Take-Me-Back Tuesday: Baylor's 2018 Talent Show Submission

Here is the Lego stop-motion video Baylor made for the 2018 talent show at their school.  He made it it all by himself, and I am so proud of him for all his hard work!

Little Diver!

Yesterday while we were swimming at my parents' house, I asked Amalia if she wanted to learn how to dive.  She took me up on it, and after a little more instruction today this happened:

Aside from the dive in this video, she has a tendency to dive rather deep, but she's certainly getting the hang of it.

Baylor also is interested in learning to dive and said he would keep trying until he got it!  I can't wait to post his video on here soon.

I'm so proud of them both!

Spring 2016: The Art Show

One day this spring, we got a notification from the kids' school saying each of them was going to have one of their pieces of art displayed in the district art show at the high school!  The kids were so excited that art they made in art class was going to be on display, so we made it a point to be at the exhibition.

Baylor's abstract art was on display.  

Then we found Amalia's Wycinanki trees.

The kids were very proud of themselves, and we were equally proud of them as well.

Halloween (and Hair Cut!) 2015

This year's Halloween festivities had a rather interesting start; my mom got her very first "hair cut" from Amalia!  The hairspray my mom used earlier in the day gave Mollie a bit of a run for her money, but she worked her way through it in no time.

After giving Mom a trim, Amalia blew her hair dry because Mom asked her to "dye" her hair as well.

I know it's blurry and the color is off, but I couldn't help but post this one of Mollie "applying the hair dye".  Let's just say it was a bit of a wild ride for my mom.

I'm sorry, but this is just not a face you want your hairdresser making while she's cutting your hair.

In the end, the "cut" came out okay, and now Mom is considering hiring Mollie for all her hair needs.

After a bit of pizza, we got the kids into their costumes for a photo op.  GO GREEN!

Then we went and covered up all that beautiful green with their winter coats and some bright yellow ponchos.  It was a shame, but it was also totally necessary because of all the rain outside.  Once we got out there, it was quite apparent that there were way fewer trick-or-treaters out than usual and fewer houses giving out candy as well.  But we made the best of it, trying to make sure the kids kept their bags under their ponchos or under the umbrella.  A special shout-out to my dad for coming with us, holding the umbrella, and keeping things moving!

After walking our usual route, we came home to check out their haul and take inventory of their sweets and treats.  Both kids did very well for themselves.

The adults enjoyed a shredded apple tart, courtesy of my dear sister, and then we chatted ... and some of us snuggled by the fire.

For the fourth year in a row, Mother Nature has tried to keep us down on Halloween.  But with good company and sweet treats, it's tough not to have a good time.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Baylor at Bat

I am so sorry for how little I have been posting lately.  Things have gotten unbelievably busy since before last Christmas and they haven't let up since.  One of the things keeping us busy as of late has been baseball.  We signed Mollie up for tee ball and Baylor up for coach pitch baseball this spring, and with both of their game schedules we have been up to our ears in bats, balls, and bases.

Mollie has had success playing tee ball, in no small part because they cannot strike out or be thrown out ... ever.  Each kiddo gets to swing until they hit and then run to first base, then second after the kid after them hits, then third, and so on until they go home - or until the last one in the lineup hits a "home run" and they all come home.  So it'd be tough to do poorly playing tee ball.

But coach pitch baseball is a lot different.  They do the usual three-strikes-and-you're-out rule and can get thrown out at any base.  Needless to say, Baylor, who had never played a game of baseball in his life before this spring, has struggled a bit.



Getting hit in the head during one's first batting practice doesn't make for a particularly good start, mind you.



More than that, he has struggled with this more than he has with anything else in his entire life.  The thing is, struggle is good for a person; it builds character and teaches perseverance.  But too much struggle, like an entire season of it, and the fun can drain right away.  We were starting to see improvement in him at each game, but I was also starting to notice here and there that he wasn't enjoying it; he was dragging his feet when getting ready to go, he was a lot more emotionally volatile on game days, and he seemed a little more dejected when walking away after striking out each inning.  We were all hoping he'd finally get a hit and start enjoying the game a little more.  Even his coach, who had seemed to give up on our boy a few weeks back, started pitching a little closer and giving him an extra pitch here and there to see if he could just get one hit.

And then it happened.



He got a hit!!!  You can hear and see just how excited the coach is that he finally did it, and at the end of the video you can hear his teammates say, "Baylor got his first hit!!"

