I have been a major blog slacker lately. But things have been absolutely crazy!
We closed on our house on the 9th of February and since then have been working until the wee hours of the morning every day. We absolutely love our new house and just being able to have a home of our own is such a dream come true.
Our goal is to paint pretty much every wall in the house. But it takes a lot of time and money, so we are doing it all bit by bit. We started with the living room and then did the boys’ rooms. Once those were done we were able to start sleeping at the house so we could get more done. I will definitely be posting before and after pictures very soon.
Our neighborhood is wonderful and has a great rural feel to it. There is a huge field surrounding the neighborhood where about six horses feed all day. Across from there is the elementary school, which we can see from our house. The neighbors all have little kids and the neighbors across from us have two little boys both Cruise and Jett’s ages. They were instant friends and have a lot of fun together. It amazes me how easily little kids make friends.
The boys have done surprisingly well with the move. We spent a week or so bringing them to the house in the afternoons and at first Cruise was not a big fan of the idea, but now he is settled at “Cruise’s new house”. He loves to ride his bike around and I love not worrying about traffic. But my new worry is him getting into trouble. It is sure hard trying to unpack, paint, clean, etc. when both the boys are running around the neighborhood. I caught them playing in someone’s house when they weren’t home the other day. Needless to say, I don’t get a lot done when Dave is at work. We have a nice big yard but the fence is missing the gate, so until we can get that fixed, the boys cannot be contained.
My last post was about Jett, so I thought I’d do a little bragging about Cruise this time.
Cruise has been doing awesome at school. At his last parent teacher conferences, his teacher said that he has made so much progress and is doing so well. I often get notes home telling us that he is playing well with his classmates and complimenting them. I love getting compliments from Cruise. I’ll be cleaning and he’ll say, “Good cleaning Mommy! Good job!” It always makes me smile and feel appreciated.
Cruise is learning his colors, numbers and letters so well and can identify them really easily. At church during sacrament, I’ll whisper a letter to him and he’ll write it for me. I am just so grateful for being able to witness miracles every day.
Cruise’s speech has improved so much over the past couple of months. His babble has decreased so much and he is making more sense when speaking. His receptive language is still sometimes a challenge, but he can follow two step directions pretty well these days. He tries really hard to describe things if he doesn’t know what they are called. His conversational speech is really picking up and it is so much fun to talk with him rather than to him. Some of the things he says are so awesome and priceless! And Dave and I get a kick out of his wonderful imagination. Just this past week Cruise has started asking "why?" and it's been awesome! I know most parents get sick of that, but I've been waiting so long to hear it.
The other day he dressed up as a knight and called me princess. He took his helmet off, bowed, and said, “You’re majesty”. Randomly, last week, he walked up to me while I was sanding a wall, gave me a kiss and said, “I love you Mommy,” and ran off. His kindness and concern for others is such an example to me and to everyone around him. We were in the car and his dog Lucy was in the back. Cruise turned to Lucy and said, “You okay Lucy? It’s ok, do not be scared,” and patted her paw. His meltdowns are rare and far between and he is able to calm himself so much quicker these days.
Cruise has also been growing more and more independent. His self-help skills are amazing and I am so proud of him, even if sometimes I’m not a big fan of his independence. Like when he has to pour himself a glass of juice or milk, when he has to make his own chocolate milk, or when he has to dress himself and always forgets his underwear. But it is so nice to be woken up by him and he is already dressed for school and has brushed his teeth. What a stud!
A couple of weeks ago, Cruise asked Dave to remove his training wheels. So Dave removed them and then prepped him for the “inevitable” falling and frustration. When Dave started running alongside Cruise, keeping his bike up, Cruise kept yelling, “No Dad! Let go!” So he let go and Cruise just kept riding down the street, as if his training wheels were still there. We were both shocked and stunned. Not really being parents used to typical development, we were both asking each other if that was normal. Whether it is or is not, we are constantly amazed by this kid.
Obviously Cruise has his moments where we see a whole other side to him. When he’s very angry, he can yell and get aggressive, but luckily those moments are few and don’t last too long. But even I have those moments, so I can’t really hold that against him.
His favorite books right now are Green Wilma Frog In Space (which he picked out and won at the school Book Fair a couple weeks ago) and Zoomer’s Summer Snowstorm. His favorite shows on Netflix are Curious George, Kipper, and Garfield. His favorite games are Zingo (kind of like bingo but you match pictures) and Don’t Spill the Beans. His favorite foods are pizza, pancakes, and hot dogs.
Right now his bedtime routine consists of the following:
8:00
-Give Cruise his melatonin and brush teeth
-Read 3 books
-Say prayers
-Turn off lights (except his Moon in my Room)
-Sing “Six Little Ducks” and the Elephant song.
He only lets me do his routine. However, for the first time in three years, he let Dave do it one evening when it was my turn to stay at the new house and paint. Dave was pretty excited about that and I thought that was pretty cool.
Just this last week, Cruise has refused to wear any other shirt than his yellow one. I had to special order a bunch of shirts from Target, and luckily they were all on clearance. He calls himself the "man in the yellow shirt". I think he's been watching too much Curious George lately. Who know how long this will last, but until then, the boy will only wear the same six shirts; all yellow.
