They're growing up so fast

Charlie and Cole are sprouting into fine young men right before my eyes. At 3.5 Cole doesn't even look like my "baby" anymore. He's a big boy now! It seems like the transformation from baby to boy begins once you start giving them regular haircuts. Suddenly, they turn into little men. When I want a glimpse of my "baby", I sometimes can get Cole to wear his fleece ski hat that has a chin strap, covers up all his hair, and chubs out his cheeks. Otherwise, he's all boy. Here's a conversation we had just yesterday:
Me: "what's up little dude?"
Cole: "there's no dudes around here"
Me: "oh really?"
Cole: "yea, I'm a man now"
Now that he's a "man", Cole has gotten really good at entertaining himself. That boy will sit and do puzzles for hours. He's an amazing puzzler! Cole has graduated the 10, 20, 30 piece puzzles. He's got his sights on 50 to 100 pieces. He also LOVES to play board and card games. Cole still insists on carrying his backpack around with him everywhere. Today's contents include; ski hat, watch, magic worm, stuffed bear, 2 Bakugans, 3 Celetial Seasonings tea containers with 22 cents, miniature lion and dinosaur, light saber, another ski hat (smart boy, preparing for the cold), gardening gloves, gum, stuffed dog, sunglasses, honking duck bill, homemade beaded necklace, plastic turtle, dragonfly hole punch, orca whale, 28 cents loose change, and bracelet.

It's funny how different two kids from the same parents can be. Cole is a homebody, while Charlie can't get enough of the outings and action-play. Last week, we were on a walk and Charlie started skipping. It seems like he's tried to do it several times over the years, but it never clicked. Now he skips around everywhere. He's a skipping machine. And on our hike the other day, his friend Drew brought some Bubble Yum. Charlie put it in his mouth, started chewing... and blew a bubble! Just like that. First bubble ever! It's amazing how after that first success, everything is so easy for him. Now he's addicted to bubbles and skipping. Too bad he has to use small sticks of sugarless gum, since I don't buy him Bubble Yum:) At six, Charlie can also go on really long hikes. Like 2 hour hikes. What a guy!

Another example of how Charlie is growing up...His kindergarten class led the "all school community" (a weekly school assembly) on Wednesday. Charlie kicked off the assembly by standing up with a microphone, in front of the entire school K-8, and said "Good Morning. Please stand up and join in saying the Pledge." My eyes well up just thinking about how cute he is.

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