Deja vu

When Luke was born, I knew there were lots of milestones that I'd get to experience again - crawling, walking, talking, etc. And now that Luke is three and having trouble with his temper and getting frustrated by some of the things that he can't do yet, I remember Emmett going through the same things.

There's at least one repeat I wasn't expecting. Luke has started asking us to guess things, like which hand he's going to open. Or he'll put something behind his back and ask you to guess which hand it's in. Of course, he brings it forward with the hand you don't pick - you can never win these games. Strangely enough, Emmett played similar games with us when he was about 3 1/2!

The best part, though, is that Luke is mostly playing these games with Emmett. And Emmett gets annoyed, because he can never win. I thought I'd have to wait for Emmett to have kids of his own for that!

Luke and letters

Luke is starting to read. A few months ago I realized that he knew most of the alphabet, so I started paying more attention to letters with him. He now has the alphabet down pat (except for some of the lower case letters, especially those like g that look very different in books than when written by hand).

He's also starting to sound things out. Typically I'll tell him the sounds and ask him to "mash them together" and figure out the word, which he can sometimes do. Today while reading "Go, Dog, Go" I was having him hunt for words on a page. After reading the page, I'd tell him which word to find and spell it for him. He was having a good time finding "tree" and "dog" and "sun."

Pincer grasp

Henry is working on his pincer grasp. His prior method of sweeping food into his palm with all of his fingers has been replaced with his thumb and forefinger in almost all cases.

Henry and the Panda

Henry has one of those toys where animals pop up when you flip the switch in front of each of them. There's a giraffe, elephant, panda, lion, and monkey. Henry isn't really hitting the switches yet, so it's a collaborative toy - one of us pops the animals up, and then Henry pushes the doors closed again.

Weeks ago, Emmett was telling me that Henry hates the panda, because he always closes it first. "Yeah, right," I thought. This from the boy who told me that flipped coins always land on the opposite side from what was up at first because it happened twice in a row.

Since then, I've payed close attention to how Henry interacts with the toy, and Emmett was right. No matter how many doors are open, the panda is always the first to be closed. Even if you re-open the panda before he closes all the doors, Henry will come back to the panda and close him up immediately. Maybe he really doesn't like that panda.

Music Class

I'm on my third time through the CD rotation in Music Together, so I the songs are well known. Some have made it into regular use (usually with altered lyrics) during diaper changes or bathtime, etc. There's one song in this collection that lends itself to peek-a-boo, and Henry knows it because I've used it a lot at the changing table. When we started singing it in class, his face lit up smiling. He clearly recognized it and started signing "sing" to the teacher.

More signing

Henry is using more signs in context, at least some of the time. He's also clearly signing for "sing" and "more" has turned into clapping. Unfortunately, his sign for "sing" looks just like his sign for "all done" at this stage. So does he love or hate my singing?

Anticipation

Before the pitter-patter of little feet comes the determined thump-thump-thump of the army man crawler chasing me around the house.

Brothers and bravery

After too many days cooped up inside the house, the boys were leaping from the furniture, running around, and shrieking at bedtime last night. Having resolved to tire them out today, I took them to Classic Skating, a place with inflatable slides, a skating rink that the boys can ride scooters on, and a bunch of other fun stuff to do.

Emmett is now big enough that he can pretty much pick Luke up and toss him into inflatables that Luke can't get into himself, which makes things much easier for me! Emmett is also great about helping Luke get over obstacles that are a little too big for him. Today, there was a very tall, very fast slide that Luke really wanted to go down. It took a little brain power, but Emmett and I figured out how to get Luke through one obstacle - it took all three of us! Then all that was between Luke and the slide was a long, steep climb up. He had trouble getting started at first, and when he came over to me complaining that he couldn't do it, I realized that he was now in a part of the structure where I couldn't reach in and pull him out. (uh oh!) I told him the climb was the same as the one he'd done earlier, just taller. He went at it again and made it to the top with Emmett chanting, "Go, Luke, Go!" the whole time. (whew!) It was a really great slide - fast and fun!

Three hours later, they were indeed tired.

Music Man

Piano lessons have so quickly become a part of our routine that I'm not sure if I've even blogged about it. Emmett is loving it, and doing pretty well. He is good at learning the songs (it's a program with memorization and playing by ear at first), and enjoys practicing. Although he doesn't always sing in tune, he's able to hear it when he hits a wrong note and quickly corrects himself. He likes making music so much that we got him a guitar for Christmas, and he's eagerly learning how to play it with help from his dad.

Footsie

Henry is still enamored with his feet. They're the first thing he'll grab for when he wakes up, and even sometimes when he's crying in the evening (having woken up in bed), I'll find him holding his feet. I don't think any of my other boys had such a long-term fascination with their feet.