TWENTY-FIVE

Theo in laundry basket at 8 months.

V in the same laundry basket at 8 months. I am in tears over this photo. I cannot remember her AT ALL from this age. I'm grateful for the photos I have because my brain is completely failing me.

2016 week twenty five

Vera has her fair share of naughtiness. How could she not? She's three. But sometimes she really outdoes herself. In those moments I wonder what she is thinking. What is her logic? If I scream and cry then I will definitely be allowed to stay up late and watch a show? Uhm, nope. But sometimes she is so heartbreakingly good I am forced to realize how big she is getting. When we took Matt's parents out to dinner on Tuesday I was too preoccupied to even notice that she sat in her chair the entire meal. She never once asked to get down. She didn't whine. She ate everything she was served. She didn't cry. She didn't really even interrupt or talk -the food was fantastic so she was probably a bit distracted by that. She didn't fuss or throw a fit. She didn't spill water or food or spit anything out. She didn't drop anything. She used her silverware appropriately. She sat still in her chair and ate her food and was a pleasant contributing part of the meal. This is clearly our long term goal for her, and I would even go as far to say that we expect her to act appropriately at the table more so than anywhere else. But it wasn't until later that evening that I realized how exceptional she was during the meal. How exceptional she can be for a three year old. The important thing is that I did recognize it and that I aim to try to recognize and praise her more for appropriate behavior. Long gone are the days of actions on her behalf without explanation. She is doing and thinking and reacting so completely that she needs almost continual explanation for life and her surroundings and praise for appropriate behavior. When I look at photos of her at Theodore's age, I hardly recognize her. I don't remember who she was then. She is so wholly three and active and lovely that I feel like I only barely get to know her now before she's already grown. She is entering into the most wonderful age of childhood (for me. It's all about how much fun it is for me, hah.) and I'm so thrilled. Now if only we could actually get her to remember to use her words instead of her body when she's frustrated. That might be something to celebrate when that day comes. In fact, we might throw a party the first day neither of our children cry for the entire day.

Grandma doesn't need fancy dress up. All she needs are a few swishy pieces of fabric and V can be anything she wants.

Happy Father's day and Mom's Birthday dinner at Babes chicken.

How Matthew left for high adventure.

High Adventure boys right before they went tubing and caught a turtle and had diarrhea on the side of the river. It's really intense. 

She's been really into typing lately. She tells me she needs to do some work about her garden on the computer and needs to do some work. Haha. 

While Vera was hesitant, Theo plunged right in face-first.

Hot day at a deserted splash pad. 

Be still my heart. It was a thousand degrees out so we spent two hours wandering the ice cold aisles of Whole Foods for fun. I promised I wouldn't buy anything. $25 later...

Ghosty photo of Theo's favorite activity: pulling up on EVERYTHING and trying to walk. You are 8 months old son, cool it on the moving thing.

Doing stretches with me in the best get up for the activity.

Eating fried rice by the pool. Eating it her favorite way too: ice cold, because she's strange.

Quotes:

"Oh dear! Look at my peacock face, I need to wear my peacocks!"

"Miss Mack Paddy Whack give a boy a bone! This old box came rolling home." -She's getting really creative with this one.

The bathroom at Babes had drapey fabric under the stalls, "What!? Why is this bathroom wearing a dress?!"

V- "I have a baby elephant in my tummy."
Me- "When will it come out?"
V- "Oh in probably three years. And then NEXT year I'll have two baby octopuses in my tummy and they will come out and drink my breast milk."

We were talking about taking vitamins and how they are not candy and why I used to take them more (pregnant, nursing, etc), "Ok, but when my babies come out we will need to go to the store to get vitamins because I will be nursing all my baby animals."

Recently she likes to tell me all the dangerous things that would happen if she were left home alone. Her favorites are, "And then a fire will start. I don't know why. But there will be a fire if you leave me at home." and, "I will break so many things if I am all alone."

After listening to "Do you wanna build a snowman," Mama, Anna is just trying really hard to get Elsa to build a snowman."

She LOVES pistachios lately but absolutely cannot say "Pistachio." She says to me, "Mama, can I have the nuts that I cant say? I cant say the real name, I can only call them spidashios."