Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Baby Thor turns 2




Rory is two!

These two years have been both exhausting and delightful and getting to know Rory has been so much fun. He is our summer child: bright and sunny one moment then thundering the next and then warm and calm when it's over.




He is somehow sweet, cuddly and kind while also being so fierce and fiery. He wants what he wants and he will not be deterred or  distracted. He's whip smart and wants to be as independent as possible. We figure he'll want to move out just as soon as he can reach the pedals in the car.


He is all passion, all heart and it can lead to some pretty rough tantrums. He's slowly learning to stop and think and wait before launching himself headfirst into whatever he's trying to do (or headfirst in the ground occasionally).

 


He's always been very verbal but still needs to be reminded that "Hey, you know how to say 'milk please' instead of just shrieking like your hair is on fire". Physically, he's our little rugby player. He wants to be rough and tumble and tackle things and people in a way we never experienced with Aiden. He's still not too steady on his feet however, and being rather top heavy, he tends to have some spectacular wipeouts. Rory doesn't just trip and fall, he somehow manages to trip, do three summersualts, bounce off the wall and spin around like a top. I don't really understand the physics of it but he usually sits up, shakes his head and is off screaming and running like he's leading Spartan troops to battle.


We've discovered that his one weakness is Audrey. He could be in the middle of a screaming fit and he'll suddenly stop and go give her a kiss and rub her back. This tenderness towards her is so heart meltingly sweet and a relief to witness after a day of tantrums or roughhousing.

 

He may not have slept at all from 0 to 1, but from 1 to 2 he's made up for it. He'll happily sleep in late, play fiercely all morning, consume his entire bodyweight in food for lunch and then slip into a coma all afternoon, wake for dinner and crash again by 7:30. Eat and sleep and briefly tear about the house like a viking warrior. This is his life.

We love to see him growing and learning to channel his boundless passion and drive into accomplishing new things. He may be a lot to handle as a toddler but I can only imagine that he'll be utterly unstoppable when he grows up and finds his path in life, and that makes all the battles and rough days worthwhile.



And in case you've never seen the movie, this right here is why we call him our Thor:

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Adios, Kindergarten

Aiden had his last day of kindergarten today, that's just according to the school calender however since they've been watching movies and having "double recess" for the past week or so. He said goodbye to his teacher who was an absolute saint and had a pretty lively group this year. He said goodbye to his art teacher who encouraged his drawing which is his one creative outlet, and his music teacher who gave him top grades no matter how on or off pitch he sings, and his gym teacher who always gave him poor grades because he'd rather pass the ball to the opposite team since they didn't get a chance to score yet and he was just trying to be nice.

He's learned to count by fives and tens, he's learned some new fangled method of addition that he had to teach me because it's the least intuitive thing I've ever seen and he surprised his teacher with his grasp of small multiplication and his fantastic  spatial awareness. None of this came from me. He's beginning reading and slowly becoming more confident although he's lost any interest in fiction and only wants to read nonfiction. I love reading with him but I'd really love to read a story instead of an in-depth explanation of the life cycle of cicadas but I'm just glad he's reading.

His curiosity is at an all time high which is a wonderful and exhausting thing to witness. He'll ask "How do narwhals communicate? Who first classified humans as animals? Is the moon spinning around the earth or is it that the earth is turning and it looks like the moon is? Let's talk about chickens..." and that's all in the first seven minutes he's awake.

His grasp of and willingness to use sarcasm and his penchant for eye-rolling is also at an all time high, especially if I don't immediately know the answer to his questions. 


Sean and I have no idea how it's already the end of June and we've just gotten him acclimated to school and now he's got a new teacher and new class and new standards. Kindergarten was a great chance for Aiden to make new friends and generally learn how school works but academically it wasn't much of a challenge and we feel like he might've even lost a little ground in certain areas. First grade seems to be totally different and much more focused on actual school work which I think Aiden will enjoy but did seem a teeny little bit intimidating when we got the long list of things Aiden needed to have mastered by the first day of first grade.  He also has a whole summer writing journal to fill out along with summer reading requirements and optional math work. We planned on doing these things with him anyway but the minute it becomes "required" I start to hyperventilate (sheer panic at the idea of failure pretty much drove all of my academic achievements from 4th grade through my senior year of college, and for better or worse Aiden has inherited this trait. We like to do things perfectly or get an ulcer trying). In all honesty though, he's ready and he's excited and that's really refreshing to see in him.

We hope to spend the summer reading and visiting the library. We also plan on catching grasshoppers and riding bikes and spraying each other with the hose.

Oh, and eating ice cream. Lots and lots of ice cream.




Monday, June 9, 2014

Four months


Audrey is four months old! Okay, she's nearly five months old because it takes me forever to post anything. Anyway, she had her four month check up last week and she is...spectacularly average!  She's not a tall skinny beanpole like Aiden or a defensive linebacker sized baby like Rory, she is her own perfect self, the 40th percentile across the board. That's the way it always seems to be, these kids just HAVE to be completely different from each other.  I won't even being to speculate on who she looks like because once again, TOTALLY UNIQUE. She has a deeper complexion like Aiden, but blue eyes, and no hair so who knows what color that will be. I think she might have my nose? Maybe Sean's eyes? Except they're blue? What's up with that? Yes, she's very much her own little person. Only time will tell. 

 Personality-wise, she is our ray of sunshine. She's is always ready to laugh or smile and she's typically very predictable. I can easily tell when she's hungry or tired or hot or cold. She doesn't randomly wail for no apparent reason. She loves me and wants to be near but she's not clingy or fussy. Generally, not much phases her. I think I have Rory to thank for that. You see, he went through an exceptionally clingy period while I was pregnant. That, on top of Rory just being Rory, meant that he would frequently come up and scream his little lungs out while face planting into my stomach. So Audrey spent a lot of time in utero listening to him freak out. Now, on the outside, she doesn't so much as blink when he screams or the dog barks or whatever noisy thing is happening. She does get a bit wary of him when he tries to kiss and hug her (which, adorably, he does ALL THE TIME) mostly because he's as steady on his feet as an octopus on rollerskates and nearly squashes her. The rest of the time she's calm and happy and ready to check out the great big world. She rolls over like a champ and is trying so hard to crawl (she can't quite get them opposite leg/arm thing and moves the same leg and arm which results in her toppling over, but she is trying). She also loves to "talk". We laugh because people hear her talking or even when she cries, and ask if she's okay because she's SO SHRILL. We're lucky her crying is pretty rare because MAN OH MAN does she sound like a girl. She has the most adorable squeaky voice that makes both of the boys sound like Barry White and anytime she cries it sounds like she's in a complete panic when that's just her usual high pitched voice.  

Overall, she is a delight. We can't wait to see her personality develop more and we're so thankful for how well she handles whatever happens in this crazy family.