Stick figures and notes

I'm amazed at how fast little kids learn things and how much they remember. We were driving yesterday and Cole and I were talking about the old Volvo beast and he recalled a time when we were driving in the mountains and the beast overheated and we had to walk and hitch a ride with strangers. And I thought to myself, "How do you remember that?" He even remembered that we were going to Sierra's birthday party when it happened. Darling boy!

So, I'm equally amazed when I see his drawings go from scribbles to stick figures, resembling people with arms, legs, eyes, hair, etc.. A few weeks ago he made a beautiful self portrait, a portrait of mom, one of dad, and one of grandma (which we framed and gave away as a Christmas gift). He even wrote g'ma on it all by himself. The picture here is one he did yesterday at school. He explains that it is Cole, Dad, Mom, and Eliana (which everyone knows is his little cousin) but in this picture, she came out of MY belly. HA! Precious! It's notable because he hasn't ever talked about a sibling before and this maybe the start of it. Easy does it Grandma - there is absolutely no hope of this happening so don't get excited. We just get to think it's cute when he talks about it.

Which brings me to my next topic - Thank You notes. He just wrote his first two thank you notes making the letters all by himself. All I did was tell him which letters to write. My little genius knows all his letters. (Thanks to Rachel for the great idea to take pictures of his notes and pictures. I love it.) This picture here is his note to Aunt Mary. It says "Thank you for my game".

Cole is good for the soul. He is part of my soul. Yesterday he woke up on the wrong side of the bed and was a cranky pants all day long. But this morning, I heard him slide down his slide, his little feet on the hard wood floor, a tap on my shoulder as I lay in bed, a quick pick up and tuck under the covers and him and I laid there giving hugs and kisses and tracing each faces. Oh what soft cheeks he has. Oh what a great way to start my day.