How far can you trust 3 year olds?

The Life of Three Year Olds!

In some ways the boys have been so easy since they turned three.  They are great at entertaining each other and do not always want my attention.  (I walked into their room to say good morning and they replied "what are you doing here?" Ahh, rejection!)  But I am finding out that they are sometimes difficult to control now in public.  And when they are mad with each other, mini war ensues where someone usually ends up bleeding if I don't interfere quick enough.


At a doctor appointment this week, where they were already badly behaved and wild, the nurse suddenly turns her attention to Gabriel.  "Is that a bite mark?" she asks pointing to his neck.  SO embarrassing!  Well it wasn't, but it could have been.  It was "just" a scabbed scratch from an earlier scrimmage.  She was super sweet and not judgmental but still, yikes!

This puzzle was very hard an took two weeks.  They boys not only let it alone on the table that long without stealing pieces, but they helped us do it.  Yay, I have little children who will do games and puzzles with me!

Skunk Faces.  Suddenly my children can behave a bit obnoxious.  It is more and more creeping into their tone of voice and facial expressions.  They make this disrespectful face that screams "I am not happy with you" and "I will defy you to the end".  Where did they learn this?  Do I do this?  Oh dear.  We have even caught Gabriel giving this look to little kids behind us in church!

Jello faces... the opposite of skunk faces.

ABCs... We haven't done much official schooling with them this summer.  Since they were 18 months old they seemed very interested in letters and then phonics but not lately and it led me to believe they had digressed and forgotten things.  I was wrong.  Perhaps they just didn't want to answer my questions about letter sounds before.  In fact, I thought David was the only one really competent with letter recognition because he usually answers me.  Wrong again.  Gabriel recently proved to me that he knows just as much as David and possibly has a better handle on combining letter sounds to make words.  They surprised me even more be quizzing each other in the car yesterday.  Gabriel would say "what letter makes the ______ (sound)?"  And then David would answer or Gabriel would answer.  Very cute!

Sick with a cold.

While eating lunch, David was reminded of a Diego episode he had watched awhile back.  I didn't realize it had anything to do with Diego at first because he started telling me about the poor animals that had to leave their homes because of the oil spill. He was so animated and really pouring forth a lot of information about the situation.  "They could get stuck in the oil spill and they are going to have to come to the rescue.  Bad men made a hole in the boat."  David mentioned the oil was brown and Gabriel jumped in to correct him.  David conceded oil is black but some oil is brown and he had a reason that I couldn't quite understand.  He left me wondering if some oil is brown and did I miss something in the news.  

Recently the boys have lost toys that they didn't want to help clean up.  Upon returning the trains to the boys after a few days in time out, David saw Thomas and grabbing him up exclaims (in the sweetest little boy voice ever) "Oh Thomas, I am SO glad to see you!"  Hahaha.  And then David runs up to me all excited, in his sweetest disposition "Mommy, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for giving me my trains back!!"  Poor kid, he just confirmed how effective a punishment losing his trains is and so yep, they are back in time out.  Gotta use the leverage while I have it!

Side note - It is amazing how clean the house stays when their blocks, cars and trains are in time out!  (Yesterday was unusually bad!)

Mommy kisses.  David often gives me kisses in the morning when he wakes up along with a sweet "I love you Mommy."  I will never get tired of hear that!  Gabriel does not often spontaneously tell me he loves me but he does like to give kisses too.. only on the lips!

For about a week now the boys have been sleeping in bunk beds.  Gabriel on top, David on the bottom.  I was not super thrilled about this and still remain quite scared we will be in the ER soon. I just don't trust them not to jump off the top.  They talk about their bunk bed as a rocket ship.  They have started this BAD game they play most days where they haul everything they can grab from anywhere in the house and carry it up to the top of the bed.  Then they dump it down against the window and wall to fill up the fuel tank.  Oi!  Very frustrating.  I have found everything from dental floss to masking tape to my old camera back there.  Peter had a talk with them and they found a new fuel tank (under the bed, slightly better) so at least we aren't moving furniture to clean up their mess.  Their creativity is fascinating though!

This past week they have also gotten serious about playing in character.  They will pretend to be these two dogs (Violet and Scout) and insist on being called such names.  When I ask who I am though, I am always just mommy. :)

Reciting lines from books.  Some families are good at movie quotes.  I have always thought that was so cool.  For awhile now the boys have been great at committing books to memory and this week they started using expressions and whole quotes from their books in conversation.  My favorite quote was Gabriel reluctantly getting into his bed.  He turns around, gives Peter this little nod with a finger point and says "How 'bout I give you five bucks". (to not have to go to bed!)  Hahaha so silly.  Anyone recognize the book?

Car Song.  The boys have made up this song for the car that they sing sometimes, unceasingly.  It is the worst.  They just sing "catch that villain" over and over again.  Except it sounds like "catch that feelin' " because they are not great at the "v" sound.  So over and over they interrupt the song and correct each other "no David say catch that villain" and David will say "I am saying catch that villain".  Ahhhh.  Needless to say I have gotten lots more car cds from the library of late to attempt to forgo this torture.   (I can always use good suggestions for cds if you have any.  I like the Music For Little People company... many of their cds are great.)