41 Months Old

Three years old and five months. That's how old Rocco is this month. He's a funny little boy; he loves to hear himself laugh. He fake laughs all the time. Then, he'll tell you, "Rocco just laugh and laugh about that." Our little boy just loves life. In fact, that is his new saying, "I just love. . . " For example, we often hear the following. . . "I love Wal-Mart" or "I just love to hide" and "I love my cars."

Cars is the latest thing that Rocco has involved himself with. I was looking for a new video for the car, and I bought "Cars." The one with Lightning McQueen, King, Chick Hicks, and Mater. Well, in less than a month all of the characters are talked about as much as our family members and he's acquired about 10 action figures to play with. We set up a race track in our living room with a baby blanket and some wooden blocks. You'd have thought we gave him a million dollars.

For the last few months he's been using his imagination really well. He turns his toy horses towards each other and has them talk to one another. He also uses voices to make his cars talk to each other. At other times, he wants us to become the characters. "You be Lightning McQueen and I'll be Guido," he'll say.

Within the last month he's also really enjoyed his new trampoline. His gross motor skills are great. Tumble class has been good for him in so many ways. Rocco jumps, runs in circles, does a forward roll, and turns cartwheels on his trampoline. He and his daddy crash cars on it, too.

His fine motor skills are developing really well as well. His Nana Carolyn has taught him how to hold and use scissors. He likes to draw. Holding a pen like a pro he will doodle, sit back, look at it, and then tell you what he drew. And it looks like just the thing he says it does. The other day he drew the Piston Cup (of course something from the Cars movie).

He's started saying more of his night time prayer with me, and I continue to read the Bible to him sometimes before bed. Jason talks to him about grace and God's love; he keeps it simple. Rocco hears us pray for him that he will one day accept Jesus into his heart and life. That's our biggest prayer. As for now, I've been trying to teach him the 12 disciples. I figure if he can learn all the Cars and Thomas the train characters, he should know them.

And speaking of car toys, he's actually earning most of them. He had to tee tee/ poo poo in the potty all day Friday with Daddy to earn the King. That's all he talked about. Even though he had one big accident that day, he did pretty well and earned the car. It was a big event. Another day he earned Al Loft, the big blimp, by helping me wash dishes. I've been on crutches for the last week, and he's proved to be a pretty big helper. (He wheeled the laundry buggy to the laundry room for me.)

Potty training is our big challenge. He knows and understands perfectly well that he needs to do his business in the potty. . . he just chooses not to on most occasions. We've tried almost everything; I guess he'll do it when he's ready.

We Wrote a Book

Being on crutches has not been very fun, but on the other hand I'm looking forward to putting this hip pain behind me very soon. I'm so very thankful that God blessed me with a successful surgery, no blood clots, no infection, and a great report from my doc today. So, since my mobility has been impaired, I decided Rocco and I needed to do something we could enjoy while sitting. Thus. . . . we wrote a book!

The book is titled, Rocco Is A Big Boy. It's all about the things Rocco can do now that he is a big three year old. From start to finish it took us about three and a half hours. That included all the illustrating (Rocco chose colored pencils to add his touch), picture researching and printing, writing text, and editing. Rocco chose which pictures he wanted in his book. And he also told me what he wanted me to say. . . "that Rocco did it all my byself."

Below are a few pages that you'll find in our book. We're very proud of the final results. I'm going to try to bind it at school tomorrow. Rocco loves books so much lately that he'll listen to them read over and over until he can quote the book back to us. It will be fun hearing him read a book about himself.

You won't find this book in stores. Only on our blog. But if you're one of Rocco's friends we'll also let you read the book when you come over to play. Oh yeah. There is only one in print, but it is copyrighted. Who knows? Maybe one day we'll write more books together and publish them.

Back at Kindermusik

Fall classes began tonight. It's going to be a small class. Only three other children his age have signed up for "Our Time" Kindermusik. That's alright, though, because we have a great time regardless. Ms. Kay is a great teacher; she's taught Rocco twice before in music class.

Tonight we sang the Hello song, If You're Happy and You Know It, My Bonnie, Wishy Washy Wee, and a few others. We also had story time. The children were given rhythm sticks to tap, and I was both surprised and pleased when I saw Rocco keeping with the beat of the song.

When class was over Rocco got a new green bag, of which he was most proud, filled with books, musical CD's and an instrument.

Classes last 15 weeks. We've signed up for Thursday nights. I'm looking forward to spending time with him during our classes. Nana also joins us, too. Thursday's will be our special night on the town.

Fun with Drew

These two boys have had so much fun together lately. At nana's house the other day they made a shadow puppet show under a table and blanket.

Take a look at Rocco's silhouette.

And today they jumped on the trampoline together.

Rocco looks up to Drew as if he were his older brother. When we go to Carolyn and Gary's house and Rocco knows that Drew is going to be there , he gets beside himself with excitement. And even when he's not there playing, Rocco pretends that he is right there.

Our New Trampoline

Thank you Melody and Larry. Rocco loves the trampoline. We jumped for an hour or more after church Sunday night. His little face and hair were so sweaty by the time we came back inside.

The pictures speak clearly that this new toy was a big hit. Rocco kept saying, "It's really, really big!" Now we can work on all of our tumble tricks at home (forward rolls, cartwheels, handstands, and of course jumps). I can easily see Rocco doing back flips on this thing by the time he's four. Thankfully it has a net on it!

Lost in the Laundry

Wow, one week at work and I'm already behind on laundry. Rocco laid down on the couch and laughed as I dumped the big pile onto him. Our new maid is wonderful, but she doesn't do dishes or laundry.

She came the first day I went back to school. When Rocco and I came home after tumbling class, we could smell the cleanness before we even opened the front door. I was amazed at how smooth the floors were. We checked out the bathrooms after being impressed with the kitchen. The shower was the cleanest it's ever been. I just stood there feeling my fresh shower walls. Oh, how I love my maid!

But for today, I guess it's catch up on laundry day. At least Rocco is getting big enough to help me sort clothes by color and fold a little. . . that is when he's not tossing laundry across the room like a ball.

Back to Work

It's back to work for me; kids returned to school today. For Rocco that meant it was time to stay with nana and granddaddy. Bye bye summer. Hello reality.

Last Wednesday as kids came with their parents to meet their teachers, I realized that this was my last open house with Rocco out of school. In exactly one year, we'll be meeting Rocco's pre-school teacher. The thought just kills me. My baby will be starting school.

As I go back to work, I wanted to just quickly recap all the things we accomplished this summer. I just loved those 8 weeks.

stayed up late, cuddled in the morning
went to an amusement park
swam in nana and granddaddy's pool
played with Drew and baby Sydney
rode in our boat on the lake
volunteered time at our church's VBS and saw kids come to know Christ
taught children's church on Sunday mornings
painted our front porch nice and white
organized our closets
photographed my brother's wedding
encouraged my papaw through his radiation
traveled to see my parents, brother and his family a few times
fought mosquito bites for Rocco's sake
doctored little man through impetigo
had our first experience taking Rocco to the ER
had play dates with Aiden and Matthew
planned a trip to Cancun
renovated Rocco's bathroom
worked in the garden with Gary, my father-in-law
finished the scrapbook on Rocco's second year
tried countless remedies to find the reason for my hip pain
gave up sugary foods and lost a few pounds
watched fireworks and rode in a wagon for the 4th of July parade
listened to Rocco read us a book for the first time
took little man to his tumbling class on Monday nights
had friends in from Texas
begged Jason countless times to adopt again. . .

Wow! A pretty productive summer. Still working on that last item though. . .