Thursday, November 3, 2011

The Kids These Days: 19 Months and 3 Years


Ah, the kids these days!  As it turns out, these are two crazy ages, full of discovery, blossoming, and boundary-testing.  *sigh*

But the fact remains, I have two amazing children who make every day an adventure.

Let's start with Baylor, shall we?  My little man is tall.  So tall, in fact, that he barely needs a step stool to wash his hands at the bathroom sink, he can reach all the buttons on the microwave (*sigh*), and he can reach almost everything on the counter just standing on the ground (*double sigh*).

However, though he looks like he could possibly be four, he is still not potty trained.  We've made more of a move in that direction in the last week or so (learning how to take clothes on and off, buying more big boy underwear, and spending much more time in said underwear), but I have a feeling we are a long way off from being totally potty trained.  I boldly declared when I bought a 100-count box of size 7 diapers for him that this was the last package of diapers I would be purchasing for the little man; I told people about it.  And now it looks like I will be eating my words.  So that's fun.

Baylor is awesome, though.  He has this crazy imagination, and most mornings he wakes up talking to himself and making up all sorts of stories with his stuffed animals and blankets.  Quite often, he'll come to me holding out his hands cupped together, telling me he has a baby animal of some sort in his hands, and will I hold it/feed it/kiss it/say hello to it?  He puts on this adorable little voice to go along with his "baby", and he always smiles this big smile.

As weird as it is to say this, Baylor can read.  Like, full-on read.  He is getting really good at sounding out words and has a large list of words that he can sight read (e.g., all the days of the week, months of the year, numbers, colors, lots of animals, lots of foods).  It is a little overwhelming at times for me, but I'm super proud of him and try to encourage this interest in reading as much as I can.

He is getting incredibly good at setting up his train tracks, both of his own design and of those provided by Melissa and Doug.  Oh, and did I mention he refers to each piece by the letter the instructions assigned them?  And that he seems to have memorized at least some of each illustrated design?  Yeah, his memory is insane.

In response to Sound of Music mania, I tried to steer the kiddos toward some new music in the car.  Enter the Beatles.  The Fab Four have been serenading us in the car for the last month or so, and Baylor has certainly developed a liking for them.  His favorite song is number 21 on our CD, which happens to be "Hey Jude".  He smiles whenever it comes on, though I think he really likes it because of the end when "all the friends sing together".  Thing is, for the longest time he thought a guy by the name of Hey Jude sang the song.  We've since corrected him (I think ...), but I believe he still thinks Penny Lane sings "Penny Lane".  Either way, he loves the Beatles and that's enough for me.

Inside, both the kids have taken a liking to the soundtrack to Bye Bye Birdie.  I was the one who introduced it to them - after initially trying the soundtrack to "Chicago", which as it turns out, is not overly kid-friendly - and they both ask for Bye Bye Birdie daily.  So we listen to it multiple times a day.  Which is probably why, at any given time of day, I have a Bye Bye Birdie song stuck in my head.  I love that CD but it might be the end of my sanity.  Hopefully we'll find a new favorite soon.

As usual, Baylor still loves clocks and elevators, though his emphasis lately has definitely been on the latter.

The other day, Baylor jumped for the first time ... ever!  And this past Saturday, he showed us that he has finally mastered this awesome "trick".

For reasons unknown to us, he is always asking people, both those he knows and those he doesn't, to tell him about their house.  He is particularly fascinated with basements, quite likely because he so rarely gets to go in ours.  (A fact I'm hoping to change in the very near future ...)  He also likes to hear stories he's witnessed or been a part of repeated over and over again.  His two favorites are the story of riding elevators on his birthday and the story of the time Mollie was really silly when my sister was babysitting, though the latter is - hands down - his current favorite and makes him giggle with his whole body.

Lately he's been embracing all of his three years and has been challenging what we ask of him; quite often if I tell him to do something, he'll respond, "And what will happen if I don't ________?"  Sometimes I tell him why, sometimes I tell him it's a rule, and sometimes I just tell him that he needs to listen to me.  *sigh*  It makes me wonder what Mollie is going to be like at three.

