Seriously, I can't believe this kid is almost two. At the same time, I can't believe he's still one. It's trippy. I'm looking forward to him being two (not in small part so that I can say my kids are 6, 4, 2, and 5 months. 'Cause 6, 4, 1, and 5 months gets me funny looks. Sure, they won't actually be more than 18 months apart still, but it just sounds better.) :-)
Good news: he no longer is the grumpiest toddler on earth.
Don't get me wrong, the kid still has the best grouch face of any child who's ever existed, it's just not a permanent grump face anymore. He smiles at people when they show up to our house (sometimes) and not just after they've been there for over an hour. He has a ridiculously adorably close relationship with his cousin Bailey (who we have over three mornings a week). He's sweetly protective and makes sure nobody takes her toy (mainly Ellie -- I think he's willing to battle Ellie to the death over Bailey's honor. Or over pretzels. Those two just fight a lot.) Watching the two of them grow up together is seriously gonna be one of the highlights of my entire life.
Other highlight: listening to this kid sing. I don't know how he's learned all these songs, but he can sing along with anything. We turned on some Primary songs in the car, and here was my sweet little one year old boy belting out, "I'm trying to be like Jesus . . . in his ways . . . love as He did . . . all I do . . . say." (He tends to sing the last 2/3rds of any sentence.) He also quotes along whole paragraphs worth of dialogue from books on CD that we listen to in the car. Veggie Tales especially -- he'll speak both parts, 75% of the words, for minutes on end. It's so freaking adorable and impressive. He cracks me up. He also can quote along with what every single one of our toys says or sings. "Starsong loves you," "Good night Mommy," "I'm so tired," "I LOVE music" and the ABCs and the Dora theme song are all just a few of the things we says along with our various noise makers.
What else about Isaac? Oh, I blame the almost-turning-two thing, but MAN has this kid gotten argumentative. Here are two, of what could've been 5 or 6 such conversations that I had yesterday with the kid:
While eating yogurt, Isaac happily held up a big blueberry and exclaimed, "Mmmm, strawberry!"
"That's a blueberry," I said.
"No," he grumped, "STRAW-BER-RY."
"It's a blueberry, Bug," I responded.
"STRAW-BER-RY," he said angrily.
"OK, strawberry," I sighed and went back to what I was doing.
Five seconds of silence, then he growls, "It a BLUEBERRY, Mom!"
"Hey Bug, here's your cereal."
"I non't WANT cereal!" Throws himself to ground. I shrug and walk back to the counter with the cereal. "NO! Put my cereal on table!" I walk over and set his cereal on the table. "NOOOO! Not on the table! No cereal!" I set it down on the chair, where he'd been pointing emphatically. "NO! On the table Mom, not the chair!" I walked away and ate the cereal myself. I didn't feel too bad -- he'd already eaten some blueberry yogurt.
Here's Annie and Owen with me (if you look close you can see how terribly cluttered my room is -- over my shoulder is supposed to be the bassinet base -- instead it's a pile of baby blankets, toys and clothing. And jackets that need to be put away 'cause they don't fit the kids anymore. And the ads from the newspaper. And some sheets I just washed.)
Owen is five months old. He's freakishly adorable and he knows it. He's super vocal and talks and 'sings' all the time (modeling after his big brother apparently). But, the kid is the LAZIEST baby I have ever seen on the face of the planet. He rolled over a couple months ago, a few times over the course of a week. And he has no interest whatsoever in attempting such a feat again. You put him on his belly, and he'll perch up and look around for a bit, then deflated, lay his cheek down flat against the ground and just lie there until someone comes and gets him. (He has actually finally rolled over a couple more times this week -- from his back to his stomach. He won't even attempt anything else.) He'll sit on my lap and coo and babble with me for endless periods of time. Try and sit him up on his own, even balanced in something like a Boppy, and he slumps over. Defeated and grumpy. The poor kid is also following closely on the heels of his older cousin Bailey, who was one of those wonder babies who was sitting up super early and crawling at 6 months (or was it earlier?!) So, in comparison, he looks even all the more lazy. Oh well. I like my lazy baby -- he just wants to snuggle with Mom more often, and I'm happy to take what I can get!
