2 & 3 & a little bit of me.

 

My 2 Year Old...

 

Ooooooh this girl.  I love her more than she loves being busy, and that sure is a LOT.  She is quite the comedian these days.  She just turned 2 and although her personality pretty much exploded as soon s as she was born (if not before), her vocabulary has been what is exploding as of late.  She can communicate anything she wants now and does so often.  She is still extremely strong and I almost feel like I could even describe her as being athletic.  She loves to squat down as low as she can to the ground, say, "1, 2, 3... DUMP!" before she jumps (dumps) as high as she can and purposely lands on her bottom.  She has actually bruised her butt before from doing this and she doesn't mind at all.  She never loses energy.  Even when she goes to sleep, we will find her sometimes sleeping sweetly in the position in which she laid down, but most often, she is upside down on her bed. diagonal on her bed, has her feet stuck in the rails, you get the picture.  She's even doing an obstacle course in her sleep.  She spends her time awake doing things like sprinting across the house as fast as she can, wrestling her big sister to the ground and refusing to let her go until she is forced to by one of us (as she laughs the entire time).  She does throw temper tantrums, but they've gotten much better and more manageable.  She sleeps in a "big girl bed" now and she does great.  One huge milestone I've noticed is that we are now able to reason with her some.  That makes such a huge difference when it comes to communication and discipline.  Overall, she's a really good girl with a huge and spunky personality.  When she is around large crowds though, she typically gets pretty shy and becomes attached to my hip, which is sooooooo not like her at home.  She loves to play tricks - like dumping buckets of water on her sister's head in the bathtub, giving others surprise "tickee" (tickle) attacks, or taking certain toys and hiding them purely because she knows someone else wants them.  She is a stinker, but I actually love that about her.  Well, most of the time. :)

Some of Isla's sayings/doings:
 

1. One of the most embarrassing things lately is that she will point out "parts" on others that they may not want pointed out.  For example, she will point at Adia's "parts" and name them.  Adia isn't a huge fan of that either.

2. She calls her nipples her "buttons."  She also likes to point at them and say, "Look, I boop my buttons!"

3. Every drink is "dooos" (juice) excpet for "copy" (coffee.)  If I'm drinking pop, she says, "Dat's Mommy's doooos."

4. She used to like to be held against my chest, but now she prefers to "rocky baby."  This means she wants me to hold her across my lap like a baby and rock her.  When she's sleepy, she'll often say, "Mommy, I want rocky baby."

5. All of her f sounds are pronounced as a p sound.  Fingers are "pingers."  Fun is "pun."  Coffee is "copy."  Clifford the Big Red Dog is "Cippord."

6. She calls her grandfather "G-Pa."  Because of this, every older man to her is "G-Pa."  Rest assured, if you are over the age of 50 and a male, she will wave at you and say, "Hi, G-Pa!" unless you look like Santa Claus, who she apparently saw in the food court at the mall a few days ago and yelled, "Hi, Ho Ho!"

7. She waves and says hello to strangers all. the. time. 

8. She loves to pretend to rock her baby dolls and change their diapers.  "Dis baby need change a diaper.  She stinky.  She stinky poo poo.  Dat yucky, baby."

9. She responds to, "I love you," with, "Luh you too."  Melts me every single time.

10. She knows all of her animals in her books.  The only one she doesn't call by name is a cat.  Instead, she calls it, "Mow," (meow.)

11. Her favorite show is Barney.  She cannot get enough, but Mommy and Daddy sure can.

12. She is just now getting into princesses.  She gets soooo excited when Elsa on Frozen transforms her dress into a princess dress while singing "Let it Go."  She starts gasping and exclaims, "Look, Mommy!  Dat pincess!  Dat pity (pretty) pincess!"

13. She loves her grandfathers.  I mean totally loves them.  If they are around, pretty much everyone else is chopped liver.

14. She has started talking in a "cute voice" when she wants something she knows she can't have.  She naturally has kind of a deep voice, but when this occurs, she tilts her head to the side, puts her hands on her cheeks, smiles, raises her eyebrows and requests what she wants with her best manners and in the cutest voice she thinks she can muster.  "I want watch Cippord, Mommy.  Peeeeeeez?"

15.  If she sees me shut my eyes for more than a blink, she yells, "Mommy!  Wakey up!"

 

My 3 Year Old...

