Wesley Robert - Two Years Old!!

Our sweet baby Wesley is no longer a baby and is running around - full speed - as an energetic toddler. He is TWO YEARS OLD!

And he can even tell you that he's two!  Goodness, did he not just grow up so quickly before our very eyes?? Although he does still seems a little babyish to me (maybe because I try to keep him this way).

He is just the cutest, sweetest little thing - and don't just take his Mama's word for it!  People (neighbors, church ladies, teachers, friends) are always commenting that he is "the cutest blondie we've ever seen". He looooooooooves the ladies and is always quick to flirt, give a mischievous smile, cock his head to the side, and give hugs. He loves to laugh and thinks it's so funny if you tell him "no" and try to stop him from doing something.  (Until he doesn't think it's funny anymore and throws himself on the ground, screeching, because you're actually keeping him from something that he wants or wants to do - typical two year old behavior!)

There are a lot of things that Wesley loves, but probably nothing as much as food and eating.  How he's barely hanging on to the bottom of the growth curve is a mystery to me.  This child wakes up demanding "eat, EAT!!!!", raids the pantry multiple times a day, will devour his plus his siblings' plates of food, and practically mows down everyone in the cafeteria line at church for Wednesday night supper.  He's also a very good eater, trying most things and happily eating fruits, veggies or whatever I set in front of him.  He has never met a frittata/egg casserole that he didn't want to devour.  Our neighbor made one with so many delicious flavors (green onions, mushrooms, squash, asparagus, spinach, etc), and Wesley nearly finished the entire pan himself.

Wesley also loves his trucks, cars and tractors.  He spends a good portion of the day pushing them around the house, yard or school.  He loves to wear things with Tractors on them, will lose his mind if he sees a real one and you don't let him go check it out up close, and specifically chooses books to read all about them. We don't let him watch much on the screen yet, but he'll ask for "Blippi Tractors" every day.

(He also loves Minnie - not Mickey - Mouse and loves his sister's pink princess cups. Sometimes we'll catch him pushing around a baby doll on top of his tractors.)

Speaking of books, Wesley (like the others) loves to sit and read books with you. His favorites right now: Jamberry, Little Blue Truck, My Big Truck Book, Touch and Feel Pets, Little Green Frog, and I Am Bunny.  I also leave them in his bed, and he'll wake up and read them for a good while before we get him up.  (Actually, Wesley will not get up until he's ready, and so even if you go in there when he's awake he will quickly tell you if you should back yourself out of his room and give him more time.  He'll also - if upset - ask for his sleep sack and paci to "chill out" in his room for a while - even if not time for sleep.  Maybe it's a third child thing, but he values quiet alone time.)

And speaking of pacis....he still has one.  We're down to only a few he actually likes, and he's very good about spitting it out every morning (as in, he leans over the crib and makes a big production of spitting it down in the crib). I don't know...part of me wants to just get rid of it and part of me (plus James) is like "he's such a good sleeper, why mess up a good thing?"  

Although not a big talker (perhaps a bit of a late bloomer when it comes to speech - just like the other ones!), he picks up a few new words a day.  He's starting to repeat a lot more, point and "ask" if it's the right word, and mimic.  One of his most clear and in context words he says: "shoot".  He'll drop something and yell "SHOOT!"  He obviously hears this a lot. :) (And thank goodness it's just this one!!)

Wesley has the following teeth: his four molars, only two on bottom, four on top.  None of the medical or dental folks seem worried about this, so I guess we won't be either.  And obviously it doesn't slow down his eating!

We think he's a super easy going little guy. He asks to go swing and then will let you push him for an hour. He'll play by himself very well.  He's happy for you to tote him along in the car, at the grocery store, etc.  We're just now starting to deal with him trying to dart away, climb on something he shouldn't, hitting (particularly his siblings, who he's known to whack with a hand or a toy), or yell "no!" back to us.  We have it pretty darn good! 

I know I'm forgetting a million precious, funny things that Wesley does right now.  This boy...he has our heart. He completes our crew and we cannot imagine our family or our life without him.  We love this little blessing that God surprised us with! And can't wait to see what this next year holds for him.  

Happy Birthday, Wesley Robert!

(Pictures from his birthday morning)

Big siblings...am I right?

