Sorry Kids, But I Do Have a Favorite Age

There is a reason I have six children.

I love having a toddler and a preschooler in the house.

No one else on the planet would be ecstatic about a ten minute drive in a 2001, stinky, dented, radioless minivan that has sat in our yard unused for over a year. 

We finally got the minivan up and running again, so we drove it to the little boys' soccer time.  They about passed out they were so excited.  To the boys, the minivan was just a very large lawn ornament.  They had no idea that one was actually supposed to ride in it.  Oh, and the things it offers that the big van can't!

"I can touch Cuckoo!"

"The lights are funny!"

"The doors open all by themselves!"

"Did it just lock all by itself?"

"I don't fall down when I climb out by myself!"

Who but a toddler and a preschooler would like to collect and place grass clippings in the garden?

Watching a preschooler trying to figure out how to read is just plain adorable.

Turken had an alphabet book out the other day.  He was going through each page, looking at the picture, then saying what he thought the word was with an exaggerated pronunciation. 

For example, c-c-c-cat.  When he got to the picture of a whale with water coming out of the blowhole, he started out w-w-w-wet.  Then w-w-w-water.  Each time I thought he had it, but instead of w-w-w-whale, I heard d-d-d-dolphin.

My favorite was mew-mew-mew-music.  It was a picture of a xylaphone.

I am forever amazed at how a little brain sees things that we don't even think about.

The other day, Turken was showing off his new counting skill.  He got through the twenties just fine, but then things got rocky.  Twenty-eight, twenty-nine, threety-zero, threety-one, threety-two.  Forty went just fine, but then we were back to fivety-zero, fivety-one...  We were good about keeping our "isn't he cute?" giggles to ourselves until he got to 100.  Which, in case you didn't know, is tenty-zero. 

It breaks my heart to think that in just a couple of years, I won't have any little boys running up to tell me:

"Mom, I can burp whenever I want."  As in, on command, just like Giant.

"Mom, listen.  Whoo! Whoo!"  I thought he was showing me that he knew how to make an owl sound until he added, "I whistled without a whistle!"

Conversations with preschoolers are unlike any you will have with older children or adults.

When feeding the pigs the other day, we had this little exchange:

"Mom, why do we have pigs?"

"So we can eat their meat."

"When will they start laying it?" 

(I'll give you a minute to get that mental picture out of your head.)

Yes, this is Cuckoo, not Turken, but I wanted to show off the pigs.

Yesterday, the sweetest words a two year old can say were spoken by Cuckoo for the very first time.

"I have to go potty!!!"

Don't get too excited.  This morning he peed all over the chair while eating breakfast.

While I'm excited to get past the potty training milestone, I will sorely miss the way he copies grown-ups.

My mom and her friend started a conversation while in the car with the kids last week.  Cuckoo hollered at her, "Shhh.  I'm on the phone!"  She immediately stopped talking, he jabbered into his pretend phone for a bit, put it in his lap, then told her, "OK, I'm off now.  You can talk."

(Huh, wonder where he got that?)

While I love my big kids, and I love the conversations and things we can do now that they are older, they just aren't as fun to hold in my lap.  Oh how I love it when a toddler wants to cuddle up and sit for a spell.
   
This time of toddlerhood is flying by.  I'm going to savor every little, exciting moment.  Especially moments like the drive in the minivan to their weekly Happy Feet Storytime with a Soccer Ball.

This move is called "Stop Bob."

One game they play is "Fox and Rabbits."  One person is the fox, and he kicks the ball towards the others, who are trying to hop to the other side without getting hit by the ball.  Cuckoo decided that the balls had to be lined up perfectly before the game could begin.

The coach was very patient in letting Cuckoo get everything organized.

Probably because Cuckoo is his little shadow, hanging on every word, throughout the session.

Have a lovely day!