Annie will finally finish up Kindergarten at the end of this month. She just had Kindergarten testing this week, and came out squealing, "Mom, my reading has gone up FOUR levels! To an 'N'!" I don't actually know what that means, but she's pretty psyched. After four weeks of summer vacation, she'll be back for first grade! She starts the Dual Immersion (Spanish) program, which we're super excited for . . . and she'll go to school all day long, which I don't know how I feel about. I'm gonna miss my sweet girl -- plus, she's so dang helpful. She changes the laundry almost as much as I do! If I could teach her to unload the dishwasher, my life would be complete. :-) Yesterday she came in and informed me that she shouldn't be disturbed, because she was going to be cleaning her room. Over the next hour she completely reorganized it, even setting up what she called "a reading and homework center" in the corner with some rubbermaid drawers she'd asked if she could have. She's also constantly asking for extra chores to help around the house, and especially to make extra money. She's saved up over $8 over the last couple months and LOVES getting it out and counting it.
My Ellie Belly.
What is there to say about Ellie? She's four now. She's as wild, funny, crazy and wired as she's ever been. I love this little girl. But she will be the one who drives me off my rocker. :-) She's just so dramatic -- the shrieking, screaming, squealing, spontaneous freaking out -- it all just baffles me. I love her little (or, should I say BIG) personality, her spunk and her love of life. I think this kid will teach me more about motherhood and life than the rest of 'em put together. She's always on the go, she loves dance and tumbling, and she enjoys torturing her little brother. I think they make each other cry no less than twelve billion times a day. In some ways, she's my cuddliest kid -- she loves to snuggle up -- she just rarely stops moving long enough to cuddle. She still has a harder time with a lot of her pronunciation -- I think most of it comes down to that whole 'never slowing down' thing -- it's funny to watch her and her little brother together (as he's more than two years younger) and trying to figure out which one is easier to understand. (She's probably a little easier to understand in person, I've been told he's easier to understand on the phone, and he's proficient in several sounds she just can't be bothered to make regularly (hard c's and r's to be specific.)) She is such a people person -- she loves to perform and impress, and people just eat up her antics. It's hard to take Ellie in public without people commenting about her effervescent personality and charm. It's gonna serve her well in life. :-)
We took this picture of my sisters and I at my Mom's house last week -- I can't even tell you how lucky I am to have the sisters I do. I feel guilty about the idea of not having any more daughters, 'cause I've only provided my girls with one best friend each, whereas I was lucky enough to have three! I am LOVING having Talina live so close by now -- I'm really enjoying getting to be a hands-on Aunt, with my niece Bailey here at least three days a week. Nothing beats having someone to go shopping with at the drop of a hat, or having an on-call emergency babysitter up the street. Star is trying to sell her condo now so she can move down to our neck of the woods -- which would be so
freaking cool. Pretty much my dream come true would be for all of my family to end up on a little cul de sac together -- I'll have to settle for half of us being within a mile for now :-) Lacy has big stuff coming up in her life -- she's getting married to "Uncle Benny" (one of Ellie's FAVORITE PEOPLE) next month, finishing her Master's, and she's just been offered a job with the Royal Bank of Scotland . . . so they'll be relocating! Well, from Logan to Salt Lake County. Turns out the Royal Bank of Scotland has a location in the Salt Lake Valley. :-) (All part of my master plan -- she may not be on my cul de sac yet, but it's a heck of a lot closer than Logan!)
And speaking of family -- my cousin Marissa and her three kids were in town, and we all went (along with Talina and Bailey) to Thanksgiving Point's Childrens Gardens this week. (The picture above was with all kids over one -- the three babies under one were in their strollers -- mine was even asleep! Huzzah!) My kids had SO much fun being with their 'cousins' and if we could get Marissa to move from Idaho down to our little cul de sac (or compound, if I keep imaginary growing it to include all my family), how great would life be?!
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| Annie and Ellie -- this is indicative of their personalities or anything ;-) |
And there it is -- an actual written account of some stuff we've done. Not just an entire post of pictures and copied and pasted Facebook statuses. I feel like I've really accomplished something here today . . .