And even more than that, he made it around the bases!  He ran for home with one out left, running better than we've ever seen before, and only got out at home because the other team made a very heads-up play at home plate.




It was a big day for the little man, and his team even voted to give him the game ball because of his efforts!

Hopefully this will be the beginning of more hits for Baylor, but even if it isn't, I am so incredibly proud of my little guy for sticking with it and working hard to achieve something that is so tough for him.

Way to go, Baylor!!

The Poem Tree

Last night as I was saying goodnight to Baylor, he said he had a poem for me.  The poem he recited for me, that he had come up with entirely on his own, was amazing.  I sat there in absolute awe of the rhymes, the cadence, everything.  I wish I had had a video camera with me to capture it, but, alas, I didn't.  I only had the hope that he'd still remember it in the morning.

When he woke up, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as he is most Sundays, he bounded downstairs and informed me that he wanted to make a poem tree in our house.  I asked him if he remembered the poem from last night, and he said that he did but that he didn't want to write it down until we had the tree finished.  So, we made a tree.  I knew all that construction paper from Costco would come in handy someday!

Initially, we were going to put it up in the dining room, but I worried that the masking tape and the sun would eventually change the paint color, so we moved our creation to the basement door.  It fit perfectly, and both kids were really excited about it and thought it looked great.

I had grand plans to make an adorable sign using the sun and a couple clouds, but as it often goes with kids, I had to let my expectations go and follow the little man's creative trail.

His first little sign to go with the tree read, "Made by me".  I asked him if others were allowed to contribute to the tree and he said they were, so I suggested he modify it.  So he added, "And evreone!  Becuse Im good" (And everyone!  Because I'm good).

For some reason, he felt it necessary to add number labels to the tree.  I really didn't want him to do that, and I had to fight all my urges to stop him and make it look "perfect"; it's hard for me to let go of control like that sometimes, and this whole thing really ended up being an exercise in patience for me.

Ordinarily I would have made him write out his poem himself, but the leaf he made (that he was very excited about) was much smaller than it should have been for him to write on it.  I have incredibly small handwriting, so I stepped in and wrote it for him.  It isn't exactly the same as it was last night; the original version was much smoother and a bit longer, but it often happens that the first jolt of inspiration is nearly impossible to recreate.  Regardless, the poem that is currently on the tree is all his and remarkably awesome for a five year-old.  And here it is ...

Bedtime
by Baylor

Instead of staying up and doing bedtime math
I'm going to go to bed without a bath.

I'm gonna brush and floss
Then I'll get in bed and I might turn and toss.

Then I'm gonna turn from dreams to snores.
Then when my mom opens the door

I'll get up and go down and play
And today's the new day!

The other leaf is actually a song he wrote called, "1,2,3 Rock!"  Basically you count as fast and lyrically as you can to ten, yell, "Rock!" and then yell, "1,2,3 Rock!  Rock!  Rock!"  It's not quite as developed as his poem, but I do love to hear him sing so I'll take it.

Now that this tree is up, I can't wait to see what else the little man comes up with!

2013 Catch-Up: December Doings

The set up and decoration of our tree is much, much different than that of my parents'.  Every year I try to employ the kids' help, and most of the time it ends up being a whole lot of this:

Mollie did try to help out a bit this year, but for the most part she was more interested in watching whatever movie was on at the time.

I helped Mollie write her Christmas list early on in the season, and I have to say it was one of the easiest I've ever done.  She only wanted one thing, a piece of rolling luggage like she saw in Toy Story of Terror.  Funny girl.

My parents and sister invited us to go with them to see our city's symphony put on their annual Holiday Pops concert, so the four of us got all dolled up to go out for the afternoon.  I seized an opportunity - us being ready early and so dapper-ly dressed - and set up my camera to snap a few pictures.

Then Mollie requested to take some of us, and one of them turned out quite well.

It was really cold out, but the atmosphere inside the performance hall was warm and festive.

Right before we left the house I grabbed Baylor's binoculars, and he and my dad put them to good use watching the musicians tune their instruments.

I wish I could say that the kids had a blast at the Pops, but in all honesty they were a little bored with it.  They didn't recognize a lot of the songs, and there wasn't much else for them to do besides watch.  With that said, they were very well-behaved and more patient than I realized they could be.

A few days later, my mom and sister whipped up some cake to serve as the base for a couple of extra large "gingerbread" houses.  Baylor had lofty goals for his, dreaming of Chicago.

