The Sticky Life: March 2015

Ok. Children update.

ATTICUS:

Loves nursery. He's been old enough all the month of March, but I started taking him (and staying with him) in February. In fact he often cries when we pick him up, because the leaders are blowing bubbles at the end and he loves that.
He LOVES balls. Jori enjoyed them too at his age, but his very favorite thing to do is to find a ball to kick around, or imitate whatever sport he most recently saw...
...probably tied with finding a stick to wave around like a mad man. Things get dangerous when this boy has a stick. Or some other object that is that long, skinny shape: a plastic golf putter works well, a broom handle...yeah, it's best to make sure you're outside and no person is close when this boy is armed.
He loves being outside.
He loves animals, all his favorite stories are with animals in them. He especially loves horses and has a couple horse toys that he carries around frequently, but cats and dogs are awesome too, to him.
He loves feeling hair when he's sad, or falling asleep. Mine or his own. Just sensory that way I guess.
Nap hair!
He loves getting shoes put on, and wearing hats and hoods. We discovered this one day when he had a shirt with a hood on it, and I put the hood up. He loved it, and the rest of the week motioned for me to put a hood on his head. So we started doing hats. Now that we're out of beanie season, we've begun letting him wear a little baseball cap his size.
He also loves wearing this monkey leash thing we have. He just doesn't always love me holding on to the other end. But he loves it being buckled onto his torso. His little monkey buddy.
He says "mah!" when he gives me kisses, because I say "muah!" So cute.
He LOVES his sister. He wants to be just like her, and follows her around all over the place. He gives her hugs and kisses more than me. And he even tries to comfort her when she's sad, sometimes...
...though sometimes the reason she's sad is because he bit her. He tends to do that when he gets particularly frustrated. Not quite as badly as he once did, but it still does happen.
His verbal development is coming right along. It's really taken off a lot more over the past couple months, right around when he hit 18 months. He'll imitate pretty well now. My favorite of his words is 'coot,' aka cute. He has learned to say that when we read stories or see pictures of little babies, puppies or kittens. I love hearing that little 'coot'!
Speaking of babies, he loves babies. He has a cousin, my brother Nate's daughter Lily, who was born in November and he gets to see her a lot of the time on Sundays. He'll say 'baby,' and try to hug them and snuggle them. He'll put his head down on her when he does get to be near her. It just warms my heart!
He is allergic to milk. We found this out after he threw up nearly every day in November and December, and had almost constant diarrhea. We first tested him for celiac disease, but when that came up negative the pediatrician said it's probably dairy. So since we eliminated that, the throwing up stopped and that has been a huge relief. It's been a pretty easy transition honestly, they have so many imitation dairy products out there. So we just have separate items of everything for him: milk, cheese, yogurt, even ice cream now. And he likes them fine.
He CAN be a real sassafras. He doesn't like to wear his bib, and we fight about it at a lot of meals. He has a great scowl face, it's hard not to laugh when he is scowling. He'll look back after starting to wander away when we're out places, as if to say "Look what IIIII'mmm doing!!", smile and then turn around a corner, out of sight. But these things seem pretty typical of a 19 month old.
He sometimes really hates getting into his car seat. These are not my favorite moments.
He is much more a daddy's boy than a mama's boy, and it's hard to get him to leave daddy's side when he's around.
He still drools nearly all the time. He started at about 3 months, and it had nothing to do with teething; finally around a year the 'I'm just drooling for the heck of it' drooling stopped, I think, but then he really did start teething and the drool started right back up again. So I don't blink at how wet his shirts get these days. It's just our normal!
He was never a binkie baby, but LOVES his special blankie his grandma Hatch made for him. Both my kids have been this way. When either of them gets hurt, the blankie is a huge comfort; and it's next to essential for falling asleep.
I call him: Atticus, Atto, Gentleman, Handsome, Atti Cakes, Mister, Buddy, Little Man, Atti Hugh, Atters, and Bumblebee most frequently.

