A three year old!

My little Trooper is 3! He is constantly running around, making us laugh and impressing us with all that he's learning. Some of his favorite pasttimes include playing baseball, basketball, tag, hide-and-seek, snuggling Navy, reading books, "skateboarding" on his little bike, playdough, painting and drawing, working with his tools, giving check-ups with his doctor kit, helping in the kitchen (cooking, baking, dishes) and playing with his friends.

Troop's been potty trained for a year now and accidents are very rare these days. He's become a much better eater, not so picky, though he still dislikes chicken and takes about 10 minutes to swallow one bite of it. He still LOVES all his "guys", meaning his stuffed animals and blankets. His very favorites are Pluto, Andy the Lion, Scout the dog, Mickey Muk, and Spooky Muk (he calls blankets "muks" still...). He loves to bring all his guys out of his room and build campouts and forts with them.

Trooper is incredibly smart. Brent and I are always impressed. At his three year appointment, he even impressed the doctor. She asked him if he could draw her a circle, so he drew a big O. She said, "You're right, that's a great circle!" And he said, "Actually, that's an oval." He was right! At the end of the appointment, she asked, "And do you have any questions for me?" He replied, "Yes, I do. My question is..." The doctor just looked at me with wide eyes, very impressed with his vocal skills. I was a proud mom:)

He loves his baby sis. He is the best at getting her to laugh and he's always doing crazy things to make her smile. When I come downstairs with Navy after her naps, he looks up all excited and says "Mine to hold! My girl to hold!" He loves to help feed her oatmeal and get her toys to play with. With how often he tells her she's cute, she's bound to grow up a very confident little girl. Trooper is just an incredible big brother. Better than we ever could have imagined.

 Here are some recent Troop-isms that had us laughing:

As he's nonchalantly going downstairs. "Mom, I'm going to marry you. I'm going to marry you at Christmas."

On his birthday, people would tell him Happy Birthday. He would politely reply, "And happy birthday to you!"

His new thing is to freeze and say in a robot voice "Broken robot, I need beatbox power." And then he slowly rejuvenates as we beatbox for him. Troop's beatbox skills are amazing for a three year old.

As he pretends to take a picture. "Say cheese! Oh, that's a good picture! You cheesed!"

We were having shrimp for dinner and Troop was less than enthused. Though it was his first time ever trying shrimp, he came up with this excuse, "Every time...I eat shrimp...I get sick!"

With all his climbing around, he occasionally gets himself stuck in tight places. I just hear, "Mom! A little help please!"

He threw up a ball and caught it. He said to himself, "I have skills."

Troop:"Heavenly Father, pray the food. Christ Jesus, Amen."
Me:"Trooper, remember to say some thank-yous. What are you thankful for?"
Troop:"Oh, how about the root beer. Heavenly Father, bless the rootbeer. Amen."
Me:"You need to say some thank-yous."
Troop:"Ooooooh, I always forget that. HF, bless the thank-yous, Christ Jesus, Amen."

He loves to hear stories. After we had told him a few, I asked "Troop can you tell me a story from today?" He said, "Sure! I went into a dinosaur cave and I saw three dinosaurs sleeping. So I used my trumpet to wake them up. But they were sleeping. It was hard to wake them up. Now you tell me a story."

Brent:"Trooper do you want me to go back to school?"
Trooper:"No, I'll be sad."
Brent:"But when I leave, you and mom are going to do fun stuff."
Trooper: "....Leave right now."

Me:"Trooper, don't shine the flashlight at people."
Troop:"I'm going to shine it at Andy (his stuffed lion.) But if Andy talked, I wouldn't shine it at him."
Me:"Yes, that's ok. Real people talk so don't shine it at real people."
Troop:"Sooo... Navy's not a real person?"

And here are some pictures of the last six months.

June 2014

All sorts of adventures to be had in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard.

The first of his campouts with his guys,

Zoo Boise

"Hey! There's no popcorn in here!"

July

This boy LOVES Grandpa's berry patch.

The first few nights in his "big boy bed" after the move to Missouri.

Fascinated by all of Navy's headbands.

Wanted to be swaddled just like baby sis.

Look at those perfect little lips.

August

"Mom, I think Navy's hungry. I'll feed her.

Discovering the joys of play-doh.

With his awesome block castle.

September

After a tree had fallen in our backyard during a big Missouri storm, a man came with a chainsaw to clean it up. Troop quickly grabbed his saw and watched the entire process through the window. This boy loves manly projects.

 October

After his nap, he was waiting for me in his room like this.

Playing some fall football in the front yard. And then I noticed a spider and he quickly smashed it with his bare hands to save me!

