3 1/2 Years Old!

Our little man was officially 3 1/2 years old back in August and I figured that deserved a post of its own... I also figured better late than never. :)

Three is a challenging age, but it is also such a fun age! It is awesome to see Carson learn so much everyday still. He is just a sponge, soaking everything in. He loves to learn new things - it really energizes and stimulates him. And he remembers everything! Every detail. He wants to know the ins and outs of everything. He asks a ton of questions about how and why things work the way they do.

Carson still loves sprinklers. He can tell you how all the different types of sprinklers work, how they spray, etc. He can also tell you how an underground sprinkler system works. One of his highlights this past spring was getting to help Uncle Mike get their sprinkler system going for the first time, which included some repairs. Carson never left Uncle Mike's side and learned so much! Uncle Mike even let Carson use some tools to fix some of the problems, which Carson was very proud of.

Carson continues his love of water. He loves to swim in the lake and in the pool, go to the splash pad, and run through the sprinkler. He loved going to the waterski shows this summer and really wants to waterski himself. Although he's still a little nervous about trying it behind the boat in the deep water.
 

Carson also loves to build. Anything and everything. His favorite thing to build with these days are Legos, but he still has a lot of fun with his Lincoln Logs, foam blocks, Duplos, and even his Mega Blocks, too. He builds houses, garages, cars, towers, windmills, a house with a windmill, castles.... whatever his little heart desires. He's very good at it! He's really into Playmobil these days, as well. He will sit for hours (literally) just building and playing with his Playmobil stuff. Once he gets the Playmobil stuff out, its all he wants to do. Forget eating, dancing, going outside, etc. He just wants to play with his Playmobil.

Carson is a pro at riding his bicycle. We've even moved the training wheels up some to help him practice his balance. He's not ready for us to remove the training wheels quite yet, but if he keeps it up, he'll be ready to ride on two wheels before we know it! He also loves riding his scooter. He's content riding his bike and scooter for quite a long time, as well. And he loves going on bike rides through Grandma and Grandpa's subdivision on his tricycle. He goes quite far and pushes to his limit, from what we are told.

Sports are another favorite past time of Carson's. He loves to golf, hit the baseball off his tee, play catch (he's really good!!), play soccer, basketball and bocce ball, and throw the frisbee. He wants to learn tennis so badly, as well, but has a good deal of learning to do still with tennis. He also enjoys watching football. He has really liked watching the first couple MSU games.  We'll be going tailgating for the MSU Homecoming football game in October and are all looking forward to it! 

Carson continues to love music. He loves to play music with his instruments - he has been asking us to let him take guitar lessons for months. He loves to listen to all sorts of music types. And he loves to dance! That boy has got some good moves! He can shake it like the best of 'em. And he's very interpretive when he dances. He really picks up rhythm and beat.

Carson's personality has really been developing. He is still shy when he is in a new place and meeting new people (or seeing people he hasn't seen in awhile), but he generally warms up quickly and becomes his outgoing little self. He still likes to follow the rules - although if he's really wired and is around other kids who aren't following the rules, he will usually join in. But in general, he likes to know the rules and is very good about following them. He's developing quite a sense of humor. He will tell jokes (that are actually funny!) and he likes to be the "class clown" quite often these days. He catches on to the humor in situations all the time. He'll just start laughing hysterically.

Carson's favorite colors are yellow and orange. A few weeks ago, we were riding in the car and Carson was in the back making noises of frustration. I asked him what was wrong. He answered "I just can't figure out what my favorite color is. Sometimes I think yellow might be and sometimes I think orange might be. But I really think my favorite color is yellow... But I just don't know!". He was relieved to find out that he could have two favorite colors. :)

Carson is doing very well with his letters and numbers. He can count quite high by single digits and can also count up to 100 by 10s. He is quite good at simple addition and some subtraction, too. He is learning his days and months, he is pretty good with his days and we've just started on the months and seasons at home. This is something they focus on in the 3-year old preschool class, so I'm sure he'll have them all down pretty well, pretty quickly.  We have also recently discovered that Carson is incredibly good at mazes.  Both on paper and going through them physically.  He loves them!  We bought a book of mazes to take in the car with us on our 13+ hour (likely to be about 15-16 with stops) road-trip later this month.  He's going to be so excited!

He's also just a sponge with many different science activities.  He absolutely loves learning about the human body/anatomy, animals, gravity/the atmosphere, the solar system, dinosaurs, bubbles, etc.  We've been doing lots of fun activities at home over the summer to enhance his knowledge of his favorite subjects and we have lots more on the shelf for when the days grow even shorter and we can't be outside as late/in the dark.  We've also been working on some U.S. geography.  Carson knows the location of many states on a map, and knows some of the capitals, as well.  Like I said, he's such a little sponge (as is every 3-year old) when it comes to learning.  :) 

Our little man is growing up way too fast for our liking, but we're having a blast along the way.  We look forward to continuing to watch him grow and learn even more.  He'll be smarter than his parents before we know it!  :)
　
Carson's Current Favorites (according to him):
Colors - yellow and orange
Indoor Activity - building with Legos
Outdoor Activity - biking or playing with Jet
Foods - bananas, blueberries, grapes, chicken and rice with veggies, corn on the cob, green beans
CD - any VeggieTales
TV Show - Jake and the Neverland Pirates
Book - anything Dr. Seuss