T is for...

These days, "T" can stand for a lot of things in our house.  There is the obvious choice, Tommy, even though Mudgie refers to him as "cutie," with which I have to agree.  It could also stand for "trouble," which Tommy is becoming an expert at.  He is SO curious, which I know is his job right now, but all the things that seem to interest him the most are all the things that could kill him!  Between sockets, wires, choking hazards, and stairs, it seems as if our littlest man has a death wish.  And last but not least, there is the ever popular "tantrum," which both Aaron and Mudgie seem to be experts in these days, given the "right" trigger.

Let's start with Tommy.  He's become very verbal lately, having fun with sounds, though aside from "dada," he really doesn't have any words.  However, he doesn't seem to let a little thing like language stand in the way of him being heard.  He'll scream and yell just to get a reaction, which for now is still pretty cute, and he loves to make noise when the big boys are being loud and crazy.  He's becoming more and more mobile by the day, and is starting to stand unassisted, though he won't take steps yet.  Because of this, he has become quite proficient at sitting himself down to crawl between locations with large spans that don't provide hand holds for him, and then pulling himself back up once he reaches his destination.  I call him my little explorer these days, because he is into everything!

Aaron seems very grown-up lately.  That is not to say he doesn't express himself in very typical 3-4-year-old ways, but his patience, reasoning, and "school skills" like counting and rhyming seem to have matured a lot recently.  Mudgie really struggled with the concept of rhyming, even into the beginning of this school year (no worries, he's more than proficient now), but all of a sudden Aaron has been talking about rhymes, and coming up with really good ones all by himself!  He's counting up to thirty, and his ability to reason has come a long way too.  He's still a total performer/goofball, and loves talking about what his family will be like when he's grown up.  The other day, we had this conversation:
Aaron: "Mommy, I'm going to be a daddy when I grow up."
Me: "Aaron, I'm sure you and your spouse will be great parents."
Aaron: "Mommy, of course I'm going to marry Riley!" (said in an incredulous voice)

Mudgie just keeps on growing up.  He made an amazing play at t-ball a couple weeks ago.  They were playing kickball to practice the concept of tagging people out.  Mudgie made a great play where he threw the ball that tagged out the boy who runs "as fast as Matthew" (aka really fast), and then fell and rolled in the dirt, and got so dirty the coach had to dust him off before he kept playing.  He was SO proud of himself.  He told me the story, re-enacted it for me, and drew me a picture of how it went down!  He's also gotten a lot more confidence in his writing, and is doing really well with his spelling.

Dave was out of town for 4 days last week.  It was his first extended travel since we had Tommy, which meant it was my first time solo parenting 3 kids.  I must say, while it was a lot of work, and really tough on the work schedule since I had to do all the drop-offs and pick-ups for everyone, we managed quite well.  The big boys and I had a talk about how I needed their help while Daddy was gone, and they really stepped up.  They got themselves dressed in the morning without my badgering, they listened when I said it was time to do something (leave, take a bath, go to bed, etc.).  I'm still not sure I could hack being a single parent, but hopefully I'll never have to find out.