And, Wesley's birthday fell on the most exciting day of the week - garbage pick up day!!! Picture taking was interrupted by the garbage truck.  We had to stop, point, and wave.  :)

Stats from his 2 year old well visit:

• Weight: 25 lbs 4 oz (30th percentile)
• Length: 32.5 (4th percentile)

Love our Little Community!

This past weekend we enjoyed all the benefits of a small town community that loves to put on an event.  While James golfed in a tournament with some church folks (something he has enjoyed again since moving to Middle Georgia!), the kids and I hit up our Farmer's Market and took advantage of lots of kids' activities from the local hospital and Literacy Task Force. First, the kids got introduced to Tie Dye...

Whitney, who works in Marketing at the hospital, is a sweet of mine friend from Bible Study.  Maryn and I also just spent last Saturday with her for the Smith's catalogue photoshoot - so Maryn thinks that they are BFFs :)  

After the mandatory 8 hours of waiting (nearly drove the kids crazy) and couple of washes to make sure the dye was set.....

The kids were so proud of their shirts!!  

The Laurens County Literacy Task Force also had a table at the market to allow kids a chance to decorate/plant flowers AND pick out a new book to take home.  Both things our kiddos love.

The HS cheerleaders asked Wesley if he'd like to go read with them.  He said "1000 TIMES YES!!!" Wesley loves attention - especially from cute girls. :)

We have managed to keep these flowers alive for a whole week - a new record!

After the market, we headed to the library to pick up some new books. The kids go to the library quite a bit, so they're comfortable running around, playing with the puzzles, finding books, etc.  We have a fantastic library for a small - or big - town.

A girl was selling bracelets to raise money for her ballet tuition (very entrepreneurial!), and the big kids bought one. JB is showing he's tough while he wears a bracelet (which had a masculine football on it.)

Since the temps hovered in the high 90s last weekend (HAVE MERCY!) we went for snowcones in the afternoon.  However, since it's also "fall" (I put that in quotes for a reason, see above comment regarding temps), the love bugs are out in full force and driving Wesley bananas!

And the last thing I'll say - speaking of community.  This past week JB has studied "community helpers" in Kindergarten.  On Friday they went dressed up as one, and JB asked if he could go as a "military man".  He is quite adamant that he's chosen the military as a career, wanting to be both a solider during the day and a ninja at night. He says his goal is to "protect our citizens and country". Both his grandfather and great-grandfather in Heaven were veterans, and I know they would be very proud.  We sure are.

Clean Teeth for Miss M!

Obviously the age of 4 is s family milestone for teeth.  According to my blog (my source of truth for any and all Sasser events), JB first visited the dentist after his 4th birthday.  Yesterday, after lots of begging (and waiting forever for an appointment), Maryn visited the dentist for the first time.

She did SO WELL, and absolutely loved it. She received a ton of attention, lots of love, and they had grape flavored everything.  HEAVEN FOR MARYN.

JB got his teeth cleaned, too and received a lot of compliments on his pearly whites. He has lost 3 teeth and his other front top one will go any minute. Two permanent teeth have popped through on the bottom, and he's also getting his permanent molars in the back. Growing up so fast!

We celebrated with some toys at the front office and lots of sugary drinks and snacks afterwards!

I know you're supposed to first take children much younger, but I also think they're old enough and mature enough to sit still around this age. I can't imagine bringing Wesley to the dentist right now.  He'd be a disaster. My plan is to wait two more years and maintain tradition! :)

Maryn Elizabeth is 4 Years Old!!

This girl of ours is FOUR YEARS OLD. It's partly unreal, because the years have sped by, but in some ways Maryn acts fourteen, so it's like "wait, she's ONLY four? why is our four year old talking to us like this!?"

Maryn is a firecracker.  She loves to say outrageous things for pure shock and (her) entertainment.  She gets so angry that she's spitting nails while her voice goes up 2 octaves.  She loves a good laugh and has figured out how to get a laugh from most people.  I have to remind people "don't react!!!" around her, because that girl LOVES to elicit a reaction (and sometimes it's best if we just don't.) I'm amazed that she has never said a curse word (yet, to my knowledge), because the couple of times I know she's heard them I've watched her eyes narrow, her mind start to working, and her make an obvious mental note of, 'oh, that's good, I need to save that one...'

