What are Jack and Cullen up to?

The boys had their 3 year old check up a couple weeks ago and they're growing right on track, just like I thought. They didn't need any shots and it was probably the most uneventful doctor's visit we've ever had. We were all pretty happy about that.

Jackson is 36 1/2 inches tall and weighs 29.8 pounds. That's the 30th percentile for height and 25th percentile for weight. Cullen is 36 3/4 inches tall (35th percentile) and weighs 31 pounds exactly (45th percentile).

Their newest obsessive phase right now is time. Around Christmas, they started asking what time it was and reading the numbers on digital clocks. They now ask what time it is about 50 times a day- and no I'm not exaggerating, I think they average about every 15 minutes. My sister just got them Lightning McQueen watches so now whenever they ask I tell them to tell me what time it is instead (Thanks Rachel! Those watches are saving my sanity!) They're also learning to tell time on a real clock. They know that the big hand tells the minutes and the little hand tells the hour. When the big hand is on the 12, they can tell you exactly what time it is. And they are always wanting to know when something is going to happen. They'll ask what time their friends are coming over and I'll tell them "when the big hand gets to the 6." Then they'll check the clock every few minutes and keep me updated on the big hand's progress. They fight and cry over sitting in the car seat with the best view of the clock in the car. I think it's cute that they are so interested in time, but sometimes I think it's getting a little out of hand. Their Sunday School teachers told us they had to forbid them from asking what time it was anymore because they were asking every 30 seconds and interrupting story time.... Oh my.

They know all the letters of the alphabet and what sounds they make. They can listen to a word and tell you what letter it starts with. They can count to 20 pretty consistently, sometimes they forget a number or two though. We're starting to work on lowercase letters now. They can also trace letters and numbers with pencils and we do this in pre-school each week. They are just beginning to understand the days of the week but they know which days we do certain things on.

They are starting to work on simple "real" (jigsaw) puzzles. They got a few for Christmas and I thought the puzzles would be way over their head but they've surprised me with how well they can put them together.

They still LOVE to read. We have between 25-40 library books in our house at any given time and they can sit still and read books for over an hour. We walk to the library about once a week and they help me pick out new books they want to read.

They are incredibly good at directions! (They obviously inherited this from their father, not me). They can tell me how to get anywhere familiar to them. When I tell them we're going shopping, they'll ask which store and then proceed to tell me exactly how to get there. "Turn here Mom!" "You have to get on the freeway!" "We're almost there!" They are also beginning to understand the difference between right and left and can often tell me the right direction to turn.

One of their favorite things to do in the car is to play the "Car Game" which is basically just I Spy. They pester whoever's driving until we say "I see a stop sign" or "I see a 45." They can spot things from quite a distance too!

They love to help me cook. Jack likes to get out my cookbooks and flip through them until he finds a recipe he wants to make, usually a dessert of some kind of course. They like me to read the ingredients out loud as I add them and they'll repeat after me. And their favorite part is when I let them help out stirring or adding something. For Valentine's Day, we made Ina's chocolate cupcakes with pink frosting for Daddy. I let the boys help me frost and decorate the cupcakes and they were just thrilled. They were so proud to show them to Brandon when he got home that night!

They can put their shoes on all by themselves, the ones with velcro at least. This takes much longer than if I do it, but they insist on doing it themselves. So I just build in an extra 10 minutes into our already overly-long "get out the door" time.

They can only take naps these days if we separate them. Otherwise they end up jumping around their room for 2 hours laughing hysterically together. They actually broke their bed last month when they climbed onto their dresser and jumped off it onto the bed. They cracked one of the slats underneath the mattress when they landed. That's when I started separating them. But now they fight over which one gets to sleep in Mommy and Daddy's room. It's always something... After we forbid them from jumping on the broken bed anymore, they got smart and started pulling the mattress off the bed, onto the floor so they could jump on it there.

Here are some of the funny things they've been saying recently:

*While out to eat one night, Jack kept turning around and shouting quite loudly “My want my pizza now pwease!” Thankfully, the waitress (and the other diners) thought it was cute instead of rude. Later that night, we were praying before bed and Brandon was in the midst of thanking God for the blessings we have when Cullen interjected “and the pizza!”

*Cullen: Oh no! No take my crayons Jack! My want my crayons back!

Jackson: Not your crayons, Cullen. They’re God’s crayons.

*They call mine and Brandon’s bedroom “Mommy’s room.” The office is “Daddy’s room.” They’ve obviously noticed where Brandon spends most of his time.

*While at the grocery store, Cullen informed the cashier that the coupons were “money.” I couldn’t be any prouder!

*For some reason, the blue booster seat is the preferred seat at the table and the boys often fight over who gets to sit in it. One morning, Cullen was crying because Jack had gotten there first so Brandon took the opportunity to talk to him about selfishness. He was just telling Cullen that he didn’t need to sit in the blue seat to be happy, when Jack shouted gleefully from the coveted blue chair “I happy!”

*While eating enchiladas, Jackson purposefully picked out all the jalapenos so he could eat them first. And as he ate them he said, “Mmmmm, spicy! I LOVE peppers!”

*Driving home one night Cullen yelled at me from the backseat “Stop singing Mom! And turn the music off, my talking to Jackson!”

*I gave the boys a cup of milk to take in the car while we ran errands one morning and I grabbed my thermos of coffee. As we were walking out the door, Jack turned to me and said “I pretend this is coffee Mom” then took a drink of his “coffee” and said “Mmmm, that good!!” Not to be outdone in getting a laugh from Mom, Cullen then informed me his was “soda.”