He settled for making Shedd Aquarium.

Mollie took the reins and led Oma through a whirlwind decorating session.

Baylor, too, was the creative mind behind the design and the placer of all candy and crackers, while I wielded the piping bag.

Mollie came up with an adorable, creative little cottage.

While Baylor made both Shedd Aquarium AND the Sears Tower, pictured left below.

We piped the kids' names on the base of their respective houses, just in case anyone wondered who made each house.

Then Mollie put two and two together and pretended the extra candy canes were actual canes.  Funny little lady.

Later on in the month, I finally got a carton of some good-quality egg nog.  I asked Mollie if she wanted to try some, and she said yes!  I jumped at the chance to get her to try something new and poured her a small glass of some deliciously thick egg nog.  After the first sip, she declared she didn't like it, but as we sat there chatting she kept taking longer and longer sips of it.

Still claiming she didn't like it, she let her doll Sally try some.  A couple of sips for Sally, though, got her a bit "noggy" and she spilled on her pajamas.  Tsk, tsk, Sally.

If I thought November flew by fast, December was an absolute blur by comparison.  It didn't help that Thanksgiving was so late this year, but I think having so many activities makes the time feel like it's flying by that much faster.

A Year of Gratitude: Day 364

Today, my 32nd birthday, I am grateful for this.  Oh my goodness, this.  

I tried really hard not to cry because I knew that if I did, even if it was a happy cry, it would upset him.  So I teared up behind my glasses and smiled as big as I could.  The same for Mollie, my sweet girl.

Not to down play the awesomeness of the other gifts I got, but these were the two best gifts today.

Have a wonderful night!

A Year of Gratitude: Day 361 (getting there ...)

Today I am grateful that I've noticed the subtle changes in the kids lately, those little nuances of their mannerisms and speech and characters that are slowly but surely evolving as they get older.  Mollie, in particular, seems to be going through somewhat of a language/personality explosion; she is speaking more clearly and with much more emotion and affect than ever before, and she's very into her play ... always moving, often living life as someone else entirely (a dog, a doctor, another little girl much like herself but with a bizarre name), and pretty much always ready to read or play or read or play.  And Baylor, now that school is a more normal event, is settling back into his usual sweet self with only occasional, quite predictable outbursts.  He sings now, all the time; it's like his teacher turned on the switch and now he'll sing whenever and wherever he chooses (but not whenever and wherever someone else wants him to ... we're still working on that one).  Whether it's something he's heard at school or something he's made up all on his own, the little man has a song in his heart and he's ready to share it with the world.

And, lucky me, I get to witness all this and more.  I get to see these two change on a daily basis whether I know it or not, and I'm so grateful that - at least lately - I've noticed just how much my babies are growing up.  I wouldn't miss this for the world, and I need to remember that when little things start to get in the way.

Have a wonderful day!

Mollie Moving!

Miss Amalia is a bit of a mover; where her brother, particularly at her age, would be content to sit and read a book or play with Legos for an hour or two, Mollie is on the go most of the day.  Yes, she has her quieter moments where she'll "read" a book to her babies or plunk down and play with some Legos, but quite often she's moving, and adorably so at that.

A month or two ago we were at my parents' house for dinner and visiting, and Mollie decided that, a.) she needed every bow at their house in her hair and b.) she was Cinderella on her way to dance with Prince Charming at the ball.  Baylor quickly declined the Prince role, so I volunteered Bryson to do the honors.



The kids have been in swim lessons for a while now, but my parents' pool is shallow enough in the shallow end that both kids can touch and avoid practicing or showing off their skills.  And that's what they did almost all summer ... until Mollie decided enough was enough and it was time to bust out her skills.  (Baylor still phones it in a bit in their pool but does quite well in class.)



As I mentioned last night, in addition to getting a couple awesome videos of Baylor actually singing, I took a couple of Mollie singing as well.  She saw the attention her brother was getting and wanted a little for herself, and I can't blame her; Baylor's been getting a lot of attention now that he's in school, and that has been a bit difficult for her.  So here's her version of the numeral song Baylor sang last night.  Clearly she needs to work on her numeral formation skills a bit.



Then things got silly and she made up an even wackier version of the numeral song, which she adorably titled, "The Ding Dong Song".




She certainly keeps us on our toes.  I love all her energy and enthusiasm; it brings a lot of excitement to our day.

