A Story About A Boy Named Spencer

Ever since Abigail was born I’ve neglected to post an update about Spencer. So here it goes…

Spencer will be 3 years old this summer and that just seems unbelievable. He is such a big boy now and he is so much fun. Having a toddler has its ups and downs, well the only downs are the tantrums, but that is expected. The ups on the other hand totally make up for his tantrums. He is like a little adult now, as far as intelligence goes. He carries on such intelligent conversations with us and asks about a billion questions a day. He loves to play with his toys, and is very creative. He loves anything with wheels. In fact, he has radar for spotting anything with wheels. The following story proves his astonishing gift…

The other day we were at a park near Brady’s work. A Mother and her Daughter were sitting side-by-side on a low brick wall watching their family play on the playground equipment. In between them sat a newspaper…or magazine (I didn’t get that close of a look). Peaking out from under this newspaper were two transformers already in their truck form. We were probably no less than 10 ft away from them when Spencer started walking up to them, which isn’t normal behavior for a toddler to walk up to a stranger. I told him to “say hi” while I began questioning in my mind why he was approaching these strangers. Of course I didn’t know it at the time, but the reason he approached them was because he had spotted these trucks and wanted to play with them. The Mother was kind enough to let him play with the transformer for a little bit before we had to leave. I think they were just impressed that he could spot the transformers from such a distance, as was I.

As you can tell from the above story Spencer is ALL BOY. Of course, Brady loves this and takes the opportunity to take a step back in time as he becomes a little boy himself when playing with Spencer. I love to watch them play together; they have such an incredible bond. Brady is an incredible father. He has taken such an active role in parenting our children. For example, every night when Brady returns home from work/school he takes the time to play with Spencer even though he is so busy. Then when it is bedtime for Spencer, Brady gets him ready and reads him a bedtime story. It’s such a beautiful picture to watch Spencer snuggle up to his Daddy while being read to. We love our little buddy and relish in this time as he grows and matures before our very eyes.

Just a few things Spencer can do and enjoys:

Spencer can…

• Identify and name all colors
• Identify all the major shapes: circle, square, triangle, star
• Draw a circle and square on his own
• Sing the alphabet on his own
• Count to 20 on his own

Spencer loves to…

• Color with crayons and paint
• Play with his many wheeled toys (cars, trucks, trains, etc)
• Play with building blocks and Lego’s
• Make his toys talk to each other, well the ones with faces. (It’s really cute when he has his toys talk to each other because it’s often an imitation of what we have done that day.)
• Play catch with Brady
• Eat popcorn and watch a Disney movie
• Put Mr. Potato Head pieces on himself (I really need to capture this on film)
• Help Mommy
• Play with Abigail and makes her smile

One day Spencer was playing by himself in his room. He came out and told me he built a house, this is what I walked in and found. Looks at those cylinders stacked together, what precision. Oh, and don't mind the mismatched pajamas, it was laundry day.