Violet
Is an official card-carrying kindergartner. Even though its been over a month, every time I see her little happy face get off the bus, I can't help but grinning. I don't know when, as a Mom, you stop being amazed at how much you love your kids as it seems to creep up on me at very mundane times. I think endorphins must be connected with the sight of your kids so silly smiles can not be avoided! Anywho....
They have this great program at Vi's school called Bucket Fillers which is essentially an anti bullying campaign. The idea is to do, say and act in a kind, supportive, respectful manner and when you do you are metaphorically filling someone else's bucket as well as your own. Vi struggled with the fact we did not have an ACTUAL bucket at home, like in her class room,but eventually got the idea. We tell each other every night what filled our bucket or whose bucket we filled that day. I love the language it gives me to use with her when she is misbehaving or when she IS behaving. Vi got home from school today and shouted' "I am the bucket filler of the week!" She is very proud of herself. I asked her to tell me why she was bucket filler of the week and she quickly shot me down with, I don't want to talk about...sending me back to the reality of a 5 year old & my bucket with the leak.
She is still swimming every week at the YMCA.Working on not plugging her nose. The coach will say, "jump in without plugging your nose." Vi nods yes, jumps without plugging until she is in the air about to hit the water. Still a giant improvement from trying to climb on Mike's head in the pool at age 3. She is soooo happy when she is in the water- I hope she has a life long love for it.
She is still doing gymnastics every week as well. I feel like the last year of going is finally showing up in actual techniques. Small things like landing a cartwheel on her feet or getting her feet straight in the air for a hand stand. She unfortunately has a lot of my un-coordination so I feel like it takes her much more effort & repetition. I NEVER mastered landing a cartwheel so it fills my bucket to see her trying so hard. Watching her stumble & get back up and do it again (as she stumbles frequently) is so gratifying to watch. Since she is not a natural gymnast it is encouraging to see her fail and keep trying. I can only hope this translates into all parts of her life.
I believe she was just born to be the eldest sibling. Her patience, kindness, innate love of bossing, imagination & sense of humor could not fit better with having a little brother, soon to be 2 little brothers. Couple of good examples: She makes Kolt say please if he wants something which is hard to tell if this a control thing getting him to comply or simply teaching him to have manners, I would like to think the latter. :) She is always up for wrestling. She shared her brand new pair of goggles with him during a tubby. Kolt picked up on her kindness and shared them right back! My bucket filler that day:)
We are working on a recent regression to baby talk and whining. I can't tell if it coincides with school starting or the realization of a another baby coming in the house or what. It is a button pusher with me so we/ (by we I mean me) are struggling. Sometimes we can joke about it, she told me yesterday her big girl voice was on vacation! I told her I wished I was vacation with it!
We shall see what adding a new brother does to our precious sibling leader....
Kolt
I have to start by saying the grant for my job ended 2 weeks ago so I have been home with Kolt full-time for these past weeks. I feel guilty admitting I was dreading it, awful thing to say about spending more time with your child, but true. In my defense, his history of being extremely whiny, easily annoyed when life doesn't go his way, clingy, very busy, not easily entertained, and an inability to listen are things that seem amplified by being 7 months pregnant. Well, as it turns out he has been a dream boat !!!! Fortunately, he seems to have developed a longer attention span, better listening, and another Mother's guilt-filled activity -watching Curious George or "Geor-hoo-haa" as he calls it. He never watched TV prior to age 2. However, the past 2 days have been semi-crank filled so we shall see. The honeymoon maybe over.
Kolt has had speech therapy 2x a week since his 18th month check-up at the pediatrician. He was pretty much saying,"bah" & a few signs & nothing else. Now he has many many words. Not all of them understandable to the untrained Koltspeak-er. For instance, he has stopped saying shoes and says hershes. He says bou for helmet, dar for car, by for Vi. Refuses to say milk, instead says water for whatever drink he wants. Juice sounds a lot like douche which of course has a giggling factor for adults. He is just beginning to use inflection and he will have one word conversations back & forth with you. Two words sentence seem to be just around the corner. He has started to sing songs and by that I mean he will do most the motions for Itsy-bitsy spider and say pider and woosh when the rain washes the pider out, quite amusing. Wheels on the bus is a riot! I will try to get a video if he will perform on command--doubtful.
He LOVES to play ball, any kind of ball. Throw, kick, swing a club or bat at it, or (attempt to) dribble it and he will do it with pretty good accuracy and strength (reminds me of his cousin Spenser at that age). He is a runner, his right arm tucked in and swinging with good form while the left arm does its own thing. Makes me smile every time :)
He and I are in a music class at the Y. He refuses to participate like ALL the other kids, but will sit and watch. As soon as the class is over (it is held in the gym) he runs gets a basketball and is as happy as a clam, running, kicking, and dribbling it all over the place! He is such a social little guy, saying Hi to everyone everywhere we go, but in this class he is more like Vi use to be, very reserved and shy, I find it super interesting.
He really could not possibly be more testostrone-filled. He will follow his Dad around all day and imitate every thing he does. He lives to sit on the lawn mower whether it is moving or not. He puts on work gloves and uses his toy hammer on any piece of wood he can find then give you an animated play by play when he is done. Every construction site we pass when driving is cause for excitement! He even (I am apalled by this) will take beer out of the fridge in the garage, say "Dada's ber" and pretend to drink it. Foreshadowing of things to come I suppose.
Last but certainly not least, he is sleeping through the night 90% of the time and getting up 90% of the time at a reasonable hour (that hour being 6:30am). He has been a good 2 hour napper since he was 1 year or so and is super easy to put to bed, but the remaining asleep at night has evaded us until recently. This makes for a much more sane Mama.
#3: He Who Shall Not Be Named. Not because he is evil, but because Mike and I cannot agree on any names. He is approximately 5lbs and everything looks good. This baby moves waaaayyyy more than the other 2 and would not stop moving to get a good 3D photo, his little hand is in the way, but you get the idea.
Kolt likes to pat my belly and say "bay." He thinks my belly button is gross, points at it ands says "blahhcckk"--I tend to agree.
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