35 Months 8.12.13

Tillman called this "going vroom vroom!"

WHY? Tillman is Mr Why these days!  He wants to know why he has to do thing, and after you tell him why; he then ask why again!  If you ask him why, he just repeats what you say.  Mr Why is well on his way to being a detective!

At Margaret and Dawayne's wedding

Tillman moved up to his next class last week.  He is doing well. This class is getting a new curriculum, so I'm very excited to see him develop.  The last class was all about potty training, and I think he was getting a little bored. It is great to have him come home and talk about his new class. When he leaves in the morning he is excited.  He is coming home with lots a papers and crafts. It makes us very happy that he is being challenged. Just in the short week he was in this class, we could tell a difference in the amount he is talking and using sentences. His counting is also improving. I think he knows all the way to 20, except he always skips 14 and 15.  It is cute to hear him count.

Polishing off Caroline's Smash Cake

Speaking of him talking, he has a few Tillman words.  He says "That is mys" instead of mine (of course we are working hard to correct, but he looks at us like we don't know what we are talking about!). He also says "What?" very disrespectfully (kind of like "say what??"). We think he got this from someone else, so we are trying to break him of it. It is almost like him knowing a bad word and using it all the time!

Mommy and T eating candy! Check out his blue mouth!

With all of that, he also is doing very well with his manners.  He is very good about saying please, thank you, and yes/no sir/mam. We've also started to encourage him to order his food when we are out for dinner.  We do have to really encourage him to speak up.  This Friday we were at Wendy's.  He wanted chicken nugget. He was saying it really soft and shy to the lady.  We told Tillman to speak up.  In a very loud voice he says "I want chicken...CHICKEN....CHICKEN!" I'm pretty sure the cook heard him too!  It was funny, and we are glad he is learning.

Tillman breaking it down...child loves to dance

He also learning to sing and say the blessing.  He really isn't shy about it either.  He sang Caroline Happy Birthday this weekend in front of a group. He also love Darius Rucker's Wagon Wheel song.  He calls it "Rock me Mamma."  He jumps in when the chorus starts and really sings away.  With the blessing, he often starts saying it with no warning. It is normally when we put his plate down on the table to cool, he will say it.  Sometimes it is by the microwave.  We went to church yesterday, and he was trying to keep up with the service and songs.  He loved the Amens!  He is really doing very well in church. I think we are in a happy spot with church now. Caroline does fine in the nursery and Tillman is relatively quite in church (he is only 3, so he's working on his whisper, and if he wants something, we just give it to him as we know the volume will increase...especially for a snack!).

Getting water for CiCi's drip castles

He's also been working on his Strider Bike skills. While we were at the beach, the house had a small hill.  Tillman is now to the point he can ride down the hill without any feet action, thus fully balanced on the seat. He looked like a dare devil coming down the hill!  The bike is a cool concept. The thought is once he learns to balance on a bike with no petals, then he should be able to go straight to a two wheel bike without training wheels.  We'll see.  He loves riding his bike!

Sharing Lance's Trike!