Update on Chase

All photos in this post are courtesy of Carly Thornock

• Chase is the friendliest kid I've ever met. He'll see a new kid and immediately run up to them with a huge smile on his face and ask their name! It kind of freaks out most little kids, but it doesn't even phase Chase. He's eager to join in a game with anyone! 
• Chase has always loved the temple, so when we were hanging pictures in our new house I put this huge temple picture in his room. Then for Primary this year they gave all the kids a smaller picture of the Bountiful temple so he talks about his "two temples" all the time. Last week he told me he was excited to go to the temple someday because "they have really good toys in there." He couldn't be convinced otherwise.

•  Story time has always been my favorite time of the day with him. He's always loved it. If Ben's around he'd always rather have Ben read to him instead of me.

•  Last fall he started insisting that you "count" (meaning point to the words while you read them) every. single. time. we read together. I could tell he was trying to figure it all out. He'd ask frequently what a certain word said. He knew all his alphabet sounds so I decided to start teaching him to read. He picked it up so fast! My just-barely-3 year old is reading! We were going to surprise Ben and show him for his birthday, so in the meantime Chase and I kept practicing while he was at work. Then one night Chase surprised Ben by reading a random flyer from the mail that day! So Ben got his birthday present a little early, but he was totally thrilled and surprised anyway. He's doing really well and is learning new words and rules all the time! (I didn't realize how many words in the English language break the rules until I started teaching them to someone else!) We are so proud of our smart little guy!

•  Chase has always had a great sense of humor and loves to laugh. And he loves to make us laugh. His latest thing is that he whips out this imaginary cell phone he has (it's just his hand) and makes phone calls on it all the time! He usually uses it as a way to tattle on his dad or to try to justify something he wants.

•  He's getting so much better at imaginative play! For awhile when he was younger we worried that he'd have no imagination because he could never entertain himself. Now he can play with his toys (or other random objects like kitchen spoons) for hours! He will make roads and tunnels and cars out of whatever is available.