Some Cannon

Lately Cannon has been driving me up the wall! Toddlers are definitely my least favorite stage (I might change my mind when we have teenagers). We just butt heads all the time. I know it's good for him to learn to be independent, but I have to admit that I love to be the one in control. But he has such an awesome personality and that's what I want to talk about.

Cannon is an extrovert. This is weird to both Ryan and me because we are both introverts. Cannon LOVES meeting new people! This trait in him has really helped with our move. I was worried about him leaving his friends and family and having to meet new people. He loves his new nursery class at church and he loves making new friends. He gets so excited to see his new friends and to see Miss Angela at the library (she does story time). He will have a conversation with just about anyone and makes friends easily. Even though he is an extrovert, he gets overstimulated easily and can only handle large crowds in small doses.

You cannot rush Cannon. I know he got this one from Ryan! There's still a running joke in Ryan's family because you could never get him to go faster. I have realized this about Cannon. I should have know this when he was born. My water broke at 37 weeks and even with pitocin, it still took him 19 hours to come out! If you let him take his time about things he will do them. This is why we are not pushing the potty training thing. I know he will do it on his own when he is ready.

I love to watch him play. He does a lot of make believe with his Woody doll. He pretends to feed him and he tells him what is going on. I sometimes hear him scold his trains and tell them no. Sometimes he laughs at them for whatever reason and say, "Oh Gordon," and then chuckles. When we read his train books he likes to hold the trains that match the characters in the books. He also recites his books to Woody or to his trains. He has several books memorized. Maybe not completely, but he knows at least the last word of every sentence. His favorite books right now are, "Catch Me, Catch Me," "Fast Train, Slow Train," and "Go Dog Go," and in that order too. He likes a bunch of other books too, but those are the must reads before nap and bedtime.

Hide-and-seek is the game around our house these days. He likes to hide under the kitchen table or the tent in his room. He stays still and quiet while you "look" for him and then squeals with excitement when you find him. I love playing this game with him! It was one of my favorites growing up.

Cannon has been able to count by rote to 10 for awhile now and sometimes will go a little beyond that. Yesterday I noticed that he was counting objects, which I have never seen him do before. He counted to three and then just did random numbers after three. He likes to sing the ABC song and he can point out the letters "A" and "O." And he has finally started to take an interest in puzzles. He can do simple puzzles, but his attention span with them is still pretty short. He does like to put money in his football bank and I let him put the quarters in the washing machines here. You can tell he is concentrating because he sticks his tongue out.

He has also finally started to take an interest in drawing. Sometimes he will use markers, crayons, or colored pencils. But mostly he likes using his Magna Doodle. I like him using that too because it's not messy! He is very into drawing circles and really makes them just how he wants to. He is very deliberate with his markings.

And swimming! Oh how he loves to swim! It's very interesting and very scary to watch him swim. He wants to swim and really wants to be independent. I cannot get him to wear a life vest, arm floaters, ring floater, anything. He wants to be completely free. He also has no fear and so you have to keep your eyes on him every second. I noticed that when he is in the water he is testing himself. He is not trying to swim to get from point A to point B, but rather to see what his body can do in the water and what his limits are. One example, dead man's float. This is not for the weak! Cannon taught himself to float on his belly and just float. It's pretty freaky to watch! He just floats there. Then he'll turn over or lift his head up when he needs air and then that's when I grab him. He will also walk off the step and "walk" in the water. He's crazy! I just can't wait until he can really swim!





I tried to get a video of his dead man's float. He kind of does it here, but usually he is totally on his belly and he'll float longer.