 

 
How do I have a 3 year old?  How is that possible?  This girl is so incredibly sweet and sensitive.  She is currently in love with books.  So much so, that she sneaks out of her bed at night and grabs a book to "read" in bed before falling alseep with it in her arms.  It's amazing how she memorizes stories and the information in them now.  She's really starting to comprehend what we read to her, which is really cool to see - especially since she has 2 teachers for parents!  She is still in love with pink, princesses, ballerinas and food.  She's honestly such an easy and good kid.  Our biggest struggle with her is her sensitive heart.  We don't want her to lose that, but we want her to learn to have more control over her emotions too.  It's a tough line sometimes - especially when so many of her reactions to certain situations are hard for me to understand or relate to.  I'm learning as much as she is right now and I think it's honestly good for both of us.  She's making me more sensitive and I'm helping her to try not to let her emotions control her.  What can I say?  We need each other.  :) 

 

 

Some Adia sayings/doings: (This list will be shorter than Isla's since I update her sayings so much on facebook...  Yes, I am THAT mom.  Not ashamed.)
 

1. Her prayer before every meal: "Dear Jesus, pwease help all the babies who don't have mommies and daddies.  Pwease keep them safe, Jesus.  Amen.  Thank you for the fooooood!"

2.  Her voice is still sooooo high pitched.  Her singing voice is absolutely adorable and I'm pretty sure it's the most soprano voice I have ever ever ever heard.

3. She was wearing a shirt with a snowman on it.  She said, "My shirt has a snowman on it - just like Olaf!  But it's not Olaf, but it's like Olaf, because my snowman likes warm hugs too."

4. When we have frustrating moments or moments when we need help, we've just started praying out loud.  One reason is so that we can model for the kids that when we need help, we can ask God.  Adia has picked up on this and does this sometimes.  For example, when Isla is upset, she sometimes prays, "Dear Jesus, pwease help Isla to calm herself down.  Pwease be with her right now, Jesus.  Amen."

5. While showing one of the kids I watch some pictures from our honeymoon in Disney, she found a picture of the big ball at Epcot.  She said, "That's a golf ball for Happy New Ears."

 

A few thoughts...

 

 

I keep reading so much on Facebook, blogs, Pinterest, you name it where there is sooo much focus on every little detail.  It kind of goes like this in what I am seeing: Have super elaborate birthday parties, parties are too elaborate, everything must be organic, we focus too much on organic, never send your kids to public schools, homeschool doesn't prepare kids for the real world, don't allow your kids to have vaccinations, parents who won't allow their kids to be vaccinated are the problem, breast feed on demand, don't breast feed on demand, Common Core is the devil, Common Core is a godsend.  It's exhausting.  And you know what?  You can go back and read my old posts on here and see that I used to be a totally insecure first time parent who posted all the time about my kid's schedule, how much they were eating, when they ate, how long I swaddled, how I swaddled, and in all honesty, very few people care - me becoming one of them.  Here's what I care about now and what I want for my kids: to love God, love His truth, and love people.  That is it.  Period.  Your kid knows how to tie his shoes and he is 2?  That's wonderful.  I really would think that's awesome.  My kid doesn't know how to do that, and I'm ok with that.  What I care about is if my kids are learning how to love God, love His truth, and love people.  So here's my apology for all of the times I have judged moms who didn't do things the way that I did/do: I'm sorry.  I'm sure you're doing your best, even if it's not the way I'm doing my best.  If your kid is potty trained before my kid or after my kid, I do not care.  Yes, I care about kids, but I'm done comparing our kids successes in such things and I'm ready to compare my kids to their own individual growth rather than to anyone else's.  If we have another baby, I'm going to do Babywise again.  Will I need to justify my choice like I did when I had my first baby?  No.  Why?  Because now, I know that in the end, that's not what matters. What matters to me is whether or not I'm teaching my children to love God, love His truth, and love people.  Why did I do it before?  I'll tell you why: insecurity.  I was a first time parent and didn't know what the heck I was doing.  I thought I needed affirmation from other moms.  If the truth be known, that's not what I needed.  What I needed was to let the Lord guide my parenting and not the moms on Facebook and Pinterest.  I think other moms can be a GREAT source and I have several who I still contact for suggestions.  But can we stop all this judging and comparing and just focus on what matters?  God didn't make your child to be like mine or mine to be like yours.  He made them unique and in HIS own image, so we must parent them uniquely but with 1 big idea, which is to learn to love.