The A-Team

Abraham

This was the best shot I could get on the 1st. He never stops moving! He is such a joy and we love being his parents. He is greatly enjoying “school time” and is doing very well with it! We are focusing on phonetics and writing. We are working on Bible verse memorization (I am terrible about this) and Bible stories (this we are great at).

Speech: He is so full of surprises. His language gets me most of the time. He makes complete, complex and just unbelievable sentences. They even pertain to what we are talking about! He has just a couple “cute” things that he says but pretty much everything is said they way it should be.

Naps: Abraham is no longer allowed to go without naps. We are making it a “family” nap time every day and he gets to stay up later with mommy and daddy. It’s kinda funny, he gets rather bored with us because we go about our chores while Ham waits for the party to begin:) But I would much rather deal with that than the terror we have dealt with.

Active: This kid doesn’t stop moving. Seriously. He will wiggle, writhe, flip, flop, whatever until the Z monster takes him over. He does sit pretty well during story time but he is still moving his arms pointing to the pictures or something.

Singing: Love this new thing of him singing! He knows several songs by heart without the music and he knows many more with the music. It is so cool! I love music and love to sing so it is awesome to have him do it too!

Goofy: This kid is super goofy. He loves to make you laugh (at any cost sometimes).

Reading: He adores reading. He loves going to the library and during “quiet times” he will grab the ENTIRE stack of library books and “read” them. It is so awesome to see his love for reading developing!

Skilled: He can ride his tricycle fairly well (on a flat surface). He can run, jump, climb stairs in varied ways, climb anything really, turn on light switches now because he can reach them, operate our TV and DVD player, open the gate upstairs (that was a new one), and pretty much just about anything he puts his mind to.

Competitive: We are just now seeing a competitive streak in him with his brother. If Abel does something that makes us laugh or we say is “cute,” Ham immediately tries to do it too and says “look at me, mommy!” Of course, it is not nearly as funny when a 3-year-old does something that a 17-month-old just did for the first time. It is just different. We are trying to explain it to him that we love him for being him and not for being Abel. It will take some time for him to understand but he wants ALL the attention or to at least be included in it.

Anger: We are actually starting to see anger. Sure we’ve seen frustration but now it is becoming truly anger. We are working on it. He has pretended to hit for a while now but tonight was the first actual contact and it was with me. He got into BIG trouble and he seemed to feel shameful for his actions. I hope we nip this in the bud quickly. Most of this I believed stemmed from no nap today. We tried to let him go without (because he begged) but that won’t happen again in the near future.

Understanding: His understanding of anything and everything, floors me. I am shocked at how much he really does understand and his responses prove it!

Travel: This boy loves to go! If we don’t leave the house for a couple days, he starts asking if we can go “bye-bye.” Pathetic, huh? He doesn’t care if it is Meijer or the zoo. He just wants to GO! He is a human-GPS-unit/homing-pigeon. He has a better mental map of central Indiana than do most adults (sad for adults!). He identifies a huge number of various places all over town and tells us where we are (Plainfield, Mooresville, Downtown, Greenwood, etc). It is amazing.

Brand recognition: The marketing gurus should be proud of themselves, because even though Ham has never watched broadcast television (and therefore does not see commercials) he knows dozens of businesses by their logos plastered on signs and vehicles all over town. This can be trying at times esp. when he sees a place he really wants to go such as Incredible Pizza Company or Speedway for some Gatorade (convenience stores). We have a joke, when he sees a Subway sign, we ask him what to do there, and he exclaims “Eat Fresh!” Geez.

Favorites: Trains, trains, and more trains. Construction equipment, airplanes, helicopters are some more faves. Berenstain Bear books are a new fave along with gluing! Abraham’s Bible is also one of his favorite “go-to” books. I love to see him pick it up to read.

This pretty much sums up my Abraham. Of course there are tons of things not mentioned but this gives you a snapshot. He is one cute kid (yes, from his biased mother) and I am so blessed to be his mommy.