A Year of Gratitude: Day 333

Today I am grateful for what happened tonight during and after dinner.  Baylor, who has never willingly sung a song from school or with others in general, broke out in song tonight and made my day, my week.  I asked him if I could tape it - something so huge and happy needed to be documented - and he agreed!

So here it is, Baylor and his sweet little voice singing the color songs he learned in school and reciting some of the poems they use in his classroom.



Then I asked him if he'd sing the numeral song for us, a request that sent him into a complete meltdown after his second week of school, and he told me that he would, but only if he could do it in the living room to be able to do the hand motions with it.  Um, okay!!!




I can't stop smiling.  For most kids this comes easily, but for Baylor this is a big deal and I couldn't be prouder of him.

Have a wonderful night!

Oh, and I have a couple videos of Mollie dazzling us with her singing abilities, but they aren't uploading as quickly as I'd like so I'll have to post them later.  Until then ... enjoy!

A Year of Gratitude: Day 255

Today I am grateful for this ...



... and this.



The kids' dance parties are pure awesomeness!

Have a wonderful day!

A Year of Gratitude: Day 253

Today I am grateful that the kiddos like Legos so much.  However expensive they may be, and some of them are just that, they give the kids a creative outlet and seem to help with their fine motor skills.  Plus, it's always fun to see what they come up with.

For example, Baylor decided one day to make a little coffee maker for his Lego people.  It even had a little light at the bottom and a place for the coffee to drip from above the mug!  Awesome!

Mollie is definitely still getting the hang of playing with Legos, but I can tell she is inspired by her brother's creative spirit.  She even wanted me to take a picture of her with her little creation, just like I had done for Baylor.

Have a wonderful day!

A Year of Gratitude: Day 178

Today I am grateful that I got to hear Mollie singing "Love Me Do" in the backseat of the car on the way home from Oma's house tonight.  At first I didn't hear her, then all of a sudden I realized she was singing along, hitting each word just after Lennon and McCartney.  It was absolutely adorable, and so very sweet.

I can't wait to hear her again!

Have a wonderful night!

A Year of Gratitude: Day 134

Today I am grateful that I got to witness Baylor step out of his comfort zone a little bit last night.  He has such a wonderful imagination and is always weaving elaborate stories, but he never likes to write them down himself.  Last night that changed and Baylor hand-wrote his first story!  Here it is, illustration included:

It reads:

Baylor was pumping until he heard his dad say, "Baylor"

It took quite a while for him to write this, and he needed a bit of help on the spelling (and with a little trouble with the starting letters to "until") but he did this all on his own.  (I did show him the correct punctuation for quotes ... I figure it's never too early to start learning proper English, right?)  Oh, and the pumping he is referring to is pumping water ... he is giving his sister a Lego set for her birthday that includes a water pump, so it's on his mind right now, I guess.

The picture is of him sleeping with his Star Wars light saber shirt on, though I don't know why as it doesn't seem to pertain to the story.

I'm so proud of my budding author!

Have a wonderful day!

A Year of Gratitude: Day 112 (a day late)

Today I am grateful that Mollie is doing so well as we start potty training.  We're on day three or four here, and while she's had a few accidents here and there, she's doing well overall.  Pooping on the potty has been an issue, though, and she actually dropped a deuce in her underwear while we had company over today.  So that was fun.  But I am happy to say she wasn't ashamed or embarrassed by it, and I think she now has hope that she will be able to do it in the potty soon.  (She certainly doesn't want to poop in her underwear again, that's for sure!)

I'll post more about it later with pictures (mostly of her bribe) and the triumphs, but for now I am just glad that it has started as well as it has.

Have a wonderful day!

Chopsticks

A couple Christmases ago, Baylor got chopsticks from Santa in his stocking.  He tried them once or twice but never really grew that fond of them; even though he really wanted to be like Bryson and use them when we ate Chinese food, he never got the hang of them enough to stick to it.  So when Mollie said she wanted chopsticks for Christmas, I was understandably hesitant to pass the idea along to Santa.  But, I did anyway and she got them for Christmas in her stocking this year.  Chomping at the bit to use them, we finally made our way to our favorite Chinese restaurant (Golden Wok) in mid-January.  I brought both kids' chopsticks in case Baylor wanted to give them another try.  And he did ... for a few bites anyway. 

Mollie, on the other hand, ate almost her entire meal, including seconds, using her beginner chopsticks.  She was so proud of herself, as was I, and she was actually really good with them right off the bat.

