Three Year Old Belén

How is this sweet girl three already. !?!?!?!?

It's like she woke up one day and was like, "What the hick!?" (How she says it, not me). "I'm a kid!"

And she is. She is such a sweet, goofy, independent, mischievous, loving, smart, fun kid. One who always asks for the banana peel to be left on "cause it to dicky." (she'll get that s sound down one of these days). 

Me: "Let's do a human kiss. Muah. Now an Eskimo kiss (rub noses). Now a butterfly kiss (flutter eyelashes). All done."

B: "Now do a hair kiss!!" 

She then bowed her head and told me to do the same and we smacked the top our heads together and you'd better believe our hair kissed.

She LOVES coloring and goes through coloring books faster than I can supply them. Luckily, she'll happily color the not as nice mom-made coloring pages as well. 

When she isn't coloring, you can find her drawing these adorable potato people. This one has a hat :).

 Belén has a strange obsession for playing with toilet paper, paper towels, scotch tape, and diaper wipes. I discovered the latter one day after quiet time was done. I walked in to her room to find her behind her curtains with a HUGE pile of diaper wipes that had been freshly pulled from the case. She showed me how she wiped the windows with them and then how she would clean her face and arms with them. We now are more cautious of where we leave diaper wipe cases, but if she ever gets her hands on one, she'll grab one or two and start wiping off her dolls or ask if she can wipe my face. She often does the same with paper towels. The scotch tape she likes to use as band aids for herself or her dolls. The toilet paper works best as blankets for her dolls.

She has been asking for MONTHS when it would be her turn to do swim lessons like Shae, and her big day finally came. She has done so great in her first two lessons. Her favorite part is getting to jump in the pool at the end. She is slowly putting her face in the water (really just her mouth). She really hates getting water in her ears so it might take awhile (she always folds her ears over in the bathtub when we wash her).

She wore her goggles around all day in anticipation of her first lesson.

Me talking to Belén: "Thanks babe!" 

 Belén: "Me not babe! You babe! Daddy babe!"

Hoping she will someday grasp the right subject pronoun there. But for now we hear lots of sentences like, "Me not four, me three" and "Me be Elsa." Some days it really seems like she's figured out the "I" and other days it's back to "me." 

Almost in unison with the "amen" in prayers, Belén will point out that "Shae has his eyes open!" 

Me: "How much do you love me?"

Belén: "Hhhhmmmm, I sink, 2....24." 

Me: "We are going to take the highway now."

Belén: "But mom, why we no take the low way?"

 Belén is going through a stage where she has to be naked to use the bathroom. All the clothes, every time, on the floor. Once she is naked she will jump on the potty and without fail point at the towel across from her and say "The green towel name Shae, shut the *grunt* door." Same thing. Every time.

She must just be going through that naked toddler stage since this is usually how I find her playing with her dolls. I'm confident that if ballerina Barbie and swim Barbie didn't have clothing painted on them that they would be naked too.

She does not usually take her first potty break until 1 or 2 in the afternoon. So crazy to me since when Shae was that age, he went just about hourly.  Little hidden talent of hers.

None of her teeth touch. ZERO. 

She has never been as attached to things while sleeping as Shae, but we went ahead and got her a big fuzzy blanket at the same time that we got Shae one to replace brown blanket. It was definitely needed since she was sleeping with a little square baby blanket that she has outgrown.

She also, out of the blue, asked "where that orange cat I sleep with?" She slept with her kitty cat, Tabby, for a long time after she got it her first birthday. It's the closest thing she's ever become close to being attached to, but then awhile back decided she'd rather not sleep with stuffed animals. It was sweet to see her reconnect with her kitty.

She was also so excited to bring it to Shae's school on cat day. They've been doing a month of animals at his school and the teachers have been so sweet and let Belén stay once a week to play as well. She is in heaven. I overheard her as I dropped her off last week say to another girl in the class, "Jane, you play family with me? I be the mommy." 

I just love how full on in to pretend play she is. Introducing me to the imaginary king next to her, pretending that I am Pocahontas' father and announcing to me that she is going to use her arrows to get the dragon, grabbing the silverware basket from the dishwasher and telling me to be granny and "Me be little red, here my basket of bread and donuts." 

