Blane Update

Blane, my adventurous, daring, full of life little guy! His independence is growing daily! Often I hear, "No Mommy, I do it." Not in a mean way, but just stern enough to get the point across to me that he no longer needs my help, sigh. Blane has even started calling us by our first names, and is of course corrected. But I have to say, it's pretty funny to hear him refer to me by Jen, and daddy by Scott. I especially laugh when he is in bed and I hear him calling me, "JJJJEEENNNN!!!!!" This boy loves his daddy and can be quite upset with me when it's not daddy getting him out of bed in the morning - "No Mommy, Daddy come up here and get me." Blane loves to sit at the sink with his Daddy and pretend to put contacts in his eyes, shave, or put lotion on his face. His new favorite game is hide and seek, which Grandaddy recently taught him. He hasn't quite figured out the rules yet though. He will always hide in the exact spot where I hid when it was my turn. Or, when I'm seeking him, he will yell, "I'm in here mommy!" But it's a super fun game nevertheless. Blane still loves to read and we've started a new tradition at nighttime. I head upstairs with him to pick out books, we lay in his big boy bed to read one or two together, and then he gets some alone/quiet time to read by himself. I love this because he gets into the habit of reading and having a quiet time. I usually leave him for 15 minutes or so, and of course we spy on him from the video monitor. He loves to use that time to flip through each book, and talk about it to himself. And speaking of beds, Blane loves his baby crib! All attempts to urge him into his big boy bed have failed, and I'm ok with that. Even when he sleeps at Nanna's or anywhere else, he says, "Go home to MY bed?!" Blane has also recently exerted some jealous behavior. Nothing crazy, but definitely attention seeking. He sees that I hold Gavin's hands when he goes down the slide, so now Blane wants me to hold his hands as well. Sometimes Blane will crawl instead of walk because that's what Gavin does. Or he'll pretend to be "stuck" under the table and ask me to rescue him, because he sees that we have to rescue Gavin from under the table often. But at the same time, Blane LOVES his little brother. If I take Gavin to bed Blane will ask me, "Uh-oh! Where baby Gavin go?!" And when we hear Gavin waking up in the monitor, Blane has to be the first to get him out of bed. He is sweet and loving, and always eager to play with his brother. Sometimes he takes the parental role with Gavin too. I overheard him telling Gavin the other day, "No baby! Put it back baby!" I guess we've gotten stuck using the name "Baby" because when I asked Blane what Gavin's name was he replied to me, "Baby Gavin Daniel Patterson"....oh well, at least he tells me that my name is Best Mommy : ) I'm just loving my boys!