Wednesday, June 1, 2011

The current stages...

My girlfriend called today and we both shared a moment when we spoke of her daughter turning five! It's just incredible how this journey of motherhood takes flight and in no time you are facing not a toddler but a kindergardener...Today I'm in awe at the developmental stages both Dylan and Kaitlyn have fully embraced. Let's start with Big D! He's a T A N K...completely solid and strength of not just a lion but a lion-phant. Yup, take the size of an elephant and add that protective spirit of the lion and you have now visualized what Dylan is becoming.

His latest and greatest isn't all that great as it entails a lot of clean-up. Spitting/splattering his food out followed with laughing. Stuffing all sorts of objects from macaroni to crayons and playdough into all openings of his high chair and behind the pad of his seat...

His typical hello to anyone that is within arms reach involves a slap, repetitive hits on the head or body slamming. The latter is just awful as most children, due to the element of surprise, just fall right over. In order to prevent his aggressive greeting I follow his every move when in a crowd of little ones saying over and over, 'High Five Dylan, High Five'. Sure enough, upon hearing it the arm swings turn into a lovely game of high five with all the new friends. Thank You God for making toddlers so forgiving!

He mimics everything that Kaitlyn does down to how to hold his fork. She is starting to realize that what she does truly impacts him so I am seeing more and more little Miss Helpful blossoming around the house as she loves to teach him how to do things.

Dylan is speaking so much and since I spend my every waking hour with him all his jumbled sounds make sense to me. We seem to converse about the things he wants...or we identify all the things he asks about by saying, 'What's that?' Last week he figured out not only how to say NO, but that it really does have a meaning. He's no shy boy with NOOOOOOO. It's said with that exaggeration, too!

Being all boy can be best summarized by the following:
Dylan has experience three major falls in the past 24 hours and isn't phased: 1.) he literally flipped with perfect form, off Kaitlyn's bed landing on his back. He cried out of surprise for a mere two minutes and then went right up on her bed, jumping again and laughing. 2.) He has crashed on the concrete sidewalk from running too fast, skidding his knee only slightly but truly crashing down. 3.) He fell off the kids picnic table onto his head on the concrete patio tonight-cried fairly hard for another two minutes and then was off distracted by a toy. Brutal. He will have battle scars by the age of three and be drafted for the NFL by 12! Yikes.

The other being all boy statement to share is his obvious interest for girls, especially Cinderella and Belle. Hmmm. Yes, upon opening Kaitlyn's Beauty and Beast book, the image was of the prince and Belle at the end of the fairy tale, gazing into each others eyes. Dylan didn't give two cents for the prince, but Belle...that boy made some ohhh ahhh sounds and smack! Kissed Belle, not only once, but twice followed with more oohhhh and ahhh sounds. As for Cinderella, well, she is plastered all over Kaitlyn's PJs and numerous toys that Dylan points her out and calls her name, 'Cdrella, Cdrella'. My boy, oh my boy.

Now Kaitlyn is the big three year old and lets us know daily. She was so aware of her birthday leading up to the big day and then afterwards, she knew she inherited a new age. We aren't too certain where she is going with her interests as right now one day to the next she is all over the place....maybe I can capture an idea of what it's like:
She loves music-requests her favorites and will sing along to the lyrics.
Next day she yells, 'turn it off. I don't like that song.'
Music class one week she will be so engaged, taking in the entire lesson of whole notes and C key recognition, singing along with the teacher and playing the drums with great rhythm. The following week she proclaims she doesn't like guitars or the piano and only wants to draw snails from the original whole note image on the paper.
One morning she jumps out of bed with great enthusiasm for school and then ten minutes later is in a hissy over her complete disdain for school. And on that same vein, she completely dislikes pants and shorts (the kind that have buttons & zippers), certain shirts in her drawer and has a preference for wearing shirts with sleeves no matter the weather outside.
Going to the bathroom is a given 20 minute endurance test of patience-she will sit and sit and sit no matter how rushed you may be, she will still have to go something...more pee-pee or poop. In other-wards, don't rush her, don't tell her you have to go anywhere, just ignore her and she'll wrap it up fairly swiftly-at least faster than trying to intervene.

She is a nurturing little sweetheart in between being Miss Loud Bossy Big Sister. Her imagination is so over the top these days that we are often engaged in some Kaitlyn story about anything and everything. When offering feedback to her story she will flat out tell you to stop talking. It's just hilarious even though some days I pull my hair out over it! When she is mis-understood you will find her go into this crazy body wiggle act. Her arms and legs are flinging everywhere as she is huffy and crying about whatever you may have said that wasn't what she either wanted to hear or what she was trying to talk about. Again, pulling hair out...yes. I just might be bald sometime between this stint of her being three and turning four!

She still wears tutu's with flair-often paired with something that doesn't match, a pair of leggings and without hesitation if the weather was cold enough, her ladybug rain boots. It's a style for certain, spunky and independent. Actually, quite stylish for her age-I can see this bud into a fashion-centric characteristic of hers! Her nails are constantly painted as she constantly loves the fluff and frill of the process. She clears her plate after any meal, takes it to the sink and pushes in her chair. She's a terrific encourager. I believe I was drawing her a mermaid the other day and during the drawing she was saying, 'Mommy, this is awesome! You are doing a great job'!! It's just such an authentic burst of excitement you want to record it!

She, and Dylan are just precious in their unique ways. Very lively-the two together and individually, well...they each have their own demands that keep me either laughing or yes, going bald!