Real life with Roman

Real life with Roman is an adventure, every....single...day! He is so curious, always wants to know how things work, where things go and are from, how to do things, and is generally just VERY inquisitive. He is also very determined. He knows what he wants and will get it.

Recently I've had a few conversations with his teachers at school and they are always singing him praise. His reading teacher told me that he is one of her favorite students because he is always doing what he is supposed to and wants to do what's right. His other teacher said that she can't help but smile when Roman waves to her with his big smile and greets her each morning. I'm glad that he's so good at school. I wish he always wanted to do what's right at home, but he is very polite and a great helper.

Roman and I have started reading the Magic Treehouse books together and he LOVES them. They are his favorite right now. He wants to go to Pennsylvania and find Jack and Annie and go on an adventure with them. He even had his backpack packed for several days with his notebook and pencil (because Jack always carries those to take notes), a fruit rollup and a headlamp because he decided that they were going to go on an adventure to a cave so he would need his headlamp. For days he begged and pleaded and plotted ways to get to Pennsylvania. He has also started climbing the tallest trees to see if the magic tree house is here on an adventure. So far he hasn't had any luck locating the magic tree house or Jack and Annie.

His own reading has also really taken off. He is now reading without help which it a bittersweet moment. It happened so fast, I was making dinner one night and he was sitting at the counter reading a book and decided it would be more comfortable on the couch so he just took his book to the couch and that was that, he was reading by himself. He recently discovered the Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems and he finds them incredibly funny. They are a lot of sarcastic humor which I didn't think he would get but he has declared them "Hilarious!"

Over the summer we started Roman in swimming lessons. For his age their are three pre-levels. We wanted to try to get through all three levels this summer so that he can start level one next year. He really loved swimming lessons and the difference we have seen with him, even in the bath tub is remarkable. He loves to put his head under the water now, he blows bubbles, he is a fish. He is starting to take strokes now too and he is so fun to watch in the pool. At the end of the second session his teacher, Tracie, said that he would be an excellent active drowning victim for their life guard training classes because he loved putting his head under the water and flailing his arms. He said he was watching the bubbles under the water.

We also started Roman in a tumbling class this fall. I haven't been able to get any pictures because they ask that parents not stay for the class so they can have their undivided attention but he has really enjoyed tumbling. He can stand on his head now and he is always doing somersaults. One day as he threw himself onto the floor to throw a tantrum, he did a somersault onto his back. It's really hard to take a tantrum seriously when you do a somersault into the tantrum.

We haven't been hiking much this summer. We've just had so many other things going on. One Friday afternoon we decided that we were just going to hike on the trail that is at the bottom of Little Cottonwood Canyon. We had no idea where it went, we just started hiking. On the trail a man on a unicycle asked us if we were headed to the reservoir. We asked how far it was then said "If we can make it there." We had forgotten the hiking backpack for Hudson so we were carrying him, and Roman was straggling behind. We did actually make it to the reservoir, and it was beautiful. Spencer didn't like that it was buggy, but Roman loved playing near a little stream that we found feeding into the reservoir.

I asked Roman about a month ago what he wanted to be for Halloween, he knew right away. He wanted to be Clark Kent. He wanted to rip his shirt off and be able to turn into superman. He has not changed his mind, not even wavered a bit. He was adamant that he wanted to be Clark Kent, (he also insists that I am going to be Lois Lane and Hudson will be Jimmy, we've decided to dress Hudson as Lex Luthor instead). So I went to work and made him first the superman costume then we took an old dress shirt and added velcro, moved the buttons and made it so he can tear his shirt off. We found black hair spray and just need to get the glasses and we are ready with our little Clark Kent.

We really didn't get to the zoo much this summer, which is a bummer because they had the Dinosaurs that moved and sprayed and made sounds. And when we did go I always forgot to get pictures because we go so often. Roman did ask me to take a picture one day to show how big his hand was compared to a gorillas. He's got a little growing to do still before his hand is as big as the gorillas!

I love getting pictures of Roman and Hudson together, especially when they are playing happily together. They are so cute, and they have the best laughs when they are just having a great time together.

Roman has a style all his own. He wears winter boots in the summer, rain boots with Pirate costumes, anything with a Utah logo on it he will wear, he has boxes full of hats and costumes and he loves dressing up and getting into character. He will insist he is whatever he is dressed up as and he insists that we all play along. We must call him pirate, or magician, or whoever he is that day. He has a very vivid imagination and loves to play make believe.

Joey

And I thought I would end with some great Quotable Roman's too since I haven't done those in a while and he always says the best things

Roman came in wearing devil horns and a tail on and asked me "Mom, when you got married did you wear one of these?" (Pointing to the devil horn headband.)

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While scraping the butter out of the bag of microwave popcorn Roman said "Mom, this is so good. I'm so glad I have butter in my life."

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Me - Roman you NEED to eat your dinner. NOW.
Roman - Okay, okay mom. You don't have to freak out.

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I love listening to my 4 year old telling his dad that he doesn't know how to read. He's trying to read Mr Tickle.

Roman - "Dad, I don't know why it says "Mur"
Spencer - That doesn't say Mur it says Mister.
Roman - No dad, M says um and R says er so it's Mur.
Spencer - Mr is an abbreviation. It's a shortened word.
Roman - No dad, M says UUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMM and R says ERRRRRRRRR. Do you know how to read?

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These are zoo animal vitamins. There aren't any zookeepers though because we don't eat people.

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Roman - Is Harry Potter really hairy?
Me - Um, no. That's just his name.
Roman - it's not a nice name.
Me - What's a nice name?
Roman - (Thinks for a minute...) Roman

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Roman - Why is Dad up early today?

Me - He's going golfing for work today.

Roman - Oh, when you and I grow up, I'm going to go golfing

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As we were driving home one day Roman wanted to review our address and phone number. He's just recently learned them and really likes to talk about them. After he said our street address I asked him what city we lived in then the state and he said Utes Utah. I told him it was just Utah and he said "NO, It's GO UTES Utah." Yeah, I think we've created a monster!

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Mom, I'm a good big brother, huh? Sometimes I have to push him down and sit on him or he'd get in trouble.

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And a few random pictures that make me smile.