3 Boy Specifics

Rob here. I'm giving the update on our boys this time around. They're always changing, so it's difficult to keep up to date on all the funny things that they do. We really wish we were more diligent in blogging about their personalities. I frequently reflect on how different it is for our boys growing up than it was for us. I mean, I have a box of photos from when I grew up. On the other hand, our boys have literally thousands of photos documenting their lives from birth until present.

Think about how long it would take to compile a wedding slideshow... that's crazy.

Anyway, I'm going to talk about each boy individually.

Collin has been learning so many words and is constantly expanding his vocabulary. The best is when he misuses words. He frequently says, that "Shapes like" fill in the blank (like, "It shapes like it's time to go home"). I'm pretty sure he's trying to compare things or see similarities, but it's a comical way of saying it. Collin also says "expensive" in random sentences. We've tried to explain what expensive means, and I'm pretty sure he knows, but he still uses it to describe random things ("that shapes expensive!"). He's also been saying "including" at the beginning of some sentences. Another good one is "dump." If he doesn't like something, he says, "That's dump!" He's so funny!

There are so many things that he's interested in right now. Legos are probably his favorite toy, and who can blame him? Legos are awesome. He came up with these fish all by himself after going to the aquarium one day.

Collin always wants to craft. He's constantly getting paper out, cutting and gluing things onto it. He's very proud of his creations and refuses to get rid of anything, even if it's a scrap of paper that he scrawled on. As a result, we have drawers full of papers and crafts all over our house that we occasionally have to raid while he's asleep in order to sort through the trash and treasure. Many of his crafts came from preschool, which is over for the summer, but he still loves it and can't wait until next year starts.

Recently our friends the Otto's gave Collin a couple how to draw books, and he's become very good at reproducing the characters in them. He now comes up with his own designs too.

He's become fairly shy about things at church, and will not speak in front of people or go up to sing with the primary. He knows lots of the stories and is very good at saying prayers at home, but clams up even in front of his friends if he has to speak. He loves reading scripture stories and can rehearse to you the story of Nephi getting the brass plates, or about the story of the Tree of Life. When you ask him how to get to the Tree of Life he says, "Hold to the Iron Rod!" Good boy.

Speaking of reading, Rachel recently finished reading The Wizard of Oz to him. He loved it so much that he would remind us at night that it was time to read. Rachel has started reading Charlotte's Web to him now. It doesn't seem like he's quite into it as much as the other book, but he still enjoys listening to us and cuddling in our bed. One habit he's developed is repeating words and syllables while he speaks. It's very strange. I hadn't heard it and Rachel kept telling me to pay attention to it. I finally noticed that he'd whisper or mouth the last syllable or word of each sentence. It seems like he hasn't done it for a while now. Must have been a phase, but it was pretty weird. In addition to Collin loving to read with us, he's begun to read himself! Rachel sat with him before and showed him the basics, and then a few months ago, it clicked and he was able to read most of Hop on Pop by himself. He is now into learning to write and asks how to spell things. What an inquisitive boy!

We taught him what the word "symmetrical" means one day because we noticed that when he builds with blocks or Legos, he always makes symmetrical designs. Then he built this big Lego house one day, and started to tell me that it was symmetrical. I didn't think he really understood what it meant, but upon closer examination, the sides were perfectly mirrored. It looked like random colors, but every color of block has a match on the other side of the house.

Truman and Elliott have been changing so much lately. They have different personalities, but are attached at the hip. If one of the boys wakes up first and comes downstairs with me, I'll hear the other calling for his twin brother from upstairs. Truman will call, "El-buh? Are you?" It's very sweet.

Mommy and a couple sleepy church boys. (T, Mommy, E)

They love to give each other hugs and will often stroke each other's hair or face to make the other feel better. They do that for Rachel and I as well, but more so for each other, I think. They're close like that, not handing out face strokes all willy-nilly to everyone they run into.

Bed cuddling. (T, E)

Truman seems to get sick the most, but still no wheezing, which is relieving. We want that behind us so we can have a healthy boy. At one point I had created a database to track how often each boy got sick and how long it lasted for. Needless to say, since this database didn't yield very useful information, it didn't last very long. It still seems like he gets sick more often than the others though.

