Kevin Update

I realized that I haven't given an update on Kevin recently.

He is now three years old. He speaks quite fluently, and sometimes amazes me with his vocabulary.

He is a baby bear that he calls "Baby." Baby is a very helpful bear. When Kevin doesn't want to go to sleep at night, we pretend to be Baby.

Baby will say, "Daddy, Daddy!"

Kevin will respond, "Yes, Baby?"

The bear (through us) will then say, "I'm tired Daddy. Please come put me to bed."

No matter how angry Kevin was or how much he didn't want to go to bed, he just can't say no to his little bear. Sometimes, he'll pause for a minute, and then he'll say, "Okay, Baby."

He'll climb into his bed and snuggle with his little bear. It's adorable.

Baby, the manipulator. :)

I just love this picture (though it is a little grainy because it was taken from a video)

The other day, Grig told him that Baby had originally been his. Grig had called it Frances, after the little Frances the badger books. When Grig told Kevin that, Kevin became concerned.

"Baby is yours?"

Quickly, Grig said, "He used to be mine, but I gave him to you."

Kevin thought about that for a moment, and then said, "Daddy, I love you."

He is the sweetest kid.

Yesterday, while we were cleaning out Oryx's (our snake's) cage, Grig and Kevin were talking, Grig was telling Kevin how snakes eat mice. Kevin then said, "WE eat mice!"

"No," Grig told him. "Snakes eat mice. Are you a snake?"

"No," Kevin said, "I'm a goose!"

He is a goose. Who knew?

The last couple of days, Kevin, Arkhon, and I have started walking again. The weather's warmed up quite a bit, and we've been enjoying ourselves. As we were walking yesterday, we ran into a pasture with a couple of horses in it. They came right up to the fence and let us feed them some of the new grass that was growing on our side.

At first, Kevin was a little nervous, but he soon wanted to try. As we came closer, Kevin said, "Horses are big!" Compared to our dog, they were huge. The larger, dark brown horse took the grass from his fingers, and Kevin became very excited. "He licked my fingers!" he exclaimed.

Arkhon wanted to come see the horses to. I carefully brought him up to the fence, and the horse was pretty cool about it. I think Arkhon was thinking the same thing Kevin was though. As the horse and our dog nearly touched noses to sniff each other, Arkhon lost his nerve and backed off a little. He didn't run away, but he wasn't sure he wanted his head so close to the huge creature's mouth. Later, as Arkhon was looking toward some distant, barking dogs, the horse tried to smell his back. The horse nearly touched him before Arkhon realized what it was doing, and then he moved away again.

Really, it went pretty well. Arkhon didn't bark at them, he was just a little nervous. The horses weren't scared of him, just curious. We're going to go by again. It's good for Arkhon to be around lots of different situations.

Kevin runs pretty fast. He still loves wearing his Superman clothes, but he will occasionally wear different things. Yesterday, his Superman shirt got wet (which he can't stand), and so he went to his room and put on a dinosaur shirt his grandma had recently given him. He was so proud when he came out to show me what he was  wearing, and that he had put it on himself. I guess I reacted well, because a few minutes later, he came out wearing shorts he had put on too.

We just love him.

Some days, he's grumpy, and if he doesn't get what he wants, he will throw fits. Usually, he'll run into his room and calm down, and then come back out.

He plays pretty well with other kids, and he loves it when friends come over. They occasionally fight over sharing, but that's pretty normal.

I've recently made him a job chart using Superman and animals. There are no words, only pictures, but he knows what each picture stands for. He can tell me which job is next, and he LOVES it. Once he completes a job, he gets to put a sticker on his chart. Sometimes I think he wishes there were more jobs.

The other day, he told me, "Superman always helps Mommy," as he helped me pick up toys in the living room.

Yesterday, when he didn't want to help me do something, I reminded him of what he'd said. Immediately, he stopped dallying around and helped me.

He loves having his uncles here, and loves it when they play with him. His Uncle Allopex is teaching him sword fighting, and his Uncle Havelock plays (gentle) punching games with him. Both of them help use up some of his awesome energy. He is always excited when they come home, and loves it when they have days off to spend with him.

He is completely potty-trained and hasn't had an accident in months. We no longer have to buy diapers, which is weird.

Kevin wants a little sibling, and he often prays for one. He is a great example to me of faith and acceptance though. He loves every moment of life, and he helps me be a much better person.

We are so grateful for our son. Our lives would be so empty without him.

He makes the best facial expressions too.