Wow, school has begun and Keaten has been busy! He and Mommy have had lunch dates with Brianne a few times at school and he absolutely loves it! He packs his lunch, puts it into a lunchbox and insists on carrying it himself.
Outside of school lunch dates with his sister, he has had several play dates with his friend Gavin at the Little Greenhouse (a local place in Columbus that hosts activities for kids). From playing with veterinarian pieces, firefighter, to being a grocery shopper as he picks up local groceries, places them in a cart, and pushes them around.
If that weren't enough, on Wednesday's he and Mommy have Bible Fellowship Study, so he gets to hang out with his BSF friends, sing songs, and learn a story. Mommy is going through the book of Revelation.
While Brianne is at school, Keaten has been having a bit of school himself at home. From counting to naming his colors, he can count to 10 (when he wants to) and definitely knows red, yellow and purple without much help. Small progressions, but it is making a difference. The funniest thing was when Mommy asked him to count the 5 magnets on the fridge and he claimed he was "too tired", Mommy then said, well I guess you can go to bed, to which it stepped up to the fridge and counted "1 2 3 4 ... 5", placed his hands on his hips, sighed, and walked back out of the kitchen as if he were just inconvenienced. Man do I love the 3 year old stage, they gain such a personality at this age.
Potty Training has still been a work in progress for Keaten, so we've been working on it more and more lately as he's had a few accidents. Lately we've been taking toys when he has an accident and he earns them back when he makes it to the potty on time. Well, this little boy is a master negotiator. If you are in our home when he makes it on time, you'll hear him yell from the bathroom "Mom, 1 truck and 2 candies!!", or if I'm home, it may go like this "Daddy... Daddy... I'm dry!! 1 truck, 2 candies! ... OK, 1 truck, 1 candy!!" It seems Daddy is a harder negotiator than Mommy. HAHAHA!
Just last weekend, Grandma and PawPaw visited us and they watched Keaten and Brianne while Mommy and Daddy had a couples date night on Friday night. While Mommy and Daddy were away, they took the kids to Glow in the Dark Putt Putt and to Cappy's pizza. Keaten seemed to have a lot of fun. He ate most of the pepperoni off the pizza, along with several pieces of it, and played most of the holes at putt putt before he was "done" and threw his ball into the 18th hole.
We took Grandma and PawPaw to The Wilds on Saturday and did an Open Air Transport tour (a open sided bus). We got to see a good range of animals. It was a tad on the cool side, but it was definitely a beautiful day. Following The Wilds we took Grandma and PawPaw to see Big Muskie, or at least Big Muskie's Scoop. The shear size of this scoop is amazing and the kids have a blast going to see it when we are up at The Wilds. On the way home Keaten fell asleep and was rearing to go ready to play blocks, legos and trains with his PawPaw as soon as we unloaded.
Of course, this would be the end of summer/fall without apple picking! A few weeks ago when the Gala applies were in season, the kids went apple picking. As usually filling the bag full of apples was not a problem. The kids bounced from tree to tree, grabbing a hold of apples and placing them in the bag, barely waiting long enough for us to get home before biting into one. I think we had roughly 30 apples in a bag that holds a peck of apples. If you ask me, that's pretty good!
That's been the past few weeks in a nutshell, and I can only imagine what new negotiations may come about from this little guy. Oh, and let's not forget to showcase some new photos!!
Love,
Matt, Kami, Brianne and Keaten