We got her some jelly shoes and the first few times she wanted them on she could never remember what they were called and called them her Peanut Butter shoes instead. Close. 

 There are so many days when I feel like Belén’s sole purpose in life is to find my breaking point (like putting stamps all over the side table, getting in to the fridge and somehow opening the hot dog bag and getting hot dog juice all over the floor, scaling the pantry for whatever she pleases, running away and hiding in her closet with my phone turned to Netflix, taking her coat and shoes off before leaving the house while I run to grab my purse, scrubbing the tub with our toothbrushes...the list goes on and on). And while I often don't know how much more of her I can take, thankfully that is just one side of her. The other side is cuddly and sweet. She loves to give me hugs and if I sit down to play with her, she is in heaven. She will give me a check up as my doctor, read books to me as a librarian, and dance for hours as we perform together. She loves when either Darin or I play dolls with her, always telling Darin, "Use you girl sounds when you play." She loves building things with the magnatiles (we love this toy so much, but man it causes a lot of arguments in our house over breaking each other's creations and there aren't enough to play together, blah blah blah all day long). Anytime I am in the kitchen she will grab a chair and pull it right in to cook with me. The past few Sundays she has asked Darin to nap with her (the only day that she actually does nap), so he curls up in bed with her to nap. She has fallen asleep with me a few times on the couch too and it is just the best thing (and also VERY rare).

We love this little Belencita girl so much.

Five Year Old Shae

A little behind on the gushy birthday posts about the kids. Better late than never. 

I hesitate to say that five year old Shae is my favorite because there are just so many good things about every age, but I really am so in love with five year old Shae. He's just so much fun, conversations with him are always entertaining, and he has mellowed out SO much in the past few months. He definitely still has a fuse, just not as short as it's always been :). And while it sometimes causes frustration, I do love the passion he puts in to all things in life. 

Favorite Color: Green, Red, and Black

Favorite TV Show: Paw Patrol, Super Wings, and Magic School Bus (He also says Shimmer & Shine and Rusty Rivets which he has seen once...)

Favorite Movie: Cars 3

Favorite Food: Pizza, Ice Cream, Chicken, Tomatoes, Bread

Favorite Songs: Thunder, Break Your Heart, Fire Burning, Party in the USA

Favorite Candy: Reeses and Rolos

Favorite Animal: Cheetah

Favorite Book: Calendar Mysteries (He has listened to the audiobook of these SO many times, I'm pretty sure he has them memorized).

Favorite Toys: Legos, knock off Magnatiles, anything that he can build with, as well as his Cars 3 cars

His constant need to be creating something is one of my favorite things about him right now. He is always working on something. Yesterday when I picked up the kids from the Y childcare after my workout, Shae walked out with an already finished flower craft, a couple pieces of different sized papers, and a plastic cup. The employee looked at me and said, "I don't mind if he takes these if you're okay with it. He said he has some elaborate plan for them when he gets home."

He came home and got right to work gluing this water and bean filled cup to his paper and then gluing the little piece on top. Then he announced, "My hypothesis is that the beans will go rat-a-tat-tat when we shake the paper."

This kite that he came up with all on his own was a fun one too. Using pencils for the handle and kite support. We still haven't gotten it to fly, which has been quite disappointing for him, but we're hoping a really windy day might do the trick.

I feel like I can't keep up with him most days, telling me all about the elaborate things he wants to try out. Or handing me the script (in picture form of course) for the movie Cars 4 and asking me who we need to send it to so that they can make it. He also has a few picture books that he has illustrated that he wants to get published. The movie script and books are still on the counter...not so sure how to go about this one.

Thankfully not everyday is such a big project, most days he just likes to draw. I kind of feel like we kill a tree a day (at the least), which we're working on, but I also just can't bring myself to tell him to ever stop.

Chase and Marshall in their Paw Patrol vehicles. I love those little paws, and the drone, and the sirens.

 A garbage truck with a door and some cars inside it.

A tucan for his friend Jane at school (He is always giving away his artwork to his friends).