Hey, speaking of Mollie ...

The little lady of the house is changing rapidly these days.  She can say so many more words today than she could just a few weeks ago, and she's really starting to communicate well.  Miss Mollie calls Bryson "dada", me "mama", Baylor "boh" (likely for "brother" since she refers to Olivia's brother with the same word), and Oma "uh-mamama".  She can kind of say "Aunt Christine" but it more comes out "aut krs-t-t-t" and she never says it unless we ask her to.

Oh and does Mollie love her "boh" or what?!  She wants nothing more to be exactly like him, to do exactly what he's doing, and to be wherever he is.  Since he has started putting on and taking off his own clothes, she has decided it is high time for her to do this as well; lately the typical day at our house is having at least one if not both kids wandering around in only their diapers.  She wants to jump when he jumps, giggle when he giggles, and be all up in his business all the live-long day.  This creates a bit of drama between the kids at times, but overall they get along really well.  Baylor has even been pretty thoughtful with her.  For example, most mornings Mollie wakes up before he does so she is with me when I to go get him up and is very excited to see him.  Baylor, much like his dad, is not a morning person and likes to have his space first thing in the a.m., which isn't exactly compatible with Mollie's mission to play in his bed.  So, almost every morning this scene occurs, I stall her for a few minutes and then he graciously gets out of bed so she can get in.  Then he smiles because she is so happy ... and likely because he gets a little extra snuggle time with me.  (Until Mollie sees it and wedges herself in, of course.)

Amalia has taken quite a liking to her doll Adele, a little Corolle doll my mom bought for her soon after she was born.  She calls her "baby" and likes to pat her, rock her to sleep, and diaper her.  Yes, my little lady will often wander up to me and insist I help her diaper her doll.  Unfortunately, the only small diaper I saved was a size 2 so it goes up to Adele's armpits, but Mollie doesn't seem to care.  She's gotten so good at diapering that now I only have to get her doll situated and she can fasten it herself.  Oh, and she can unfasten it herself, too.  And that means she can also unfasten her own diaper herself.  Remember in the previous paragraph when I mentioned that both kids like to hang out in only their diapers?  Yeah, all this new-found independence is coming together in a really "awesome" way.  *sigh*

Though she is generally terrified of animals when she actually has the opportunity to interact with them, Mollie adores seeing animals from afar.  She has also gotten really good with animal noises; she can make the noise of a dog ("arf arf"), cat ("yeow yeow yeow"), snake ("hisssssss"), bee ("bzzzzzzzz"), horse ("nay nay"), cow ("moo"), bear/lion/tiger ("grrRRrr"), and sheep ("ba ba ba"), and for a pig she thinks she is making a noise but really she just scrunches up her nose.  She also tends to refer to animals by the noises they make.  But I tell ya, you bring her or Baylor near a dog, any dog, and they pretty much climbs up the walls to get away from it.  In response to this reaction, I have been taking them to our local pet store more frequently to see animals; they mostly have fish, typical small furry pets (mice, rats, hamsters, and the like), and reptiles, but the store has two large, not-for-sale, slow-as-molasses bulldogs, Stella and Bob, who wander around, greet guests, and nap.  Stella, in particular, is a real sweetie and lumbers over to say hi whenever we come in ... and, in doing so, she terrifies the kiddos.  *sigh*

If I were to describe my daughter in one word (though one word isn't nearly enough), it would most definitely be silly.  She is one silly little girl, always goofing around, always doing funny things, making funny faces, imitating adults and her brother in funny ways.  She flops down on any pile of pillows or blankets she can find, belly first, of course.  She loves to spin around in circles, getting totally dizzy in the process; last night she even upped the ante and spun around while riding an elevator!  Mollie's silly, she knows it, and she seems to embrace it.  And I love that about her!

I know I am biased, but I have the two most amazing kids ever.  I can't wait to see who they become as they grow up!

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