But, while this can lead to serious discussions and reprimands, it also makes her a whole bunch of fun.  She's just fun to be around!  Especially one-on-one. I love our mother/daughter dates, and James carts Maryn around on all his errands at night and on the weekends.  She's so super engaging, has lively conversations, asks very interesting (sometimes funny) questions, remembers everything about everybody (aka: nosey, in everyone's business).  If you say something in ear shot that's even remotely interesting, you better be prepared to fess up and talk about it in detail because she's going to ask you a million questions about what you said. Even (especially?) when it has nothing to do with her. She loves hanging out with kids - especially older ones - and goes into boss/organizer mode within a minute to get everyone playing with her.  She's fiercely devoted to her friends, too.

Her brothers, obviously, love her - although some days it seems like they go between tolerating her and losing their minds because of her.  She seems intent to make them crazy, with little regard for the consequences. However, she also adores them, and truly cares for them, even when she's buzzing around them and creating chaos.  That's just what sisters do, right?

Some other funny things about this girl right now:

• Her grammar still cracks us up. While she's fixed her "her/she" and "him/he" mix up, she still says a whole bunch of double negatives, "ain't", "figging' to" (instead of "fixing to" - which is already suspect grammar!!) and, my personal favorite: "I'm am". 

• She can remember everyone's face and name.  She is very interested in relationships (i.e. how someone is related to who), and has learned the family tree of many Dublin families much better than we have.

• Maryn has an abnormal obsession with bandaids. She has multiple on her at any given moment.  Many times they're on bug bites, because she legitimately has an above normal reaction to mosquito bites. (They've landed us in urgent care a couple of times! MOSQUITO BITES!!)

• She loves praise and worship music, her Music Class CDs, plus lots of other 80s music.  "Heaven is a Place on Earth" is "her song". She'll sing and dance to them, and has to listen to music in her room at rest time and at night.

• She also calls Savannah (the city of) "Savannah ooh na na". So you can say she's also a fan of current pop music (including Havana, by Camilla Cabello).

• She's a very good eater, will really try anything and adores lots of great veggies. However, she can be very picky about when she eats them. She doesn't really like a full, diverse plate as much as she'll want to just eat one thing (like a whole pint of grape tomatoes) for lunch.  Or, she'll eat good for a few days, then sustain herself on carrot sticks and Cheetos for 3 days. It's nerve-wracking (but also just toddler behavior, I guess).

• Speaking of toddler behavior, Maryn is super, super dramatic about injuries (physical, emotional), not getting her way, or being tired/hot/hungry.  

• Her favorite color is "rainbow".  She also loves a lot of girly things, like shoes, purses and jewelry, and princesses. She's not great about playing with toys.  Instead I find her playing with real things (i.e. my checkbook, phones, pads of paper) and acting out real life scenarios (like taking orders, "running a meeting", paying bills, etc.). It's really funny.

• She's also not enamored with the TV, movies or iPad. She'll definitely watch a bit, but then it off to something else. She'll even come to us and say "is my iPad time up now?" This is sooooo unlike her brother, who loves a screen!

• She's very smart, already knows most of her letters and sounds, can count to 20...but always skips the number 13. We say she's like a hotel elevator. It's like that number does not exist in Maryn's world!

• This year she has turned into a terrible sleeper (whyyyyyy?) She fights bedtime, cries out multiple times a night, wants/needs someone to sleep with her, and has begun to sneak into our bed.  Even with her animals - Bunny, Foxy Loxy/Foxy Lady, and Teddy the Turtle - she feels "lonely", she says.  She's pretty much dropped her nap (and we force the "no nap" rule during the week due to the bedtime drama), but she can also catnap like a champ. If she goes with me to run errands on the weekend, she'll say "I'm gonna sleep for just a second", falling asleep literally within the second, then will wake up 5 minutes later when we arrive at the store, totally refreshed and ready to go. Again, total opposite of JB (and her mama) who wake up from a nap like a grizzly wakes up from hibernation.  

• Oh, Maryn wants to be a babysitter when she grows up :)

• Maryn loves me, I know, but she's really a Daddy's girl. If he's around, he's who she wants to be with. It's very sweet!

I could probably go on and on about her. Many people in our small town come up to me and say "I saw Maryn the other day" then laugh and shake their head slowly from side to side. She's super memorable.  :) But GOODNESS how much we love her!  There were some parts of her "threenage" year that I am okay to see pass, but I'm most excited for this next year to see how much she grows.  

May FOUR be a completely wonderful year for you, baby girl!  

Stats from her 4 year well visit:

• Weight: 36.2 lbs (60th percentile)
• Length: 40.25 (63rd percentile)