Went to storytime at the library and this is where I find him.

Did this puzzle almost completely by himself! He's growing up!

November 6, 2014. Trooper's 3rd birthday!

Trooper was SO excited to wake up and find these tiny bananas waiting for him. He loves anything miniature. These were the highlight of his birthday; the one present he told everyone about.

Helping mom finish the cupcakes.

Helping dad put together his present.

One day as I was putting away laundry, I turned around to see this...

Halloween 2014

Troop and I took it upon ourselves to cut open and clean out the pumpkins this year while dad was in class. That way, dad could quickly carve his masterpiece when he came home for lunch. 

This is how Trooper really felt about it all. Sometimes when your dad is in med school, the dirty work falls on you.

Practicing trick-or-treating.

Brent: the pumpkin-carving master.

And here he is wearing the garb that he won in the pumpkin-carving contest.

 And here are our little monsters.

At the SAA Trunk-or-Treat. Troop went around roaring at everyone:)

Troop-isms

Boy does this kid make us laugh. Always the talker, here are some of Trooper's greatest sayings from the past few months:

There's lots of talk around here about Dad and school. When Brent brought home all his new doctor tools, Trooper made sense of everything. He said, "Dad goes to doctor kit school. I go to pushing buttons school."

While we were driving, he pointed to himself and exclaimed, "This man needs to go to school! To be a doctor and help people."

He's gotten super into batteries lately because they seem to be the miracle cure for all his toys. Dad always changes the batteries in his toys and the world is right again. One day he asked, "Mom, do you fix dad when he's out of battery?" He must've been thinking, 'Dad always fixes my toys, but what happens when HE runs out of batteries?!'

Navy fell asleep when we were in Wal-Mart and he asked, "Is she re-charging her battery?"

I mentioned in my last post that Trooper's prayers have always been "Heavenly Father, pray the food. Christ Jesus, Amen." Well one day while we were eating lunch, after hearing some good news, I asked Trooper to join me in a special thank you prayer to Heavenly Father. When I finished, he wanted a turn. He said, "Heavenly Father, thank you for Jesus gave me chips, and thank you for our family. Amen." I loved that he had really listened to my prayer and thought about some things that he was thankful for and now incorporates those things into his prayers.

We finished a family game together and he said, "Wow! What a great team!"

He was climbing behind me on the couch so I leaned back and trapped him there. He said, "Ugh, I gotta get out of this mess!"

When he gets excited he says, "This is going to be so great!"

We've been reading scriptures with Trooper at night before he goes to bed. One day he wanted to pretend we were reading scriptures together and he said, "And it came to pass, he pitched his tent, and the whole family. Amen." Funny the themes he's recognizing as we read!

Trooper put his feet on the dinner table and Brent asked him, "Do you live in a barn?" Trooper's face lit up and he answered, "I'm a cow! Moo!"

Randomly, "Mom, you know what's funny?"
Me: "What Trooper?"
Him: "Your face!"

Sometimes Brent and I lay down on Trooper's floor while we sing him bedtime songs. Here we're thinking it's fun and kindof special to just hang out with him before bedtime, but Trooper always sees it as an opportunity. He gives us each a kiss and while backing out of his room he says, "Okay, I love you. Goodnight." And shuts us in.

One evening we had the Sister Missionaries over for dinner. I always have Trooper go to the bathroom before mealtime so that he doesn't have to go while we're eating. After going, he was running around naked and I told him he needed to get his pants back on because Sisters aren't allowed to see naked boys. So they arrived and we started eating. Trooper looks at them and asks, "Do you want to see my bum?" Ahhh! I was so embarrassed and just hoping they didn't understand what he had said. But they totally did and laughed about it for a few minutes.

While he was watching the garbage man outside our house, "I can't believe it! The green garbage truck came! I just love it!"

One night we dropped him off to be babysat in a classroom while we went to a meeting on campus. When we got back, we were told he'd had an accident while using the potty because he'd told the babysitter he could do it all by himself and his undies ended up soaked. So he was commando. When we asked him about it as we walked out to the car, he started walking funny and said "Ugh! I can't live like this anymore!"

One day he told me, "Bye bye! Adios Amigo!"

He was telling me how grandma and grandpa are far away and we can't see them right now. "Because they're way down in Old Mexico."

We were watching Planes together and Brent was playing with Navy on the floor. He got out a toy to entertain her that makes a bit of noise. Trooper told him, "Please stop playing with that or make my movie louder.... I'd love for you to stop that."