Ambidextrous, even!

Part of Baylor's problem this visit was that the MSU basketball game was playing on a TV right in his eye line, so we actually had trouble getting him to eat anything using his own hands; he was just too distracted with the game.  He did focus a little better when the fortune cookies, rice cookies, and oranges arrived; he is a sweets man, after all.

Mollie, fresh off her complete domination of her new chopsticks and the delicious chicken fried rice we had for dinner, reveled in a rice cookie.

We had a great time, and since then Mollie has been requesting Chinese food as often as she can.

The Kids These Days: 2.5 and 4 Years

Well, well, well ... I am finally getting around to writing this, nearly four months after starting it.  I realized that Mollie will be three years old in just under two months over one month now (yes, I've been trying to write this for that long), and she's not technically even two-and-a-half anymore.  *sigh*  The good thing is, all the things I was going to write about still hold true, so that's something, right?  Anyway, here goes ...

Amalia, my little lady, is now two-and-a-half years old, a fact she is actually able to tell you about now.  She is really easy to understand and seems to have a wide vocabulary, but there are still words here and there that she mispronounces.  She used to have a bunch, but slowly they've been replaced by correct pronunciation and quite frankly it makes me a little sad; I miss her calling water "yaya", sleep sheep "beep beep", and the like.  All it took was a quick correction by me and the cute little toddler talk vanished, and while that's great I am - rather selfishly - choosing not to correct some of her mistakes just yet.  For example, she just butchers the word "your"; it comes out something more like "thurrr" and it's adorable.  Plus, people don't know what she's saying, so right now I can get away with it if she insults someone - which she has been known to do.  (More on that later ...)  She also says "bobbin" instead of "bottom" ... cute beyond words.

So, the insults ...

A little while ago a new person came to our house for a visit, and as per usual, Mollie wouldn't speak a word to her.  After the woman left, Mollie looked me right in the eye and said, "I didn't like her face."  Yeah, she said it.  I was shocked, to say the least, and she followed it up with, "I didn't like her face and I didn't like her."  At that moment I was intensely grateful for her shyness, otherwise I could totally see her saying that to the person's unappealing face.  (The woman's face was actually quite pretty; I think that's just how Mollie was expressing her discomfort at having a stranger in the house.)  Ordinarily, though, Mollie is quite complementary.  Really, I swear!

Recently, Mollie started saying, "When I get tall like Grandpa E ..." and finishing it up with what she is looking forward to doing when she is older.  Grandpa E is the gold standard in our family for those who want to be tall, so I can't blame her.  (Trust me, I wanted to be as tall as him - which is about 6'3" - when I was a little girl; at 5'4" I clearly fell a little short of the goal.)  And her list of things that she'll do when she's as big as he is includes potty train, drive, and like certain foods.

My lovely girl has, blissfully, decided to skip the whole princess phase and declare herself a queen.  Yes, a queen.  She proclaimed it one day as she was wearing a pink floral corduroy dress from back when Christine and I were kids (literally ... it was one of our dresses; Mom saved it) and was feeling particularly fancy - it has poofy sleeves and lace around the collar and wrists, after all.  A week or so later we decided I would be the queen mum.  And it is wonderful.

Amalia has an imaginary brother named Andy-brother that she speaks of frequently.  I am apparently not Andy-brother's mom and Bryson isn't Andy-brother's dad so I'm not exactly sure how they are related, but she thinks of him as a brother all the same.  He is of varying ages depending on the day, though she often makes him younger than herself.  She also, occasionally, has a sister named Mollie.  Andy-brother and imaginary Mollie live in my Mollie's imaginary pink house.  She created it in her mind months ago and talks of it regularly.  Baylor also has an imaginary house, blue of course, where his imaginary brother lives.  He is also of varying ages and often gets to do things Baylor wishes he could do (e.g., drive a car).

Mollie has three dolls now that she cares for on a pretty regular basis, Sally, Colin, and Adele.  She loves to pat them, put them to bed, feed them on occasion (Colin spent the bulk of one day in a high chair "eating" a salad, a.k.a. a piece of play lettuce), and so on.  She's very caring and considerate with them and often likes to take them all out with us.  I usually put the kibosh on that unless we're going to Oma's house, and then it's an adorable free for all as Mollie tries to figure out how she can carry them all to and from the car (one of our rules for Oma's house is that if you're going to bring something, you have to be able to carry it yourself ... I have enough bags to carry, thank you very much).  When it was just Sally, before she had really taken notice of Colin and Adele who have been around longer, she used to have her sleep on the glider in her room and would kiss the "boo boo" on her forehead (a blue mark left by an errant toy no doubt) and both of her eyebrows.  It was adorable and so sweet.  Now that there are three of them, she's less consistent with where they sleep, typically either bringing them into bed with her or leaving them downstairs altogether.

