The past six months have been pretty big for my little guy. Every time I turn around, he’s doing something that makes him seem more like a “big kid,” as he says. The biggest- starting Pre-K! He loves school and looks forward to going (he only goes twice a week, but he wants to go everyday!). His teacher, Mrs. Mary Ellen, is SO great and I’m impressed at all the things that he has learned in such a short amount of time. I love that he goes to a Christian Learning Center and that in addition to learning a normal Pre-K curriculum, he has been introduced to God. I’m embarrassed to admit my lack of knowledge when it comes to the Bible and such, but I really enjoy hearing stories from Tyler about what he is learning. I find myself googling things like God’s gift of the rainbow and Noah’s Ark after he tells me a story and become interested in learning more myself. Mrs. Mary Ellen speaks highly of Tyler and says that he has a “kind soul.” I definitely agree and I’m happy that she notices!! He had a few friends already attending CLC when he started- Tanner, Trace, Macy and Madelynn, and he has made several new friends in his class that he talks about all the time- Carter, Ethan, Aubrey and Joshua A. He has even included Joshua A. in family pictures that he draws. ;-) His favorite part about school is playing on the playground because all the Pre-K classes go together, so he gets to enjoy time with all of his friends that are in different classes, Stretch-N-Grow (like exercise class) on Tuesdays and Chapel time. We usually hang out after school for 30+ minutes and he gets to run around with his friends some more. I really am happy that we decided to start him in Pre-K and feel a little silly about all the anxiety I had beforehand. I do have a funny story that I have to remember and want to share. Part of my anxiety was worrying about how other kids would treat Tyler and we recently got a small preview of kids just being kids. Tyler came home one afternoon from school, slicking his bangs back with his hands and telling me that he wanted to get his hair cut like Joshua A. (Joshua has a buzz cut). I told him that I loved his hair and really didn’t want to cut it. After telling me several more times that he wanted to cut his hair, he finally told me that the reason he wanted to was because a girl on the playground told him that he had hair like a girl (because of his bangs). As minor as that seems, it really bothered me that he was bothered and feeling self conscious about her comment. I could have said a lot, but I managed to compose my thoughts and told him that he was lucky to have such beautiful hair and that if the little girl ever mentioned it again, tell her that he likes the way he looks and for her to not worry about him and then just ignore her. I mean, what else do you say, right?? He told Travis the same story that evening and Travis simply said, “You go tell that girl that she has a BIG butt just like her momma!” HA! I’m sure we’re in for some interesting times in the school years ahead! :-)
Tyler is officially sleeping in his room all.by.himself! Anyone who knows, knows this is BIG! I took advantage of Travis being gone on a 3 day fishing trip to get Tyler excited about sleeping alone. I took him to Build-A-Bear to get a new sleeping buddy. He was able to pick out his own bear, have it stuffed, pick out clothes and name it (birth certificate and all!). He named his new friend, Teddy Barrett. Get it... Teddy Bear...ett. Haha! Tyler came up with that one all on his own, but he doesn’t find it amusing at all when I make the comparison. It’s Teddy Barrett and he’s very serious about that. It still cracks me up! I moved Travis’ bed out of the room and Tyler loved having all the extra playing space. After sleeping alone for a week, we rewarded him with his very own TV in his room!! He was pretty excited about that and Travis has only caught him a couple of times watching TV at 3am. ;-) He’s been sleeping alone since October 20th and I am still surprised at how easy the transition has been. I think it was harder on Travis because he didn’t know this was happening while he was gone and felt like he got “booted out.” I get it, but it had to be done. They would have been content with being roomies until Tyler moved out of the house. ;-)
Other notable big kid stuff that happened months ago: he learned to write his name (he felt pretty accomplished knowing this prior to starting school) and overnight diapers/Pull-Ups are a thing of the past (he’s obviously been out of diapers for a very long time, but he still wore something for bedtime for the occasional accident). He had his third dentist check-up and is still cavity free. He can completely buckle himself in his carseat, which makes my life so much easier when we’re out and about! I just have to do a quick double check and then we’re off. He is more confident in riding his bike (still with training wheels), sliding and jumping off things. He loves drawing and is very descriptive in his artwork. It’s actually pretty impressive to see his drawings. He can finally color in between the lines, too! He likes Rock & Roll music and he has a few new shows that he enjoys watching: Doc McStuffins, Mike the Knight and Ninjago.
I think Tyler and Kinley are going to have the classic sibling love/hate relationship. Tyler is often annoyed with her because she is pestering him (he definitely does his fair share of bugging as well) and they are always fighting over the same toys (like we don’t have enough toys to entertain an entire daycare!). When he's mad, he says that he doesn't like her, but I know better. He definitely loves her! He's always on her side and he always defends her. I have seen him really upset with a friend for accidentally hurting her (and even held a grudge about it for a month, despite it truly being an accident) and he protects her when other young kids are just not being that nice (taking things from her, hitting, etc). He gets full on mad if anyone messes with her. It's the old saying, I can do [whatever] to my sister, but no-one else can type-of-thing. And unfortunately, this loving quality often gets him in trouble with Travis and myself. If we try to punish Kinley for whatever reason, he turns on us and yells and screams ugly things to us. He can be so upset with her for something that she's doing to him and then immediately take her side if we try to correct her, making us the bad guys! It has been very difficult at times, but I can secretly appreciate this overprotective quality because I remember being very similar with my brothers growing up and I'm glad that he's in her corner. When they aren't bickering like normal brothers and sisters do, it really is entertaining and fun to watch them play together. :-)
We really are having a ton of fun with this little dude.....