Sometimes he watches Daniel Tiger and every episode they have a little song that teaches you a lesson. Trooper started making up his own songs for when things go wrong. One day at lunch he started singing, "If something gets stuck in your teeth, you get it out with your finger." One day he spilled a bottle of freshly pumped milk for Navy. I was slightly distraught but he said, "It's okay, Mom." And then sang, "If something spills, we fill it back up!"

He started this thing where we tell each other often "I love you so much, (more than anyone) in the whole entire world, just the way you are, even when your sad."

When he sees Navy, he says one of these: "Oh Navy, I so love you!" "Oh she's so beautiful!" "You're a little cutie!"

At Hy-vee (a grocery store) they have little kiddie carts that Trooper loves to push around. Whenever he has one, he runs around the store, picking up all sorts of things and says so excitedly, "Oh I love these!!" or "These are my favorite!!" Even with things he's never seen before in his life. He just wants to fill his cart:)

We were pretending the Swiffer mop was a microphone. When it was Trooper's turn to say something, he said, "Hi I'm Trooper. And dad is my best friend. And I love him."

He asks to watch something or to play on the iPad a lot. Most the time the answer is no, but when I actually say yes to him, he is so excited and grateful and says, "Oooh you're sooo nice." or "Thank you. You're the best." or even "You're a sweetie and I love you!"

When he gets to play on the iPad, he usually tries to find something to watch, like on the PBS Kids app. So I usually tell him no watching, he needs to be playing an educational game. Well, lately he has wised up and started asking, "Mom, can I play an education game?" Smart kid, because that is a bit harder to say no to:)

..4 months..

So Miss Navy was four months old on October 10th. A few days before that, she rolled from her back to her tummy for the first time and was not happy to find herself there. But she's up on her left side a lot and prefers to fall asleep that way now. She's rolled over a few more times but not a ton yet. She has started grabbing things and is starting to enjoy her little toys. Her hands are constantly at her mouth and she loves eating her blankets. She's starting to laugh more and more, like a real giggle and it's adorable. She is always so happy to have anyone's attention and is also content to just sit and watch the world around her. At her four month appointment, she was only 10.8 lbs! I'm not sure that's even on the charts. But her height is still around the 60th percentile. I've started feeding her a couple bottles of pumped milk each day along with her normal feedings to hopefully get her weight up a bit. But I think she's just meant to be a tiny little thing. The doctor isn't too concerned because she doesn't seem disproportioned or unhappy. She also moves her little legs and arms a lot so she's burning a lot of calories:) We'll see if we've gotten her weight up on the charts at her six month appointment. Meanwhile, here are some pictures of the darling girl.

Love those baby blues.

Love these little toes peeking out at me while I'm shopping:)

The first time she really took an interest in her toys. And she was lovin them!

Snuggles from Trooper are a frequent part of every day.

Love.

This is how she sleeps now! Cutest thing ever, right?! When she starts pulling out this pose, I know she's ready for a nap.

..Three Months..

Navy Bean is three and half months old! It's been a pretty big month for Navy as she has started to laugh and roll over! Her first little laugh was on September 5th when Trooper was popping up from behind my back and playing peek-a-boo with her. It was adorable. It's not quite a giggle yet, but you can tell she's super excited and just a smile won't cut it. Try as I might though, she will not laugh for the camera. But I'll keep trying. She rolled from front to back on September 13th after I helped her out just once. And now she's getting really close to rolling from back to front. Besides these milestones, she coos a lot, is moving/kicking her little legs all the time, sleeps 9+ hours at night, and gives a big smile to anyone who talks to or even looks at her. Since we took away her binky at nap/bedtime (because she would wake up at night crying for it, so we had a few hard nights of sleep training in there), she has become a little finger sucker and also likes to try to eat her blankets when she's awake. She is always happy to see Trooper, especially first thing in the morning. He always comes to say good morning to her and she gets the biggest smile on her face when she sees him. She's probably the best listener in the family and loves listening to her daddy explain everything he's learning about. She also loves getting her diaper changed. As soon as she realizes that's what's happening, she gets a huge smile on her face; like she can't wait for that fresh,clean diaper. Navy is really just a content little baby. She wakes up happy (most of time) and then remains calm and smiley whether she's on the floor watching Trooper, sitting in her carseat while we run errands, or sitting on my lap talking or reading books. Once she gets whiny, it means she's tired and wants to be wrapped up and put to bed. One cute thing that Navy has done since birth (I just kept forgetting to mention it before now) is that she does a funny little yell/sound after she sneezes. It's almost like she's surprised and a little exasperated about what just happened. It makes me smile every time. Hopefully I can get in on video someday soon. Until then, here are some cute pictures from the past month.

People have been telling me that she looks a lot like Trooper. So I decided it was time to do some comparisons. Here's what I've come up with. Tell me what you think!