a bit about my babies 3.22.17

you guys it's been soooooooooo *breathe*ooooooooooooo
long since i've posted, and since i've done one my kid posts. i am going to lose precious memories! luckily i have timehop and instagram/facebook to capture the essentials but i have *have* to remember the little things. i don't what i've been doing but blogging has taken a total backseat and i need to get 👏🏽 on 👏🏽 it!
so.

bea

-she is 4. 4. four. IV. what the actual heck is going on. 4 is the "i am no longer a baby" age. she is in the biggest toddler sizes at stores, and the smallest girl sizes (I DON'T WANT TO SHOP IN THE BIG GIRL SECTION! YOU CANNOT MAKE ME!). her shoes are size 10. i look at them and i'm like, who is the preteen living here because those are enormous shoes. she still has knuckle dimples and a button nose though so i'll take (the little) that i can get.

-she had her first haircut several months ago. it was sad to see her baby curls go, but her ends look very healthy now, and they still curl a bit. there's hope for the future.

-she is ever the sassmistress. so sassy. her facial expressions are 80% of the sass though so even if i quote stuff (which i am too tired to even think of right now. i need to be more on this! i am the worst.), the full effect isn't there because i can't show you all the akimbo arms, rolled eyes, side mouth twists, hand and wrist motions, etc.

-she does this weird thing these days, where whenever she gets hurt (stubbed toe, skinned knee, etc) you ARE. NOT. ALLOWED. to touch her. if you try and get close she jerks away and screams "DON'T TOUCH ME!!!!" and then hides in a corner until she's ready and i say "let me know when you're ready" and several seconds later we bring it in for a hug and wipe away the tears. do your kids do that? it's very bizarre to me.

-this isn't new, but the girl remembers everything. i have to be super careful about what i say these days and i pay for it if i'm not. dearly.

-she can write her name and draw basic pictures, but loves to paint "abstract art". she doesn't like to color. she is a perfectionist and she doesn't like that she can't be perfectly inside the lines at her current level of coordination, so she kind of beats herself up about it. it's so sad. she says "i'm just not good at coloring, mom. i don't want to." i try to buoy her up, but she won't have it. so we paint.

-she likes yoga and dancing. she loves to keep adding songs to her ever-growing playlist, right now the favorite is tegan and sara. she also loves britney spears. smart girl.

-she just got a booster seat yesterday! we are both very excited about it. mostly because she can get herself out of her seat, so i don't have to unbuckle two kids any more.

-she alternates what she wants to be when she grows up daily but the top two are artist and ballerina. she had another good one the other day and of course now i can't think of it.

-she likes to make cookies, but reminded me today that "mom, you are just a terrible baker." thanks girl. love you too. (she's not wrong).

-she loves oliver and loves to love on him, it's sweet except for he just learned to hit and it ruins things.

-she has decided she likes showers as opposed to tubs, so lately she showers in my shower while i bathe oliver in my tub. it's kind of fun to all be in there for a tub party.

-she still has her best friend at school named Zeke, but unfortunately, after several failed attempts at getting his parents' contact info, they have never had a playdate. sad.

-she is *finally* learning to pedal a bike. it has taken forever.

-she is crazy good at puzzles. she can do puzzles at like a 5th grade level. it's insane.

-she is, at the moment, more interested in math than at reading. she likes to add and subtract numbers with story problems we do. (i.e i have 4 apples, how many will i have after eating 2? etc), and we count to a hundred a lot. she's not super interested in learning how to spell.

-she likes to play video games with her dad and it is precious.

-she has started sunbeams at church and is the most adorable primary kid ever. she is very serious about answering questions and learning songs and tbh she does this better than a lot of the older kids. #nottobragbut

that's really i can come up with on the spot about bea. she is such a wild, bright, sweet, sassy girl. i love her guts.

ollie

-he got his first haircut several months ago too, and this was WAY more difficult for me than bea's cut was. holy cannoli it was hard. he had such beautiful curls and walked around with them bouncing everywhere all the time, and we cut them off and i just didn't recognize him. he looked like such a big boy and it was a shock every time i looked at him for several days. but it was a great haircut and he rocked it, so it turned out ok. his most recent haircut isn't as good. which is a bummer but we'll fix it next time.

-he was having some speech delays for a while and didn't have as much words as he should have, and discovered his hearing was pretty impaired from fluid buildup, so we got tubes for his ears and now, he says SO MANY WORDS! he signs some too. it's funny though because now that we can communicate and he knows we understand him, he gets REALLY mad when we don't give him what he's asking for. which brings me to:

-ohhhhhh the temper tantrums. he puts bea to SHAME! bea never really had terrible twos because she was just such a good communicator and hardly got frustrated but holy crap oliver is a ticking time bomb all day. he is the definition of a terrible two. if you say no to something he wants, he starts screaming, hits you a few times, and then lays down and glues himself to the floor, adding a few kicks and ground pounds every few seconds in between screams. he loves to do this at the library, at church, and every store we ever enter. truly a joy. he found my lollipop reserve in my bag during story time today (a reserve i save to avoid these types of situations) and when i took it from him, he HAD A FIT. i had to grab my bag and my book bag, one on each shoulder, and then held his hand to walk him out, but he glued himself to the floor, as he does, and screamed like i was killing his dog. so i had to hook him over one arm, hold my other bags and bea's hand and haul out of there. i don't even bother getting embarrassed anymore. that ship has sailed.

-he loves yogurt. like a lot. he would have it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if we let him. he ALSO loves vitamin gummies. everytime i am even close to the vitamin cabinet, he runs over to me and reaches up and says "VVVVIIIIIIEEEEEETTTTTT!" (vite.) they can only have 3 a day so if i ration it, we usually have a happy camper in that department.

-he loves cars. he also loves cars and lightning mcQueen. if something has wheels, he is all over it. and he had a rediscovery of our little blue truck books and now requests them (points at them saying "CCCAAARRRRRRRRR") before bed. he also loves goodnight moon and the hungry caterpillar. he can complete all of the phrases from those books. he also loves the grouchy lady bug. if you ask him to read it, he'll see a page and go "fight?! fight?!?!?!" and then you have to say the "you're not big enough" part. seriously the cutest.

-he also LOVES dory. that was the first word he said that actually sounded like a real word. he loves nemo and dory and if you ask him to say dory like a whale he goes "dddddoooohhhhhhwwwweeeee" in a singsongy voice. it is too precious for words.

-he is so affectionate and it makes me so happy i can't even say. bea never hugged or snuggled with me and it was always really hard for me. she was a perfect baby, but she never snuggled. he is a stinker but oh how he snuggles. every time i say "give mommy loves" he buries his face in my neck and puts his arms around me and koala-latches onto me and pats my back. he doesn't even let go until i put him down. i love these moments more than i could ever say and i just squeeze his little body and breathe him in as long as i can, until i have to do something or pick something else up, and have to put him down. i don't know what i'll do when he stops giving me those hugs. i don't want to think about it.

i don't what it is, but every mom with both boys and girls will tell you that the relationship is so so different. it's hard to explain. girls are like your bffs, and confidantes, even at a young age. there's a real kinship between moms and daughters and it's a special relationship that is so important and wonderful. boys are just the love of your life. an endless spout of sunggles and endless adrenaline shots and worries when he does something completely insane. boys are so special. they love you so fiercely at such a young age; everything they do, they do it full throttle and loving you is what they do best. i don't know if i'm articulating it right but there ya go.

ANYHOO that's all i have right now and i really need to go to bed. hopefully i'll be more on the ball soon so i won't have to dig so much for the memories!! i just can't even with how much i love these people.