Waterbabies, an Update on the Monsters

These pics are from a few days ago and I just had to post them because, WOW, are my kids growing up fast.  I’d say “getting big,” but that’s just not true; Finley is just as tiny and petite as she was 6 months ago.  I also need to write what they’re all up to right now because Jack is now 3 years and 2 months old, Finley just turned 17 months old yesterday, and Shanie will be 26 months old in a few more days. 

Jack…my little mamas boy.  He’s doing AWESOME.  He’s such a big brother and loves being a helper.  He makes sure everyone holds hands when crossing the street, and still always races to get the boo bunny out of the freezer the second there’s an injury (which is about every hour;).  He’s very into drawing pirate treasure maps, having me make him scavenger hunters lists, and most of all, pretending to be animals.  Baby Owl is his most recent alter ego, and he gets so into character if you call him “Jack,” he will correct you angrily and insist “I AM BABY. OWL!”  He’ll make his nest and ask that we feed him mice or insects, which is what he always pretends his food is.  Appetizing.  Shane and Fin are always looking twice at what they’re eating after Jack says “yum, this moth is delicious” or whatever.  And then, when he’s ready to snap out of Baby Owl mode, it’s as quick as lightening and he’ll talk to you as if you’re a total dumbass the next time you refer to him as “Baby Owl.”  He’ll say “mom, I’m not Baby Owl.  I’m Jackson and I’m a big boy.”  Hilarious.  Jack also loves for me to tell him stories before bed, inserting “Jack, Shane, and Finley” as the main characters.  I think his favorite is Jackie-pig, Shanie-pig, Finnie-pig and the Big Bad Wolf.  Of course he gets to be the smart pig who makes his house out of brick and is able to save the Shanie and Finnie pigs.  He loves that part. 

Shane is also doing really well right now.  He LOVES his big boy bed and he and Jack are so cute to put to bed together.  I think he gets a ton of comfort from sharing a room with Jackie.  They wake up together in the morning and play for awhile before we go in and bring them downstairs.  We can hear them laughing and giggling, and usually they’re up to mischief when we do go in.  Shane is still obsessed with wearing a helmet.  He’d wear it to sleep, in his carseat, in the stroller, and while playing if we allowed it…and I did for the first few days.  After awhile though, I was tired of getting bonked in the face every time he’d try to hug me while wearing it.  He’s verbalizing a lot more, although we’re the only ones that understand what he’s saying 90% of the time.  We had an eval update a few days ago and I think his word count is up to 60, though a lot of his speech still requires context and prompting.  He’s completely and totally obsessed with “MOMO,” which is Nemo and even though he knows that movie inside and out, he still gets really emotionally involved when watching it.  He’ll yell “OH NO” every time Nemo is about to get caught by the scuba diver.  He loves to jump, run, and collect bugs.  He also really enjoys pouring water from cup to cup in the fountains in our neighborhood or the bath.  He is a CRAZY good eater.  None of us can figure out where the kid puts all the food he consumes.  He is a screamer – when he’s happy he lets out these ear piercing shrills and then Jack and Fin thinks it’s funny so they follow suit.  Oh, how we love it when they do that in the car;)  Shanie still has a tendency to fixate on toys in a way that makes me worry every now and then, but overall, he’s a pretty typical 2 year old…except that he’s exceptionally sweet, and his tantrums are KICK ASS.  2 hops and a flop.  That’s Shane’s style – VERY dramatic.  He’ll lay out in the middle of the grocery store to make his point (did that yesterday), which totally makes me smile.  Really, I get such a kick out of tantrums. 

Which brings me to our youngest (like that segway?!)…she’s been throwing some winner tantrums lately too.  The best was the one I tweeted about: when she walked up to Shane, slapped him upside the head, went straight to timeout as soon as she saw me point in the TO direction, and then hocked a loogy and spit on the floor of the timeout corner in protest when she got there.  That pretty much sums her up, I’d say.  Actually, there’s so much more to that little 17lb monster.  She’s speaking in full sentences now and is a total riot.  She loves to announce “it’s TASTY” when we make her a food she likes and always remembers to say “tankoo.”  She loves to eat salsa by the spoon full and after about 10 bites will let out this huge “ahhhhhh,” and yell “it’s spices!” (spicey).  She is a crazy little athlete, and I’m not just saying that.  People are SHOCKED when they see her flying on the plasma car.  Her new favorite thing to do is hang from the freezer, which has a horizontal crossbar, and she can hang for.ev.er.  Luckily she doesn’t weigh enough to make the freezer door drop open, which happens when the boys attempt that stunt.  She’s still REALLY into dogs and my parents got her these “rub-a-dub dog” tub toys that are adorable (they have spots that disappear in warm water so she can wash them in the bath).  She drags them everywhere, sleeps with them, and then HOARDS them in the bathtub so no one else can touch them.  There are 4 of them, so it takes all her body to contain them and she focuses so hard on making sure she has all of them roped off by her arms in the tub that she can’t even play with them.  She’s still waking up a kazillion times over night, nursing, which sucks but I know won’t last forever (right?  RIGHT??)  When I go in her room, she always standing in her crib begging “hold you, hold you,” which means “pick me up.”  She does this hilarious little dance with Jack that we call “the teapot.”  Jack invented the move, but Fin loves the attention it gets, so of course she’s mastered it too.  They put their hands on their hips and bend side to side.  Super cute.  Here’s a gross story: Travis has this wart on his knee and Fin is convinced it’s a boo boo.  The kid spends so much time fussing over her dad’s “boo boo,” kissing it, caressing it, taking care of it.  Travis thinks it’s the funniest thing, so he lets her tend to his wart…I, meanwhile, am dry heaving in the corner.  Finley is really good at getting her needs met and having her wants known (not surprising I guess), so she says things like “it hurts, it itches, it’s sad, etc.”  She’s always interpreting others’ emotions when she thinks they’re sad or hurt too and will tell me “Jack sad” or “Shane hurts.” 

One quick story from yesterday (I tweeted about this): first, I’ve mentioned before that my kids’ version of an apology is signing “sorry,” but instead of doing it on their own chests (which is where the sign should be made), they walk up and sign it on the chest of the offended.  So, yesterday we were playing in the ladybug nest and whenever disturbed, they come out by the million.  There were ladybugs EVERYWHERE, covering a rock that Shane was standing on.  He “accidentally” massacred about 500 ladybugs stomping around on the rock, so I said “oh no, how sad.  we have to be gentle with the ladybugs.”  Fin then walked up and signed “sorry” (as she said “sawee bugs”) on top of about 200 more ladybugs, which basically just smooshed them all into the rock.  It was kind of hilarious.

There’s tons more to say about the kids, but the length of this update post is already obnoxious so I’ll stop there.