JORI:

Loves puzzles. I 'puzzled' myself for a while, at wondering what to tell people to get her as a favorite toy. She enjoys pretty much all of them, but didn't have any she'd play with more than others or was really passionate about. But these days, puzzles are just that. So we buy a 24-piece puzzle most every time we're at D.I. She loves them.
She also loves reading stories, and watching movies. These three activities are probably her favorite things to do. (I'm to blame for the movies, I love them too...but I try to limit her viewing, honest.)
She can be a real 'mini-mama,' which I actually really appreciate. Like if I don't know where Atticus is in the house, I can ask her to go find him and make sure he's safe, and she's happy to oblige. She also likes to help me in the kitchen a lot.
On that same topic, when she has a task at hand, a job to do, she hums while she sets about doing it. Like I asked her yesterday to go get fresh undies on after she went to the bathroom, and she "hmm Hmm"d her way upstairs, did it and marched back, humming the same thing. It's really cute.
She can be both shy and a leader. It's interesting. She loves other kids, but doesn't always know what to say to them right away. But once she's comfortable, she loves being followed around. (I guess another word for that is bossy...but that seems so harsh. We talk about how she can invite people to follow, but not force. It's a work in progress.) She certainly can be more disobedient, and more adventurous, when she has a buddy in tow. It gives her confidence, I think.
I do think in general she's a peacemaker with a friends...when she has one that wants the pink thing that she got, she'll hand it over; or the other day she had a friend that wanted to swing when she'd just run over to the one swing available, and even though it was her idea first she smiled and moved away to avoid a showdown. This isn't ALWAYS the case...but probably more often than not is.
She's still a very overall enthusiastic child. Other than the past couple autumns putting her in gymnastics classes, we haven't done any classes with her, but every time I suggest something she says "Yes! That would be so fun!" And acts all excited, whatever it is. She loves having things to get excited about, and look forward to I think. Just like me.
She loves her baby brother a lot, and likes looking out for him. She likes him following her around, most of the time. She gets frustrated when he doesn't feel like it and she wants him to, and also the opposite like when she's building something and he destroys it. (This happens most frequently when she's trying to do a puzzle, or put train tracks together, and he comes and messes it up. Poor kid.)
She's got a great imagination. Next to the puzzles and stories, the most frequent way I see her playing is by taking random little things (dice, pieces of chalk, sticks, chicken nuggets) and pretending they're alive, then coming up with elaborate conversations they're having. (I googled it, it's called anthropomorphism?) So fun to watch.
Besides the anthropomorphism, she also shows her imagination with the random things she decides to educate me on. On a close to daily basis, she'll say "Mom, did you know pine cones eat feathers?" Or something equally random. She told my mom a couple weeks ago, "When little girls give gifts to women, it fills their hearts with love." Sometimes they're true, usually they're quite silly...always they're enjoyable. Along this line, she likes to speak for little girls everywhere. She's the spokeswoman. Just so you know.
Jori also frequently narrates her actions. This is especially common when she's feeling upset. She'll say "And she dashed away!" or some other word she newly learned, and I'll faintly hear her in a different room, continuing the narrative.
I think for the most part, Jori is a cautious child. Maybe because I'm overprotective, so I try to teach her stranger danger and that we have to hold hands in parking lots, etc. etc., but if she's heard there's a chance something could hurt her or be dangerous she really does avoid it. Or even sometimes when she hasn't been told it's dangerous, but she thinks so anyway. Like the vacuum.
She can be a real sassafras, too. I heard the term "threenager" the other day, and it makes me laugh. It can be so true. Pouting is fairly common, and her wallowing in self pity has become worse as she's gotten older. Like she'll make a conscious effort sometimes, to stay sad and upset about something way over the fact. Kids. Arg.
She's really a very adaptable child for the most part though, I think. I really strongly feel that this is a huge blessing, and was intentional on Heavenly Father's part, making our oldest this way. (I think the oldest's example is often followed by younger siblings, especially when they're really young.) Because we've moved a lot since getting married, and even since Jori was born. When we were in four different homes in four consecutive months, from the time she was 19 1/2 months old to 23 1/2, she didn't struggle when she had a new nursery to go to each different month. And when a toy is really destroyed, and I say "well, this one we can't repair," she just accepts it and doesn't fuss. And most of the time, when I've said we'll do something that day but then don't end up doing it, as long as I explain why we've had a change in plans she accepts that. What a blessing this is to me, with my forgetful memory and lack of time management! Even when I've talked about how some day we'll move again, as long as I point out that we will have a wonderful new home to live in, she just repeats it in a cheerful voice.
That's right! I should mention: she is still often my mimic. I think she just trusts me completely, trusts my words. So if she asks a question and I answer it, she'll repeat the answer word for word like it's fact. (Over daddy's words sometimes, I'm afraid. I guess it balances out: Atticus is a real daddy's boy, Jori's loyalty leans more toward my side. But there's a time for everything.)
I call her: Jori, Jori Pori, Ladybug, Little Lady, Sweet Pea, Sunshine, Bugaboo, Beautiful, Missy, Dear, and Gooseberry (when she's being silly) most often.