like tracing in cornmeal or rice. Let them color and trace and be creative and draw circles to their hearts content. (In fact, you should encourage the circle drawing... but try to get them to do it counter-clockwise... it's a pre-writing exercise.) But it's way to early to be too worried about writing letters or learning to read. :) I promise. They'll still get into college even if they don't learn to read or write until they're 6. ;) I understand, though. We homeschooling moms feel the weight of the world on our shoulders when it comes to our kid's education.
ReplyDeleteOne word: boys.
ReplyDeleteThey're typically not ready for all that schoolin' stuff as early as girls are, mostly due to huge gender differences in brain development as well as their fine motor skills being more delayed. Don't stress about it. Some studies even suggest that early learning doesn't have any lasting benefits. I'm very relaxed about it in the preschool years, and my school-aged boys are performing at or above grade level in all subjects. I don't say this as an expert, but just to encourage you. :)
(Guess what else? Male brains go into a rest state--a nice way of saying they "shut off"--more often during the day than female brains. I'm just saying...)
AND they never stop eating. They're only able to hold more and more. Heh.
Ha! My husband joked with ours the other day that we were going to have to do that.
ReplyDeleteI was writing my post before I saw Lani's. But I do also want to echo her comment about the pressure we homeschool moms can feel and to tell you you're doing a great job. :)
ReplyDeleteSomeone else's dude needed a handcheck! Isn't it great that your kids do eventually grow up. They do eventually learn something and eventually they are mostly public worthy! Sweet story!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear that HD has turned the corner. Boys are just the sweetest things when they're being good.
ReplyDeleteNice that your friends' son thought your northern reasons were worth squeezing!
Lol....this post is too funny! Levi asked me just about two hours ago when he could go to "HD's house". Only he used his real name and not the HD. He knows not of the HD. So, I guess we are gonna have to make that work before I'M 39 weeks!! Seeing as I'm 33 1/2 now. Not that I'm counting the days or anything. At bare minimum we need another park date, but you are so busy now with your swim class! Anyways, really enjoyed this post--it's good stuff!
ReplyDeleteYou're such an awesome momma!! What a sweet men you're raising. :-)
ReplyDeleteI love every single bit of this post. Your posts always brighten up my days. Holla! :-)
HILARIOUS!!
ReplyDeleteYou're the best, Taylor!
My boys think writing on the white board or magnadoodle is much more fun than paper. Lots of painting at an easel or "painting" the outside of the house with a big brush and water will also develop the muscles needed for fine motor control...and it's a great summer activity.
ReplyDeleteI'm always saying that I want to borrow HD. I really want to borrow him now that he's sweet and helpful. What a wonderful kid. :)
ReplyDeleteI will now solve all of your mommy/teacher worries about the alphabet and numbers: Go buy the Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD and the Math Circus DVD. Put a travel DVD player in your SUV. Each and every time you go into town, play one of the DVDs until even the beginning sounds make your eye twitch and your hands clench.
ReplyDeleteThen, when your boys start singing, "the A say AAAH the A says AAAH, every letter makes a sound, the A says AAAAH"....play the DVD one million more times.
Preschool-DONE!
Ok, so not done, but all of my girls knew all of their letters and sounds by 2. Prince Charming is almost there, and he is 2.5. His "tardiness" is all my fault, as I had to bribe myself into putting that DVD in again...it makes me twitchy, and that is often bad for driving....but he is learning his letters/sounds, so I will twitch-drive for a few more months. The things homeschool moms will do...
PS- I was totally being a dork about "solving" your problems...I am only mildly sarcastic. :-)
ReplyDeleteLove these stories! It is pretty awesome to see who the boys really are...I get those glimpses too and it helps me through each day ("Please stay" for example. :) ). What Mindee said made me laugh...I was thinking the same thing, or something similar. He would probably look at me and ask questioningly,"Where are they?"
ReplyDeleteYou are in Ruralville.
ReplyDeleteLet the little dudes pee their letters in the dirt.
I can guarantee rapt attention to the task at hand.
Also, as the dudes display the behavior you are so diligently training into them, take credit for it. People will ask you to write a parenting book. (Oh wait, they already have!)
I love the pleasing-mommy stage! They can be so cute :) Enjoy every moment
ReplyDeleteI loved this post! It is so my mind...all over the place!
ReplyDeleteHandsome dude sounds like constant entertainment! I will have to head over here more to hear some more stories!
Holla to Bob and Brandi!!! (Love you guys!) Can I..ahem...get your autographs now? ;)
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what curriculum you use, Taylor, but after going through a BUNCH that didn't work for my son (who for a variety of reasons did not learn to read until he was 10 and he still went to college at 18 after home schooling K-12 ... quit kicking yourself) I tried one called Alphabet Island that worked PERFECTLY for him. You might look into it. http://www.eagleswingsed.com/products/ai1.html (This is my personal opinion. Not a paid, or otherwise compensated, referral!)
ReplyDeletetrue dat!
ReplyDeleteThanks for a good laugh and causing me to remember all the things we experienced raising our son. He sounds identical to HD. He was a delightful boy who pleased his parents in most every way, but he was not a good student all the way through High School and I will just leave it at that. Then the Lord changed him inside out and he is graduating this fall with his Doctoral degree in Theology. We serve a BIG God!
ReplyDeleteI remember when I got my first iPod...
ReplyDeleteTook me 20 minutes to get it out of the box and I didn't know about that little wheel thing to scroll... Very first thing I did with it was accidently switch the language to Chinese.
Of course, I opened the manual and it said "follow instructions on iPod to set up."
Only, I don't read Chinese.
heehee
ReplyDeleteyou got felt up by a three year old.
Yes, I remember when you got you iPod - LJ was showing it to me and what it said but the screen was too small and all I saw was Taylor is a ho and thot he was very rude icks dusting.
ReplyDelete