We recently discovered Art for Kids Hub on youtube and he is obsessed with it. I kind of am too. It's so fun to follow the simple instructions and feel like we are artists. He has had a few meltdowns when his pictures don't look as good as the artists, but we're working on it. This super cute Flash actually caused quite the scene the other day because "his arms weren't supposed to be black and the lighting on his ears is the wrong shape." I think it looks great.

Shae is just so sweet and thoughtful. He is always sending pictures under my door for me during quiet time while I work. He really cares about other people and likes to make people laugh and smile. He's a rule keeper through and through. He's also the one who will tell on anyone if they aren't keeping the rules (aka: tattling on Belén all day everyday: "Mom! Belén

is climbing the pantry for graham crackers again!) He has a really hard time watching any sort of show or movie where the kids don't keep the rules. He watched at least half of Coco with his fingers in his ears as the kid went against his families wishes for him to have nothing to do with music. Again when the kid broke the rules to get in to the party. And about 20 other times that I can't remember.

"Good thing Julie planned the ninja primary warrior activity since I want to grow up to be a Ninja AND Hawkeye." 

"You got the ball in the guts mom!" (Said while playing the Wii bowling)

"Someday I hope I have a little robot in my house so I can say, "Alecka, turn on my music."

Shae loves to collect little treasures and put them in his treasure box (a little tin we have). (Before we got him the tin, I would always find rocks piled up on my dresser to keep them away from his sister). At school they have a treasure box that they get to search for each class and he takes it quite seriously. He comes home just about everyday with a fancy rock he gets out of the treasure chest. He'd bring in every pinecone and pebble if I'd let him.

As was already mentioned in the crafting paragraph, he's a bit of a perfectionist. One night I was laying on his bed with him listening to an audiobook. We were laying on the bed snuggling until he, all of a sudden, jumped up and went over to the wall to straighten out all of the pictures so that they weren't crooked. Then he moved on to sitting each of his stuffed animals in a perfect row to finish listening to the story. I loved laying there observing him that night, getting a peek in to his little mind that is constantly going.

 I love that he is at an age now where we can play games. And boy does he looooove them. He would play games all day if someone would play with him. Trouble, Uno, Go Fish, Sorry, Sleeping Queens, Matching, Spot It Jr., Giggle Wiggle, Headbanz, Sequence Jr....just to name a few of his favorites. My dad taught him War last time we visited which he has really been in to lately, as well as Toy Story Yahtzee which the kids got for Easter (we don't really do Easter basket gifts, but have started an Easter family game tradition, his anticipation for the game this year was so sweet).

After so many years of getting up early with him, or having him noisily climb in to bed with us, I am still amazed at how well (and quietly) he can self-entertain in the morning (It's been over a year that he's been doing this, but his level of patience has increased). He quietly sneaks out of his room and will play with toys, read books, listen to audiobooks, or often I just find him sitting quietly on the couch (planning out something grand for later in the day in his mind I am sure).

Speaking of planning, he has the next 20 years of pumpkin designs planned out, as well as birthday themes till he's 30. While we were at the zoo a few months back, he grabbed a map and planned out our entire day ("First, we will go to the bison, then the flamingos, then over here to the elephants). He definitely likes to plan and take charge.

"Those jokes on the juice bottle are so funny. They crack my head right up and it falls off."

After listening to Break Your Heart he says, "It's not nice to break people's hearts, but is it okay if I still like this song?"

"Why do you and dad always say you like Belén's pictures, and I don't? I mean, they are just stick people and scribbles." Such a nice honest brother right there.

Prayers have turned in to quite the act over here. Shae uses his prayers to indirectly tell Belén that he doesn't like something about her. "Please Heavenly Father help Belén to stop laughing at me." "Please Heavenly Father, make it so Belén will stop talking to me."

I love love love reading chapter books with him. I love how invested in them he is (Both of our hearts hurt when Charlotte died in Charlotte's Web last week, so sad). I love when we are in the car and he asks for me to turn on a story or this awesome kid's story podcast that we are all obsessed with (Circle Round).  I just love seeing him so in to stories. 

