Terrible Twos Schmerrible Twos

Alright, seriously, whoever came up with the term 'terrible twos' never had a 3 year old. In general, I find age two mostly hilarious. I think two year olds are a hoot. Our 3's with E were no picnic, and I was so hoping G might skip that phase, or at least be less of a challenge. Uh, yeah, notsomuch. T asked me the night before last "What happened to our little boy?", referring to his newfound defiance. Responses like "YOU pick it up!" when asked to pick up the puzzles, and "I'm gonna stomp on someone!!!" just do not go over well here. And honestly, I do not remember the maniacal laughing when he knows he's in trouble from the 3 year old days with E. *sigh* What happened to our little boy, indeed. He still has his sweet and adorable moments, and we love him madly, of course, but man....sometimes it's a good thing they're so cute and have won your heart over a million times...

Now for a few pictures....these first couple are from Labor Day weekend when we were out in the yard playing ball with the boys. E can steady whack the ball, and actually has a pretty good arm. I suppose I might have to let him try baseball again. He did t-ball last spring/summer, but not this summer, as we had him play spring soccer and they overlapped some, and frankly, I'd rather see him get the exercise that soccer involves more than the baseball, and watching baseball to me is about like watching the corn grow. But we may let him try it next spring, we'll see. I do want him to know HOW to play, so he can play with his friends and stuff as he grows up.

And G, well...is this a hoot or what? T had this coon skin hat, and he's let the boys have it to play with. I think this is the first time we showed baseball to G. T totally helped him hit, so he'd have success and think it was fun. He seemed to like it ok.

Here G is showing off his new set of farm animals. We took him to Toys R Us last Thursday to buy him his promised "I'm a big boy now and am all potty trained." present. We fully expected him to pick out a large-ish truck of some sort, as that's been the talk the whole time. Well, the animal lover in him won out, and he chose a bucket of farm animals -- the boy is nuts for cows and horses now. I bet he has 4 or 5 cows now that he likes to carry around. We're thinking we got off pretty cheap, as the animals were only 10 bucks. We were expecting to pony up more than that, but he doesn't know that. LOL

And this one...well, I think it was the first, or one of the first, days I put G in jeans this fall (and can I just say, LOVING the cooler weather!!!!), and a new shirt (which will be rare for him this fall, as I have plenty from E for handmedowns), and I just thought he looked so darn cute....and grownup!!! Where'd my baby go???

Speaking of handmedowns, we have a few that are MIA, and it's really kind of driving me crazy. There is a bag of underwear the next size up from what G is wearing, and 2 pairs of sweatpants I distinctly remember E having that are NO WHERE to be found. I've gone through all the rubbermaid tubs I think they could be in with no luck. A friend told me I'll find the underwear AFTER I buy new ones and open the package, and I'm sure she's right. :P

Well, as for a school update -- which, ya know, is sort of why I started out blogging I think...It's still going really great. We're on our 5th week already, and are moving right along. We started the year a little ahead on his reading and have kept up that pace -- we're something like 7 or 8 weeks ahead of the guide in terms of assignments for that area. We're going along at about 2 lessons of the math program per week which, at that pace, will mean we'll need the next level in about 10 weeks. We started going to co-op yesterday, which I think will be a really good thing. There are 73 children in the group, from nursery age through high school. Yesterday was kind of a 'dry run' of the schedule and such, and I was not in charge of anything, but I'll be assigned different jobs throughout the year, from nursery duty to teaching the various classes -- PE, Art, Performing Arts, and Unit Studies. We opened with some worship singing yesterday, which I don't think is a weekly thing but I'm not sure. I was thinking to myself though "How cool is this!! My kids and I are worshipping right in the middle of our school day!!!" Not that there aren't MANY forms of worship that we all can be doing throughout our day, but I meant the actual corporate worship through music. Way cool.

This morning, my 3 year old is being a sleepy head. It's a quarter til 9 and I've not heard a peep. I'm going to have to wake him I guess. I thought I'd let him sleep in, and then not push the nap thing. There are days, like co-op days, that he's just not going to get one, and honestly, when he does nap, he's awake till 11 or after, so it's probably time to cut it completely and just transition to a quiet time in the afternoon. But I was hoping to get some school in this morning before the library story time we're going to today, which is at 10:30, so we wouldn't have to do it all this afternoon, so I think it's time to rouse the beast from his slumber. LOL Actually, when he first gets up is often his sweetest time, and after somewhere around 12 hours of sleep, he ought to be good to go. We're watching a little friend of G's this afternoon for an hour or so, and then E has soccer practice tonight. Kind of a busy day head. Better get to it!!