Dear Amalia isn't all sugar and spice, though.  She has a stubborn streak a mile wide (wonder where she gets that from ...) and has been known to throw a fit every now and then.  Her favorite and most signature move is a general slumping of the shoulders when she is displeased with something.  It's very dramatic, though it elicits more laughter than sympathy at this point.

Both kids hate it when I make dinner every night, mostly because it means I can't go play with them in the living room.  I try to get them to keep me company in the kitchen coloring or reading, but they can only do that for so long before they get restless.  (I am one of the slowest cooks in history, able to stretch a "15-minute meal" into a two-hour long ordeal.  They have time to get bored, believe me.)  For a while there, they would both freak out any time I would pull my hair back in a pony tail (like I do when I make meals), with Mollie often moaning, "Don't make dinner now, Mommy!"

Mealtime in and of itself is a bit of a test of wills and patience at this point.  They both tend to be kind of pokey eaters who would much rather talk than feed themselves.  We often end up feeding them, though for Baylor especially this seems a bit ridiculous; we've tried to just let them feed themselves, but then dinner ended up being hours long and even more torturous.  The best nights are when we have some of their favorite foods, as those tend to be the nights that they actually scarf down whatever I've made.  Lately those favorite foods are tortellini, pizza, and - Mollie's favorite - tacos.  Sadly, I don't feel comfortable just keeping those three foods in constant rotation, so we have to endure slower-eating nights quite often.

Mollie and Baylor are both digging The Beatles something fierce right now.  We listen to their number ones CD on constant repeat in the car, and they have their favorites they look forward to hearing (Mollie loves "Ticket to Ride" and Baylor loves "Daytripper" and "Hey Jude").  Every time I see the track number display flip back to "1" I heave a small sigh, but then I remind myself that we are listening to The Beatles and not Kids Bop or The Wiggles or something else equally annoying and I smile.  John, Paul, George, and Ringo, I salute you!

Baylor is really getting into reading these days and has started up some chapter book series.  We started out with the A to Z Mysteries by Ron Roy, but we stalled out at G when they didn't have it at the bookstore.  (Yes, I buy him the books ... for a few reasons.  One, he can be hard on books, and as we've already returned a few library books damaged I didn't want my card revoked for the rest of eternity.  Two, he actually reads and rereads them all the time; his "rest time" consists of him sitting in his bed reading books for an hour or two and most of the time he chooses chapter books.  And three, I'm hoping Mollie will get into them someday, and it'd be nice to have them already on hand when the time comes.  Plus, she loves just about anything Baylor loves, and I'm hoping to use that to my advantage when it comes to getting her to love reading.)

Anyhow, I digress.

He is now working his way through the Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne, having received books one through four for Christmas.  These, and the aforementioned mystery books, are great, but they are for a bit more mature of a reader than a four year-old so we've had to do a bit of explaining and a bit of calming down when things got too intense.  (He had a particularly rough time when a T. rex was introduced in one of the books.)  On the upside, he's learning some pretty impressive words like "precipice" and "samurai", and our dictionary is getting a workout.

Baylor is getting into the whole Star Wars thing, though he hasn't seen any of the movies yet.  He initially became interested in them when he saw a bunch of cool-looking Star Wars sets in a Lego catalog, but his interest was piqued even more when I checked out a copy of R2-D2 and Friends at our local library; he spent about four weeks (I renewed it once) pouring over it and memorizing it with little effort.  I'm looking forward to watching the movies with him someday, but I am pretty certain he's too young for that right now.  All in good time.

Speaking of Legos, Baylor still loves them.  (Shocker, right?)  He has a bunch of sets, but he rarely does them by the instructions anymore.  Instead he prefers making "Baylor originals" or "creations" as he calls them, occasionally referencing the instructions for tips on how to make this or that.

Baylor is also into the cash register he got from Santa this past Christmas.  It has a bunch of educational games on it, and from those Baylor has learned all the names and values of the coins and is working on learning how to add and subtract.  It's pretty amazing to watch him at it, and for something that most people would consider a bit too "educational" Baylor really seems to find it fun.

