A bit o' Colton

 I had things to share about both of my girls, so I decided to post a few pictures of my favorite son so as not to leave him out :)

Colton loves to be silly and make us all laugh!  Here he is making "shorts" out of his pants in the middle of winter :)

Colton loves to be outside.  He will spend hours making his own fun and playing.  Here he loved chipping large chunks of ice at the park and lining them up.

Colton and his younger sister Larkyn's relationship has been trickier to establish than that of him and his older sister, Summer (who were inseparable since the time he could walk!).  Summer loved to create story lines and involve Colton in her play.  However, when Summer went to school, and it was just 1 year old Larkyn at home with Colton all day, it took quite a while for him to see her as a playmate.  For much of the time, they have played independently side-by-side at best.  Recently, however, sparkplug 2-year-old Larkyn has learned Colton's buttons and finds great enjoyment in pushing them!  This has led to a rocky relationship between the two as of late.  The past month or so I have been focusing my prayers largely on how to encourage their relationship to be strong.  We started a kindness sticker chart that allows each of them to put a sticker on the kindness chart when I catch them being kind to each other.  Colton has whole-heartedly embraced this concept and I cannot begin to express how it has already changed Colton and Larkyn's interaction!  It is a night and day difference!  Colton is truly leading by example and (with or without the promise of a kindness sticker!) his heart is so sweet and kind to his sister, offering to put her shoes away, help her get her blankie, jump to her rescue to help her, give her more of her favorite foods off his plate, let her choose things first, and even try to take away her punishment and give her the rewards he gets for being good!  I have been extremely impressed with him in this area lately and am so proud of him!

The conversation that accompanied this moment went as follows:

 Colton: "Hi, Princess!"  

Larkyn: "Colton, will you marry me today?" 

Colton: "Not right now, please, Larkyn."  

Larkyn: "Awwwwwww".

Colton isn't normally my artist kid, but he has been loving this book from the library on how to draw diggers!

I think his drawings have turned out pretty good!  He doesn't have nearly as many drawings as Summer did at this age, so I like to capture the ones he does!

Colton absolutely LOVES learning how things work.  He asks lots of questions!  He loves to watch youtube clips on how different things work/are put together.  He reminds me so much of my dad (grandpa k) in this love.  When we picked out a "how to make paper airplanes" book from the library, I knew it would be the perfect project for Colton and Grandpa K!

They made several airplanes and had fun discussing some basic principles of how airplanes fly!  I love the relationship these two can share!