Nolan
I think Nolan is really starting to enjoy and take to the role of Big Brother. It took awhile, and he still gets annoyed with Branson sometimes, but you can really see him trying to be kind and play with his little brother which makes my heart melt.
He is an incredible reader for being just 3 1/2! Just a few days ago he read a whole little book all by himself! And it's not just memorized sight words either. He's sounding out words too. Justin only had to help him with a few of the words in the whole book.
He's still obsessed with bad guys and is always reminding us that he is one. In fact, anytime I compliment Nolan on how sweet he was being to Branson he looks at me and says, "but I'm still a bad guy." And he loves to shout (Gaston from Beauty and the Beast like), "I say we kill the good guys!!" And once in the car Nolan said, "Well, I'm just a bad guy." I said, "ya, but in real life you're a good guy, right?" He matter-of-factly shrugged his shoulders and said, "well, it's worth a try...but you'll NEVER turn me good!" Do you think we should worry yet? Sometimes I do get a teensy bit worried haha, but then I remember what a truly good boy he is most of the time (just don't tell him I said that).
He can be really thoughtful too. Recently he had been waiting for a long time to watch a certain Clone Wars episode where Darth Maul returns (you think he's been dead). We wouldn't let him watch ahead and the episode was finally next up for us to watch, but Justin had a softball game. I knew he really wanted to watch it so I suggested maybe he and I could watch it and then watch it again with daddy later. He was quiet for a second and then said, "maybe we can watch something else tonight and save the Darth Maul one to watch with daddy." Awwww.
He struggles with singing time at church. I know he struggles with loud noises and our primary is big and loud, but I have been thinking recently that part of why he doesn't like it is because he doesn't know the songs. About a year ago when he was in his YouTube phase he'd watch Pentatonix or Sesame Street music or BYU vocal point over and over and over, but he'd only start singing it when he felt like he knew most of the words (well as many of the 'words' as a 2 1/2 yr old could know). Then last week I prodded him to know why he kept saying he hated Primary and didn't want to go and, without my suggesting it, he confirmed that it was because he didn't know the songs. So we're working on singing the songs more often at home.
At a play place a little girl ripped Nolan's glasses right off of his face. Grrrr! I didn't see it happen, but saw Nolan walking down the steps with his glasses in his hand. When I asked him why he didn't have his glasses on he was clearly upset and told me someone took them off. My heart sank. This might be one of the first times another kid has done something mean to him. But I was so proud of Nolan. He didn't scream or cry or hit. He just immediately came to me to tell me what happened. It was actually really cute because when I told him how proud I was of him for not being mean back to the girl he said, "ya, but I gave her a dirty look." Haha, perfect bud! That's probably what I would have done too.
Branson
He climbs on everything, steps on everything, and gets into everything. Good thing he's cute!
Nolan and I were baking, but had to leave the room for some reason. While we were gone B climbed up on the stool we left out and got into the flour bowl. He even grabbed the strainer, put it in the bowl, and started putting flour in it haha. I kind of wish I had taken a picture!
He's becoming a little bit of a tattle tale mixed with the boy who cried wolf. Even if Nolan is nowhere near him or is just looking at him he'll cry, point at Nolan, and say, "Noleh!"
He loves sidewalk chalk, gummies, juice, Moana, Coco, and Star Wars toys. It's pretty incredible that he's only 1 1/2 but knows most of the main Star Wars characters. And he's always walking around with at least 3 in his little hands, usually more like 5 or 6. We always joke that Nolan knew his letters by 20 months, Branson knows Star Wars guys ☺ He kind of has no choice but to love SW with Nolan around!
His vocabulary is exploding right now! He's learning new words all the time. And Nolan is a really good interpreter for him which is cute. Often if we don't know what he's saying Nolan will chime in with a translation. Here are some favorites from recently:
- I don't know -- he often says this when you ask him a question and he always emphasizes the 'know'
- uh huh -- he always very enthusiastically says this when he's answering yes.
- gummeee! -- every morning. And he gets mad when you tell him he can only have one vitamin gummy each day.
- dun! -- done with dinner
- Amen! -- I love this one. He's started folding his arms for the prayer and when he anticipates the end he'll shout "AMEN!" He's always getting looks and chuckles at church haha.
- "Bah-sen" -- he can say his name now!
- Gamma and Pa -- grandma and grandpa
- Gah it -- got it
- Hot and cold -- he's always pointing out when things are hot or cold. He gets it right about 75% of the time ☺
- uh-oh
- Pessin and Dev -- Preston and Devin ♥
- kaboo! -- peekaboo
Justin
I thought I'd throw an update about Justin in here ☺ He has been so funny lately. First of all, he is not a guy that needs stuff. He does like quality, and is willing to spend for quality, but still likes a good deal. But in general, he's not someone that buys things very often. And besides BYU stuff he doesn't really have collections per se.
Until now.
Until his boys got into Star Wars.
I've never seen him scroll through KSL classifieds or the Facebook Marketplace so often looking for Star Wars toys haha! It's like he can't help himself haha! I love it. So he'll buy toys and we'll stick them up in a closet and try to think of a 'reason' to give the boys the new toy.
They're pretty incentivizing for the boys though because Nolan earned two ships for potty training and just last week Justin promised him a Darth Vader Tie Fighter if he read two books all by himself and he did!
