An update on the piggies

It’s been a while since I talked about new things the kids are doing, so here goes:

 

Thor –

Recently got a crew cut courtesy of the Flowbee. Pictures soon. He suddenly looks older and more like a little boy. He’s tall and lean and, sadly, all traces of baby-ness are really gone now. Four years have sure flown by. He is loving preschool and considers everything Miss Jessie says to be gospel, including things he’s blatantly disregarded when they came from us. At least someone is getting through to him about covering his mouth when he coughs!

 

He has a razor-sharp focus and can entertain himself fairly quietly for hours at a time. He likes doing puzzles, coloring, and cutting things up. He loves to be read to and has some of his favorite books entirely memorized. I really hope to focus on teaching him to read this summer since I think he would get so much enjoyment from it. Thor is a little song bird and often bursts into song in the car or at the dinner table. He’s totally uninhibited about performing at home but he refuses to sing or dance for class performances. When pressed for an explanation he just says, “I don’t like to do that”. Um… OK.

 

He loves to tease Winnie but he can also be a very good big brother. He’ll push Winnie on the swings when she asks and tries to give her brotherly advice about personal hygiene, good eating habits, and how to be obedient (it’s truly comical).  He loves to fetch Rocky’s pacifier, diapers, etc. and begs to snuggle Rocky at bedtime. He is very emotionally sensitive and is the first to burst into tears or shower us with affection.

 

Winnie-

This kid is a whirlwind of activity. She is incredibly talkative and seems to have an opinion on virtually every topic. It is very hard to believe she is only 2. She’s extremely bossy. She frequently has to be reminded that she is the child, not the parent. She loves to act grow-up and I often have to try not to laugh as she mimics things she’s seen us do. She’ll throw open the refrigerator door and nonchalantly say, “What do you want for dinner, guys?” or she’ll casually say at dinner, “I was thinking about going to the park later”. She has started “doing laundry”, indiscriminately putting clean and/or dirty clothing into the washer and starting it. As we were out and about recently, she asked me, “Do you have your keys, Mom? Do you have your wallet? OK.”

 

She even tries to boss the dogs. A couple of weeks ago, just before nap time, Winnie observed that Shortcut had been chewing on one of the kids’ plastic lawn chairs. When Jared tried to put her down for her nap, she protested, insisting that she needed to say something to Shortie first. Jared and I thought it would be interesting, so we let her go to the back door, where she leaned out and yelled at the top of her lungs, “Shortie, that was NOT VERY NICE!!!” then complacently came in and went down for her nap.

 

Winnie LOVES to go on outings with me. No errand is so boring that she would risk missing out on it, although she is a real handful in stores. She has no fear of strangers and will disappear from sight if given half a chance. She’s going to give Jared and I gray hairs, guaranteed.

 

Rocky-

This guy is our sturdy little tow-headed fellow. I tend to call him “Chunks”, “Chunkster”, or “the Rockster” as well as Rocky. Of course this is in reference to his irresistibly chubby thighs and cheeks (all four of them). He is on the verge of crawling, but shows no interest in sitting up. He can do so for short periods of time, but he’d much rather be wallowing his way toward things on the floor. He loves solid foods and gets very demanding and even a little frantic when they aren’t steadily shoveled into his mouth. He has a slight flat spot on the back of his head so he’s getting a helmet for the next three months. Not looking forward to that.

 

He is extremely noisy and makes his presence known with angry cries when he’s not getting his way and delighted squeals when things are more to his liking. He is at the stage where he can be entertained for quite a while manipulating a simple object like a shoelace or a set of keys. I need to start singing to him more; when I joined in with the singing in Relief Society on Sunday, he turned around on my lap and gave me a HUGE grin. What a cutie.

 

So far he seems to be the most snuggly of the three kids and he absolutely loves to be in our bed, although he is gradually learning to sleep in his own. Speaking of sleep, he has always been a bad sleeper. He has never slept more than 4 or 5 hours at a stretch in his entire life. He usually wakes up at 3-4 hour intervals throughout the night and takes two 1 or 2 hour naps during the day. I am getting terribly sleep deprived! I really hope the helmet doesn’t make it worse.