Calvin's Enjoyment List
1. Playing with toys! His favorites are cars, trains and coins. He also likes to build block stacks and then play angry birds for real.
2. Outdoors! He loves to be outside and to exercise. If he could hike every day he would do it. Going on walks with this boy is a treat! He just takes everything in. On Friday, we took a stroll on the bike path. I didn't have anything in mind other than just letting the kids explore. We walked MAYBE 1/4 of a mile and it took just over an hour. He picked almost every weed and tree leaf he could reach to feed his Panda (a squeezy bath toy). He broke my back about 1000 times on EVERY crack he could find. He stomped on fire bugs for about 10 minutes. I got to enjoy his infectious giggle over and over again.
3. He loves doing hard things (after the fact)! He just learned to ride his bike and every time he does it, he gets so excited and makes sure to let me know that his muscles were not that strong yesterday and that he made it up that hill easier today than yesterday. Coordination has not always come easy to Calvin. Everything intellectually has come so easily for him that when he has to practice doing hard things physically, he would throw fits and then give up. I tried to teach him to ride his bike for so long, but decided to just wait a year until he is more mature and willing to try hard things. It was frustrating to him (could figure out the peddles), but this year, he is trying really hard. I love to see the joy on his face as he says, "Mom! I did a hard thing, and it was hard, but I did it!" I also REALLY enjoy building him up as he does this. "Calvin, that is really hard and frustrating for you to do that, but you are trying anyway!" He just glows when he's praised! I love it.
4. He loves to talk. Sometimes it drives me insane because he just doesn't stop. Literally! But at the same time, I love it. It's amazing to see what is going on in that head of his. I am amazed at what this boy can think of. His constant questions, make me realize just how much I don't know.
5. He enjoys playing with Rebecca. Sure they fight a lot, but when they are actually playing, he really lights up. He loves to teach her new things and show her how to live life. Last week, he came out of his room and said very sweetly, "Rebecca, do you want to have some learning time?" He had set up her shapes puzzles, lined up all of the shapes (extra large pattern blocks) and then continued to teach her the shapes. He would say, "What's this shape?" Over and over again until she got to the end of the line. I didn't encourage him to do this, he just thought of it on his own. He always helps her with learning her letters. He always tells her the sounds that each letter makes, and then talks about all of the words that start with each letter.
6. Art. Calvin loves to color, paint, draw, cut, glue, etc. It cracks me up to watch him color. I bought a color by dot (similar to color by number) coloring book. He knows what he's supposed to do, but he enjoys every picture he colors to be ONE color. It is seriously so funny. We'll work on a page together and when I finish coloring, he talks about how the airplane dropped a black bomb on everything and then he'll proceed to color on top of my colors to make everything black. He rarely adds more than one color to a project.
7. Photography! If he ever finds a camera, he will run the thing out of memory in a jiffy. If I felt like uploading pictures from my camera, I could do a whole post titled, "Life through Calvin's eyes". I could add a caption of why he took each random picture and video he took because he narrates as he goes along. This is why I titled the post "Selfies" These are just a few of the MANY selfies I've found on my computer camera.
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| This is what he does when he's trying to wink. Ha ha ha. |
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| Photo bombed! |
9. Trains. This phase started when we moved here. He was 3 1/2 years old and we live close to the train station and a railroad crossing. To this day (1 1/2 years later), he asks to drive over the tracks when we are going to the store. If it doesn't add more than 2-3 minutes to our drive, I'll usually drive out of my way to show him trains. When I run without the kids, I get excited to see a train near the bike path, only to realize I am alone. It's just not as exciting when the kids aren't there. :) When we were on our little stroll the other day, we couldn't see the train because the path was below the hill at that point. I told Calvin I was sorry that we didn't get to see it and he said, "It's ok mom because I feel happy when I see trains AND when I just hear them!" He was a frontrunner (Utah's commuter train) for Halloween last year. I asked him last month what he'd like to be this year. His eyes lit up with excitement, his voice was trembling and he said, "Oh mom! I want to be a freight train this year! (eyes wide)!" Ha ha ha. He kills me!
10. Reading. He loves to read. I usually have to take my library card and his own to the library because he can't just stop at 35 (the limit of checkouts per card). He has a flashlight hanging above his bunk bed because he just wants to read and read and read in the evenings. I felt so silly taking my 9 month old to the library every week when we lived in Provo, but I think I did something right. At nap time, he will read a book to Rebecca and I think it is just about the sweetest thing ever!
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| This is what I found after my shower the other morning. |
12. Cooking.
I love Calvin. It's so enjoyable to see him experience life. I wish I had more energy so that I could keep up with him more, but for now, I'll continue to try my hardest! :)
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