B4J: Wessie

Wow! There is so much to say about Wes. He's doing SO much!

He's talking up a storm! He is starting to put lengthy sentences together. Other people may not understand what he's saying but I can generally pick up what he's saying if there is some context for it. He says words that I didn't know he'd even heard of! He has good grammar and sentence structure and tries to really say a word correctly by looking at your mouth when you say it.

We are in the thick of potty training with him. Finally, I feel up to doing it and it's hot outside and we don't have anything else really going on. It has been a long haul; we are going on three weeks of trying. He does go in the big potty sometimes but he still has lots of accidents. We had a breakthrough tonight because he asked to go to the potty and he actually went! He's never asked to go before! Hurray!

Teaching a bear how to "go potty." This is what Mommy does when Wes is on the potty. Sit on the stool and read stories to him.

Also, he learned several weeks ago how to climb out of his crib. So now he's sleeping in a twin bed with a rail. Since then his sleep has greatly suffered because he doesn't want to stay in the bed! Mamma and Papa and Baby Brother's sleep has all suffered as well! We've tried EVERYTHING to get him to go to sleep and stay in the bed. He does now go to sleep in the bed instead of on the floor or under the bed which is a huge improvement but it still takes him a while to do it and he wakes up much earlier than when he was in the crib.

When he first started climbing out of his crib, naps were tough to get him to take. This was after such an attempt. We was VERY hard to wake up! Thankfully his naps are much better now.

He is also learning lots of other big boy stuff. He can put his uneaten food in the trash and then puts his dishes in the dishwasher, all by himself! He helps to unload the dishwasher and does a great job and just loves to do it. He loves to help with anything! He loves to help Mama cook and bake by adding ingredients and stirring and tasting. This is one of Mamma and Wesley's favorite activities together. He tries to sweep but that gets kind of messy. He's good at cleaning up his own messes too and helping wipe the table after breakfast. He still loves vacuuming too and gets quite upset if I don't let him help in some way. He also helps Mamma water the flowers which sometimes turns into just spraying the hose all over himself. He can put his clothes in the laundry basket and he helps me do the laundry, transferring clothes from the washer to the dryer, from the basket to the washer or the dryer to the basket.

Wes likes to try on our shoes and to put our shoes on us.

Wes also really enjoys coloring with markers. We are going to go broke keeping enough clean paper around for him! He just colors page after page after page. And he LOVES stickers! For some reason he finds it fascinating and hilarious to put stickers on our lips and pile them on top of each other all around our mouth or between our eyes. He decorated Mogley with stickers today.

Outside he likes to pile rocks up and transfer them from one pile to another or throw them in buckets of water. He also likes to throw the dirt around in Mamma's vegetable garden and eat Mamma's unripe tomatoes when I'm not looking!!!! Ahhh!!! He's picked them clean! I'm a hopeless tomato grower. One year it was Mogley who ate them. Last year a huge tomato worm cleaned out my plant overnight and this year Wesley has done the job. At least he can't pick the zucchini! He does like to help me in the garden though and tries not to step on the flowers.

Yes, he threw a piece of a log in his pool then wanted to drive through his pool with his big wheel.

Wes is a fish!!! He really loves the water and swimming. He's only been swimming 3 or 4 times this summer in a big pool but he just loves it! This past Sunday he was putting his head under the water and jumping off the side of the pool and purposely wanting to go under water when he did! He was also trying to actually swim by kicking his legs and paddling with his arms. I'm so glad he's not afraid of the water because we love it too!

Going down the slide at the pool.

He's still just as friendly as ever! He still says hi to everyone he sees, stranger or not.

He's been learning some things at church called a toddler catechism. So the first question is "Who made you?" Answer: "God made you." The next question is "What else did God make?" Answer: "Everything." There are about 6 or 7 questions they've been learning throughout this summer about God and the Bible and Jesus. Wesley's answer to every question is Jesus. The other day I asked him how old he is and he said "Jesus." I was also trying to teach him to say his name when someone asks him, "What is your name?" Every time I asked him his reply was, "Jesus!" I'm not sure where he got this from but I guess it's not a bad thing that his answer for everything is Jesus! :)

He still really enjoys music as well. He asks me to play music and wants me to sing songs to him, especially ones with some kind of movement. He's starting to learn to sing along to some of them and will spontaneously start singing one song in particular called Hot Cross Buns. It's one of the songs on one of his children's cds. He also likes to sing "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus." Mamma's sings this to him at nap time every day. We just recently acquired a piano and Wes enjoys "playing" it. It seems like he's really seen someone playing before because he plays it likes he's imitating a professional. It is quite funny.

One way to describe Wes is "physical." He is a constant machine in motion and everything he does has some kind of physical element to it - jumping, running, spinning, climbing, rolling, riding, pushing, pulling, throwing, wrestling, tickling, hugging, kissing and generally just flitting about. It can be very tiring but it is fun to watch.

Well, that is all for now. Hope you've enjoyed this tour through Wessie's life. (Wessie is Mamma's nickname for him.) Enjoy the rest of the pics.