Baylor is a very glass-is-half-full kind of kid.  He's always looking for the silver lining in any situation.  Your team didn't win?  Don't worry, the other one did!  I don't want you to read the story tonight, Daddy, but you can snuggle with me!  On top of that, he's always looking for the best in people; he doesn't want anyone to be mean or hurtful.  Take this recent interaction as a prime example ...

Baylor, after his rest time, told me he wanted to be a villain and I would be the hero.  I was pretty surprised by this as he's only recently been even remotely open to the idea of good guys vs. bad guys, so I agreed.  However, I had to go to the bathroom first, so I told him I'd be right out to play.  While I was in there, I could hear him scamper into the kitchen, read a magnet off the fridge, laugh, and run away again.  After I finished up, I paused at the desk to check my e-mail.  All of a sudden he cackles at me and slams the French doors right next to the desk saying, "I'm locking you out, Mommy!"  Then he blew raspberries on the door for good measure.  I asked, "Are you being the villain?"  He grinned and said that he was, then he told me that he had stolen something and pointed to the magnet from the fridge I had overheard him reading.  I smiled then dashed around the stairway and into the living room and tackled him.  "You got me!" he shrieked, then he sat up very seriously and said, "I am sorry for stealing that.  I will be better in the future."  Worst.  Villain.  EVER.  And I love him all the more for it.

He's also quite complimentary.  Quite often he'll come up to us and say something like, "I like your shirt!" or "I like your hair!"  It's super cute, and it's nice to see that he understands how complimenting someone makes them feel good.

But believe me, Baylor isn't perfect; he has his quirks and issues just like the rest of us.  For example, he is not a morning person.  Let me repeat that ... he is NOT a morning person.  On non-school, nowhere-to-go days, I let him sleep in as long as he likes; he needs the sleep, so I'm happy to just let him go.  School days, though ... ugh, school days.  He really needs to be woken up by 7:00 so we can leave sometime around 8:20 and make it to school on time, and waking him up then does not guarantee that we won't have to hurry.  Sometimes he's so tired that he grabs his blanket and pillow as I'm scooping him out of bed and proceeds to lay his head down at the breakfast table.  *sigh*  High school is going to be a real treat, I can already tell.

Baylor also, for whatever reason, likes to try out just about every public restroom he runs across.  If we're eating at a restaurant, you can almost guarantee he'll have to use the potty at some point, most of the time just so he can see it.  And while restaurant bathrooms are certainly his favorite, he isn't above "needing" to use the potty at Costco or Target.  Unfortunately, he hates hand dryers, so we have to do a lot of careful observation when we first enter a bathroom to prepare for the possibility that he'll have to endure the noise of a dryer at some point.  (Costco is definitely the worst for this; he ended up crying in the stall the other day because they have those terribly loud Dyson Airblade hand dryers and the bathroom was busier than I had realized.)

My little man has a bit of a love/hate relationship with the homework he gets in preschool.  He usually has fun doing it once he starts, but man does he put up a fight to get there.  It's been getting a little better as of late, but now we have a new problem: for a while he was writing his name on his paper just as he should (okay, maybe a little bigger, but whatever ...), but now he has decided to be artsy with his "signature" and creates little stories with the letters.  Oh look, the L is holding the O and R!  Or hey, the B has a hat on!  I often want to write a note with each assignment to let his teacher know what is going on in each crayon stroke, but I try to refrain and let Baylor's work speak for itself.  I have a feeling I'll be fighting this urge for many years to come.

Both kiddos have been testing their boundaries lately, and it's getting a little tiring for me.  I have a pretty firm "whining will not get you anything" stance, and have for quite some time, but recently they seem to have decided to test my limits.  Just how far can we push Mommy until she caves?  Unfortunately, it often ends with them crying a bit and me feeling a little guilty over holding my ground.  I feel so strongly about them not being spoiled and getting their way all the time, though, that I'm willing to endure a little unhappiness if it helps them cope with disappointments later in life.  *sigh*  But that is a much larger issue for another post - should I get around to writing it.

So that's it!  Actually, that's just the tip of the iceberg with the kids; there is so much more to them than I can really relate here.  But I want to hit the highlights of how they are now so that someday, way down the line, I'll remember their sweet little selves at two-and-a-half and four.