Snippets of Spencer at 3.5

I asked him if he wanted to sign Jonathan's father's day card, and he took the pen and pretended to write with it.  While he pretended to write, he said, "Spencer Vinsant Kelley."  Precious.

Spencer spent the night at my mom's house, and he stayed in "his" bed for quite a while after he woke up that morning.  My mom and dad sat in the living room and listened to him talking to himself.  My mom said at one point, as clear as day, he said, "Oh my LORD" (with a medium-heavy southern accent, making "Lord" two syllables).  His pastor's wife mother publicly apologizes.

Every time Evelyn does something he doesn't want her to do, whether it's dangerous to her or not, he says, "No Evie, you could get hurt!"

After watching "Martha Speaks" one afternoon, Spencer turned to me and said, "I'm the only one without a talking dog!"

We are dog-stting for a few months while my sister finds a house in Nashville.  Spencer is loving it.  Saturday, he had to come inside and get dressed to go to a birthday party, Jonathan said, Spencer was sympathetically telling Dakota that she couldn't go to the birthday party and that she had to stay here.

We had a fish fry and concert at church Sunday night.  Spencer still loves music, so I thought he would really enjoy it, and I was right.  What surprised me was how much he enjoyed dancing to the music.  At one point, I stood up with Evelyn, to try to keep her happy.  Spencer immediately said, "Mommy!  You have to dance with me!"  He's misconstrued my placating bouncing of Evie as dancing, and he was convinced I was doing it with the wrong person.  This led to holding his hand while we "danced" Evelyn around the gym.  When we made our way back to our seats, he hadn't gotten enough.  I handed Evelyn to Jonathan, and Spencer and I went on to "ballroom dance" for quite some time.  It was really sweet, and I tried to hard to be "in the moment," so that someday I will actually remember getting to dance with him that night (as opposed to just reading about it and being sad I have no memory of it).

Today, on the way to the lake, Jonathan got a text message.  Spencer heard it, and said, "What's in that email?"

Spencer has had multiple helping-in-the-kitchen successes as of late.  I started thinking about doing things like this with him when he was two.  At 3.5 it is doable and enjoyable.  These are oatmeal muffins (which he did not like), he has also helped his Gigi make playdogh, pancakes, and sausage and egg breakfast casserole.  Even more entertaining was the day he helped me slice up a whole watermelon.  I convinced him to try one of the "small" pieces of watermelon (a perfect cube that was small so it didn't feel too "wet").  He liked it (he ate it all the time when he was younger).  He thanked me profusely and told me over and over again that he liked the "small pieces of watermelon."  "Thank you, Mommy!"