Meet My Big Boy

With Colton's school year wrapping up this week, we recently sat down with his teachers for our final parent-teacher conference of the year.  As much as we have seen our little boy evolve over this year, it was certainly confirmation to hear his teachers speak of his growth.  When Colton entered his classroom in September, he was just shy of 2 1/2.  He was barely speaking at home and certainly would not utter a sound in his classroom.  In fact, at his first conference, his teachers wanted to make sure that he was indeed verbal!  Fast forward the  9 months or so and our little Colton is now a full-fledged little boy, complete with a crazy vocabulary, and definite strengths and weaknesses.

Where we used to struggle to get him to speak, we now struggle to keep him quiet.  He is constantly questioning (why being his favorite), telling stories, or singing along.  Speaking of singing, Colton LOVES songs.  He has a handful of favorites he requests in the car: "DJ the Dinosaur," "Simple Simon," and "Apples and Bananas" from his cd and "Suit and Tie," "Thrift Shop," and "Ceiling Can't Hold Us" (or whatever it's called) from the radio.  Colton's teachers confirmed that singing and dancing are his favorite parts of school.  I don't think where there's any musical talent genes for him to get, but who knows?!?
Colton seems to be pretty bright (his teachers said so as well, but I'm thinking they tell a lot of parents that!). I am constantly impressed by his crazy recall abilities.  We will pull up to a place he has only been once...and that once could be eons ago...and he will remember everything about the place.  He does a lot of stuff like that, and I constantly find myself questioning how in the world he remembers that stuff!  He knows names, dates, and other crazy stuff that I feel like 3 year olds don't necessarily know!
Speaking of,Colton has some obsession with the number 19...ever since my birthday (March 19th).  Any time we give him a time notification, he asks for 19 minutes.  Or if we tell him he can do something x more times, he always says he wants 19.  I don't know!
Colton also loves to laugh...and make people laugh.  If he finds something that makes you giggle, he will do it repeatedly.  We've also discovered that Colton is quite the follower.  If a friend or Levi does something that gets a laugh or gets any attention, it is only a matter of seconds befo.re Colton is doing the same thing.  Oddly enough, he's rarely the initiator!  I'm thinking he's probably not going to be a leader.
Colton is definitely a very shy kid.  Sometimes I worry that it borders on extreme!  He especially gets overwhelmed when there are a lot of kids around and tends to do much better when there are only a couple to play with.  Then again, I'm kind of the same way, so I guess it's fair.
Colton is also very much a creature of habit...again almost to worrisome levels.  There are many routines that we follow and oftentimes he'll get mad with Josh for not doing them the way that I do them (considering I'm the one who usually does them!).  He also believes very strongly in everyone taking turns and playing things the way he wants to play them (hence why his soccer career was short-lived for now!). Josh gets really frustrated with it, but I honestly think most of it is pretty normal and harmless.  Choose your battles, right?
Colton is a very diligent hard worker.  When he puts his mind to something, he is absolutely insistent on seeing it through.  He has started doing jigsaw puzzles and is kind of obsessed!
Colton's worst habit, in my opinion at  least, is his whining.  Uh, the whining.  It drives me crazy.  He's gotten a little better in the sense that he doesn't whine everything he says, but he still adopts this voice frequently when he wants/needs something.  He's also really bad at getting somewhere fun and then whining within a few minutes of being there and saying he's not having fun, wants to go home, etc.  I'm hoping this is a stage we grow out of quickly.
Colton is still a super sweet and loving kid.  Frequently, he'll just come up to one of us and say "I love you" in a way that is completely genuine and unprovoked.  Needless to say, it melts me.
The end of the school year is always a very sentimental time for me.  When I used to teach, I would always compare where I was at the start of the year and the end and marvel at the changes.  Now, I get to do that with my little boy...and our family...and I am so proud of all of it!  It is so interesting to me to watch my little boy grow and change and evolve into this person he is going to be.  While I try to be honest with myself and others about who he is and the fact that he is obviously not perfect, I must say he's a pretty amazing kid.