June lists (I never posted, whoops)

The boys are just over 3 years old and so we wanted to share what they are into these days.

Day to day staples:

• Imaginative play.  They love to "hunt Skog" and pretend to be ninja cats and fly to the moon to beat up moon monsters.
• Puzzles. 
• Reading.  They did a great job with the summer reading program at the library.
• Playgrounds.  
• Trains... they want Peter to build them a new track almost every night when he gets home.  All day long they carry their trains and cars around to explore and play.

Personalities

David - introvert, does not deal well with over-stimulation, temper
Gabriel - eager to join in all the fun with his cousins, little wild man, likes more foods, temper

Things my children are terrible at: 

• Coloring... (My fault since I don't often trust them with writing utensils)  
• Riding tricycles (My fault again, it is so uncomfortable to bend over and teach them).
• Spitting "we can only spit toothpaste" (Except they can't even spit tooth paste... Peter should get the blame for this one right?  Clearly within his wheelhouse...)
• Putting away toys... Peter says it really is worse than pulling teeth... much worse.

Favorite places to play.
1. Stairs ... we have stairs that go up to our bonus room which are half flight - landing - left turn half flight.  They love dragging all the bedding and pillows from the guest bedroom and throwing them on to the landing and then jumping from top steps onto the landing repeatedly.

2. Guest Room Bed ... jumping.  They get so wound up, it is not uncommon for them to knock over the lamp, despite serious punishments.  (Why do I let them play up there?  It is very hard to stop them, plus they have the time of their lives... giggling for so long before it finally goes bad.)

3. Closets ... the dark can be a little scary and therefore fun I guess.

4. Garage ... Lots to explore, there giant inflatable ball is in there.

5. Under my feet in the kitchen.  I recently told them a terrible tale about a Mama who got very bad boo boos when she fell onto the burning stove in the kitchen because her children left their toys there.  They took it very seriously and have been keeping their toys out now... however they still like to "help" and so are underfoot.

Helpful Behaviors
1. Unloading dishwasher
2. Moving laundry to dryer or baskets
3. Clean their face and hands after meals
4. Come to me when they get a boo boo

Church Behavior
Apart from random aggravating factors, they do very well.  We still generally hold them for a good chunk of Mass but they are slowly learning responses and how to participate at times.  We will need to teach them soon to sit on their own but I hate to mess with what is working so well!  We do not bring any snacks/books/toys as these tend to cause more problems.  It isn't unusual for Peter to take Gabriel out toward the second half for a bit.  Sitting still may be harder for him.

How long can they stand still?

We started timing it... making it into a game.  It is very unimpressive.  David can do about 30 seconds and Gabriel sometimes only goes 3s!  I want to work on this, but it is a hard thing to teach.

Gabriel has a tremendous ability to focus (up to an hour with his TAG system and a book by himself).  That is probably the stillest he is.

David struggles to sit through an hour length childrens movie with us or even a 20/30 minute show sometimes with Gabriel.  I don't know if it is a focus difference or he just bores of TV after awhile.

Grasp of God
They are becoming very spontaneous with prayer now and it is so cute.  They bring up God at all different times and will tell me "God made the clouds" "Jesus is protecting us" "This makes Jesus happy"  "That makes Jesus sad"

Random things they Remember
Diaper Dance Song
Charlie Brown "I am not your sweet baboo"