Truman is really funny (they're all funny). He knows what he wants and won't settle for anything else. If he wants Mommy to pour him some milk, he will not accept it from me. Even if I pour it and give it to Rachel, he'll refuse to drink it. So fickle. Truman thinks everything blue belongs to him and answers questions with "blue one." ("What kind of cereal do you want?" "Blue cereal!") If you didn't realize this, blue is his favorite color.

The boys got to see a good sized slug outside our house one morning. They were pretty excited. (Me, C, T, E)

Some of the funny things he's been saying are, "Ahh boy," "Hi, small doggy" and "Love (fill-in-the-blank)!" He mostly says "Ahh boy" when he gets exasperated or frustrated, or during diaper changes. The small doggy comment is just one of the things that he says, he uses small as a descriptor a lot. "Bye, small slug." We first noticed him saying that he loves something when we were driving to Ellensburg to meet their Aunt Amber and Grandma Grimmer, so we could spend a weekend to ourselves in Leavenworth. On the drive I pointed out the large rolling sprinklers on the farms. He exclaimed, "Love Sprinklers!" Then I'd point out the river that we were driving by, "Love Rivers!" Love this, love that. He's very sweet. Then again, he's been shouting that his hates things a lot lately and that things and people are stupid. He's not bipolar, I promise. He's usually cheerful and affectionate and loves snuggling. Sometimes he demands it. "Nuggle me!"
Truman went through a phase where he loved pretending to be a cat. He would climb up on us and just say "meow" and got the biggest smile when we played along. Another random thing he has always done is bang his head on his bed when he is falling asleep and when he wakes up. He's done this since he was a baby-- he sleeps on his stomach and bangs his head a few times on the mattress, then his feet, then head again, and he'll repeat until he's ready to sleep. Must be some kind of comfort thing.

We've been trying to get Truman and Elliott to cut back on how much milk they drink. They go through so much of it that we'd be running out frequently. All day long they shriek for their milk cups. (E, T)

Elliott is our sensitive one at this time of our lives. Who know, it could change. He wasn't always so sensitive. If he's doing something bad and he knows it, no matter what you say or do to him, he'll be stubborn and not yield to you. But, if he didn't know he was doing something wrong and gets in trouble, he will crumble into a ball of tears. Breaks our hearts every time. It's one of the reasons we love him so much though. He wants us to be happy with him and love him, and he tries hard to make us happy. What an empathetic boy. I hope he'll be the peacemaker as he gets older. We need at least one of them to be!

Elliott has been in speech therapy over the past several months because we had the twins evaluated and his speech showed a minor delay. He barely qualified for therapy, but absolutely loves when his speech therapist comes over to play (all the boys love it). It does seem like Truman has a leg up on him in the pronunciation department right now, but they're still little. Elliott has several things that he says that are funny though. Here's a couple of the best: milk cup = Me-el-Tup! Look = yuch! (He says this a lot, really enthusiastically). Another thing that he says when we ask him questions is, "yup!" in the best little voice.
He loves dogs and babies. Loves to touch the babies and pat them. On the other hand, despite how much he loves dogs, he hates them touching him. Love from a distance. He is also less interested in swimming than his brothers. The few times we've gone swimming so far this summer, he has been more interested in watching from the sidelines than getting in the water.
Elliott likes going on walks/runs with Mommy/Daddy. His favorite thing is running fast over the speed bumps. He likes chasing birds and squirrels at the park. Another thing he loves is his blanket. He was very attached to it a couple months ago and would take it with him everywhere. We didn't care too much. At least it wasn't a toy cookie, shark or lion. We still have the lion. He doesn't really care about it anymore. I think I saw the shark somewhere recently. That cookie is lost forever though. In the next life, I'm going to find out what happened to all the stuff we've lost.

Our three boys sitting with the Fred Meyer Playland employee watching a movie. (T, Employee, C, E)

Elliott calls Collin, "Doddin" and Truman "Tooman." He plays very well with his brothers. They all play well together, actually. It seems like Elliott often assumes the role of the monster when they're playing. The other boys take turns, but it seems like he is more often. Rachel says that Elliott does a very good job playing at the Playland in Fred Meyer. He, as well as the others, is very sweet. I feel like Elliott is more of a Daddy's boy right now in his life. Sometimes he wakes up at night and calls for me. I go in and tuck him in or get him some water. Something like that. Elliott is just a really good kid and there's nothing more to say.

Truman and Elliott love to hang from stuff. (E, T)

Couch cuddling (T, E)