Mr. Independent

We are rapidly approaching the move, and we have all been busy preparing for it.  The boys have somewhat willingly relinquished most of their toys to the moving boxes, and every day our house is filled with more boxes and less stuff.

Aaron is turning into such a little boy, and a very independent one at that.  He wants to do everything himself.  Sometimes that seems like a great thing, like when he'll go get his shoes and jacket.  Other times, it's a bit hard to handle, like when he spends 10 minutes trying to put on his shoes and jacket and will not let anyone help him.

On several occasions this weekend he did things that even Mudgie wouldn't do.  First, he sat in the chair all by himself while getting a haircut.  So what if we had to bribe him with a lollipop???  Mudgie, who has sat by himself for haircuts several times before, would only agree to a haircut if he was sitting on my lap.  Then, Aaron jumped off the diving board.  Mudgie, who is a great little swimmer with his life jacket on, wanted nothing to do with it!

Which brings me to my next topic, the pool.  With all the hot weather, our pool was finally warm enough to swim in, and we thoroughly enjoyed it this weekend.  On Friday I had both boys in the pool all by myself (I was so proud).  As I mentioned before, Mudgie is really good in the pool with the life jacket on.  He doesn't like going under water, but he'll swim all over the pool by himself, which is great because Aaron doesn't have that coordination yet.  Aaron is still a bit of a weeble wobble even with his life jacket on, but even just over the course of this weekend he seemed to be getting more comfortable in the water.  The both love jumping off the edge of the pool (provided someone is there to catch them), though I do worry about Aaron jumping solo.  It's sad that now that the boys are finally old enough and ready to really enjoy the pool, we won't have it anymore.  Though we are very fortunate to have family with pools nearby, it's still not the same.

Mudgie and Dave went to the movies this weekend.  They saw Madagascar 3 in 3D.  Mudgie loved the popcorn and candy at the movies (shocking, I know), and tried to grab the 3D objects, but even still he got bored with it and they left before the movie was over.  He is such a strange little boy.  He has the most amazing memory, randomly recalling detailed facts from last summer, like when he fell on one of our hikes, or what color swim shirt he wore.  More amazing to me, however, is how he really thinks about things.  Like when we were looking at a pond, and he asked me if the water in that pond came from the pond by our house.  How he knew that something had to feed the pond, and that one pond might be connected to another seems like such a big concept for an almost 4-year-old.

Next week is the big move.  Tuesday night will be our last night in this house.  On Wednesday we will load up the moving trucks, and on Thursday we will move into our new house.  As I've said before, I have mixed feelings about the move.  When I asked Mudgie how he felt about leaving our house he told me, "I was sad about the swing set, but I like the new house better."  That's what I need to keep telling myself, I'm sad the leave the things I love about this house, but I know I'll like the new house better."  That Mudgie's a pretty smart kid...