We are the worst and made him get rid of his beloved brown blankie for his fifth birthday. A few months ago he mentioned something like, "When I am five and brown blankie is gone I will have to sleep with something else." We kind of just rolled with it and slowly began talking about brown blankie going away when he turned five. (It has just gotten SO ratty and is a baby blanket, so it barely even fits over him, but he always has to sleep with it). He loves how fuzzy it is, so we got him a big fuzzy Star Wars blanket to take it's place. 

While he was excited about the new blanket, there were tears in his eyes when he said goodbye to that brown blankie. Oh my heart. I was actually pretty emotional too. We've been through a lot with that blankie. It really does feel like part of the family (which is why it is still hidden away in my closet. I just can't bring myself to throw it away!)

This silly boy is always flattening out his hair. All. Day. Long. He rarely let's us style it anymore. He'll just be playing, or watching a show and every few seconds he'll flatten the sides, then the front and then continue playing. Repeat every 2 minutes. If I touch his hair, he immediately freaks out and starts flattening it all over again. 

"Is the show on Nickflix? Or Netflakes? Or...what is it called?"

One day Belén woke up first (a rarity). I jumped out of bed to close their door so Shae could keep sleeping, but the noise woke him up. He was just sitting up when I got there and said, "Whoa, the story in my head just paused." Then went on to the elaborate retelling of his fairy tale filled dream.

He is constantly calling out my name, pausing, and then saying, "I love you." The other day he finally told me, "You know, I always say I love when I forget what I was trying to say."

I really really love watching his friendship with his sister evolve. While they definitely get on each other's nerves about half the day, the other half is just wonderful. Watching them goof off and imagine and converse and wrestle and explore and love one another is priceless.

I just love this little boy so much. He may have rocked my world (HARD) when he came into it, but I am a better person because of him. He makes me slow down and appreciate the little things in life, and for that I will forever be grateful. 

February Little Things

This sweet girl, who almost never takes naps anymore, fell asleep in the car one day. When I brought her inside I fully expected her to wake up. She did for a second and then fell right back asleep on me. Even when I moved out from under her to go to the bathroom, she still stayed asleep. Good to know that when she needs sleep, she'll make it happen.

 So. Much. Snow this winter. 

 We found this snowman one day while walking around.

 Finally upgraded the beds! Shae has been in this toddler bed for quite some time (thankfully he's on the short end for his age :), and Belén has been using this crib with a wall removed for about a year now. We were all very excited for the new beds.

 The kids were excited to help put it together.

They were extremely squealy and cute going to bed that first night.

 When my parents came to visit the next week for Shae's birthday, the bunk beds came in handy for me and Darin to sleep on while giving my parents our bed. I like this new system.

 The kids got a couple dollars to spend at the dollar store while my parents were in town and Belén was very excited to find this Rapunzel hair. 

 The day after I got home from Vegas just so happened to be a warmish day, so we took advantage of it and went outside for a little picnic at the park.

 Five year old art is the best art. I can't get enough of this little alligator.

 We started using separate blankets last month. Why has it taken us 6 years to do this? I love tucking the blanket in all around me and you just can't do that when you're sharing a blanket. This has been a total sleep game changer for me. Now if we could only upgrade that mattress to a king so that I have all the space in the world, bwahahahaha, or maybe we just need two twin beds? We should just get our own bunk beds. I'm sure Darin would totally be on board with that.

 So much Olympics. Shae got really in to Olympics which made it really fun to watch. He is one passionate, patriotic little boy.

 We went and cheered on our dear friend Kyle in his final Cornell basketball game with a bunch of friends from the branch.

 We introduced the kids to ice cream sundaes with the leftover candy and ice cream from Shae's birthday party. Our ice cream fanatic boy thought it was the greatest thing.

 She didn't mind either :).

 The Syracuse zoo does half price tickets during the months of January and February since it is so cold. Thankfully the very last day of February was in the 50s, so we took advantage and went up with some friends for the day. 

After the zoo, the kids and I went and explored the area around Flat Rock while we waited for Darin to get out of class (we like to pick him up on Tuesdays as his class gets out right after the bus leaves). I love exploring the world with these guys. Here they are pretending to go fishing.

Shae came home and used the connectors to build his own zoo. Complete with a souvenir shop at the end of the zoo. He even made little maps for us to use so we knew where to find all the animals.