A Four-Year-Old's Mind

I noticed today for pretty much the first time that Xander can color within the lines. I got out his big dinosaur coloring book and he was coloring one spine at a time. The interesting thing he is doing now is coloring spots on the dinosaurs where they have dirt on them. He said they were dirty so they needed water on them to wash their legs off. I just nodded. Now he is drawing water on the dinosaurs, with drips coming off their noses and running off their backs. So in one day, I've seen him color within the lines, and use a story he's telling to purposely draw/color something outside of the lines. Very interesting!

He is loving having that laptop "just like Bailey's"! One little drawback is that he loves when it tells him "uh-oh, try again." He giggles and giggles and sometimes tries to get things wrong on purpose.

He is also pretty excited about our reading lessons, especially since we will be on "z" today. He asked what comes after that, and I said, "Reading small words!" He was excited to see that. He's been able to sound out words like that for a long time now but this lesson book we're using will take him one step further each day until he is able to read more than just words with one short-vowel sound.

I began exposing Nick to Spanish early on with nursery rhymes and songs. Now we do Spanish Time with both boys using charts of things like colors, numbers, and animals. We learn a new Spanish word each week. We have also been reading familiar children's books in Spanish. Xander soaks it in like a sponge. It's the same thing with signs I try to teach Nick. I suppose I'll see that Nick got something (besides fun) out of it later, but if not, I know that Xander's getting a lot out of it!

Poor Nick seems to be hurting lately. It's got to be teething. I can't see a tooth coming, though. He was up at 4:45 AM again last night.

Last night I had a dream about the boys' cousin Foster. He had gotten much older and had red-red hair. I didn't recognize him anymore! I remember him doing some sort of gymnastics where his legs were over his head. I think we were all visiting in someone else's house. That's all I remember.