Swimming with Penguins

A quick story of my boys. Gavin turned 4 in December and knows most of his colors. He'll pretend he doesn't, but he does. Example- we were playing with a colorful keyboard music toy. I asked him to point to colors- no problem. After a while I said,' Where's the blue key?' and he pushed the red key with a 'look' on his face. So, being his Mama, I said, 'That's right, that's the blue key.' He looked at his finger and scrunched his face at me and then moved his finger to the blue key. I laughed and said, "I got you!!!" He got so mad he pushed the toy away and started scooting away from me. I scooped him up and tickled him and he finally melted into a belly laugh. But that's his personality. He likes to 'trick' people i.e. his teachers/ therapists into thinking he can't do anything. Ugh, I get so frustatred! Doesn't he know how much further he'll go in life if he TRIED to do things???? Please understand for him to know colors is one more thing he is not suppose to be smart enough to learn- EVER!! Again, 1 in 26 Million. His biggets problem is that he's TOO smart and knows how to work that charm and dimple.

Chase is now 3 and talks non-stop. Not bad considering he had NO words on his 2nd birthday. He loves trucks and tractors and how they work and what they do. We're all learning about the farm equipment that goes up and down our road. Yep, we really live in the country. When Chase is really excited and talking- he sounds like Yoda from Star Wars. It's hilarious! Especially since he's never seen any of the movies!

Parker will be 2 in June and has no fear!! We went to the zoo and the boys were so perfect, until.... we saw the penguins. Parker was in my arms watching the penguins and began climbing up my body very quickly until he was sitting on my shoulder and grasping the top of the penguins glass wall. As I'm trying to get his wiggling body down and telling him that what he's doing is unsafe- I could drop him, he begins to try to pull himself up the glass wall. It took me a minute to figure out that, 'Idoin, Idoin, Idoin' was actually 'I go in! I go in!' When I confirmed that he wanted to go in with the penguins, he settled down completely, looked me in the eye and said, 'jess' (yes) with the relief of one finally able to complete a life's mission. This leads me to the not so perfect behavior part of our day at the zoo. Including a happily entertained audience of young, childless couples. Explaining to my 20 month old son that he may NOT swim with the penguins set him off!! He didn't care that they had not invited him, that the water was cold or that it was dirty. I can assure you, his mother cared about these things, very, very much . Oi! It's difficult to describe the ferver with which he attacked that glass wall and struggled to reach his dream, only to be crushed by a squeamish mother. Did I mention he has no fear? ;)