The Kole Chronicles: 42

My little man is 42 months old!!! (That’s three and a half for those who don’t like math)

Wow, how exactly did that happen?

So what has he been up to lately?

Well – its impossible to capture his essence in blog post, but here are a few things that make Owen himself…

He loves to cuddle and he loves to be just like mama or papa…

here he is with his hat on just like papa and they are both playing on their laptops…

Here he is cuddling with cousin ‘D’

He loves his sleep too – although lately he has learned how to stall at bedtime and will come out of his room more times that i can count for no reason (well other than he needs more water, he cant find his frog, or he needs to be recovered up) but once he’s out, he’s out – and ever since he’s been a wee little babe, i’ve snuck in his room while he was sleeping to take pics of him at night…in fact i have a whole post in the works with some of the pics i’ve gotten of him sleeping….here’s a little teaser….

what a sweet peaceful little guy!

even though he is quite the little devious one when it comes to staying in his room or trying to get what he wants from mama and papa, he really is a sweet sweet boy! and (most of the time) he treats syd so sweet and takes care of her so well…the other day before nap, he insisted on giving her some milk before her nap….this pic is so so so stinking cute….i love the look on his face – so concentrate (whils she just looks like she’s not so sure about the whole thing).

that picture reminded me of this pic – from when ‘baby synee’ first came home….he’s got that same little look on his face….

Playing ‘computer’ with syd…

He also helps us interpret Syd’s language….The other day syd kept saying something "pa..." and we could NOT figure out what she was saying until all of a sudden in a very annoyed tone, owen shouts out "she wants a pillow!"

Along with his sweetness – the other night I was laying with him in bed reading a book and he says: "mama do you want a blanket, or you don't have to if you don't want to; mama do you want to take your socks off? you might get warm"He really does care so much about everyone, so proud of that little guy!

He’s such a little goof ball – always dancing around or singing….

He loves music - will sit and strum on his guitar forever. He recognizes piano (or ‘com-piano’ as he calls it) music on the radio all the time – he is obsessed with the bongos at church and always has to get us to go up front afterwards and look at them

‘country roads’ is somehow his favorite song.....’take me home...to the place....where i belong.....west virginia...'mountin ma-ma'...take me home, country roads’....he knows ALL the words!

And he has a memory like a steel trap…i mean its kind of amazingly scary! here are a few exampls: We pull in the parking lot at Christ Memorial to play on the indoor playground...he says: "hey this is the place we went with grandma" (which was over a year ago)

We were were driving down eighth street the other day and all of a sudden when we passed the Outpost, owen says: "thats where we saw that scary guy, and we could see his belly button" - i was very confused, but scott remembered exactly what he was talking about - during the summer we were downtown for the street performers and there was a guy on stilts all dressed up (and kind of looked scary and you could see his belly button) and we saw him – where? yup, right in front of the Outpost!

Over Christmas Break – We pulled into Deannas playhouse…Owen says: "hey this is where we went for kenzie's birthday party" (over seven months ago)

He’s so curious and observant…papa is helping out teaching a metal stamping class and i told owen he was teaching one night when he asked where he was...later that night, just out of the blue, he was in the car and totally off topic, he goes " did he dress like a teacher? He is a teacher, is he a boy or a girl?" then when scott got home he had to ask him if he wore what he had on to teach.....interesting!

At bedtime, lately he has to make a 'cave' around himself in his bed by making his blankets surround him or even by using his stuffed animals...he'll do it on the couch sometimes too by using toys...who knows where he came up with the idea but its pretty cute! :)

But don’t let all that sweetness and fun fool you – he’s three and a half and as much as I was so afraid of the terrible twos – they came and went and I was so relieved, as I never really felt like we went through much of that type of a phase with him…well – I spoke too fast – because its here – the ‘threes’ are WAY worse! He has this Dr. Jekel / Mr. Hyde thing going on sometimes, I swear!!! :) i think he’s really just starting to realize that he has control over himself and to the extent, the outcome of certain situations, depending on how he acts – so he isREALLY starting to test his limits…he’s also so stinkin’ smart that he really plays scott and i against eachother somtimes…little goober! but we’ve really been working with him lately and i think we’re making some progress..and i just can’t help but love him despite his typical toddler/preschooler behavior!!! : )

He's about 40 lbs (maybe 42? lol) and is wearing size 10 shoe and size 4T clothes. He can count to 18ish and can write his own name. He recognizes just about every letter of the alphabet - capital and lowercase and could probably tell you what just about any word starts with (along with the zoo phonics animal that goes along with it) he loves preschool and gets so excited to do his homework....

He’s just getting so big and so grown up and lately - I feel like he’s gone through a major growth spurt – he’s just not a little boy anymore!!!

He is also getting so much more independent and is willing to go do things on his own more and more – which is nice because he will somewhat dress himself on his own or go to the bathroom on his own and I can totally count on him to do ‘chores’ for me when I ask him. He even went to sunday school on his own without mama or papa goingwith him for the first time today!

So in the spirit of tradition here is my big boy with his froggy buddy….