on the verge of being 2

Lucy is on the verge of turning 2 and already has so much personality!

Lucy loves to sing. She will happily sing along with any song you are singing but many times she will approach you and start a tune or a Mother Goose rhyme on her own.

She also LOVES Moana. She will sing one of Moana’s songs “Away, away” and with Halloween right around the corner gets very excited when she sees Moana costumes hanging up at the store. Elmo is another favorite character whom she always wants to watch.

Lucy loves milk. This may sound obvious as she is a toddler but if you try to hand Lucy any other drink, such as water, she will furrow her brow towards you with a look of disgust and demand milk. Even if you assure her that we are out of milk and this is all that there is she will remain disgusted, refuse to take the offensive drink and cry. Eventually she will admit defeat as you will see her tiny hand reach up and take the cup. It’s adorable.

Lucy is incapable of riding in a shopping cart in the traditional fashion. It does not matter if I use the strap around her waist she will somehow turn herself around so she doesn’t have to ride backwards. It also doesn’t matter how short or long these trips are. She immediately turns herself to the side or completely around. Many times she also tries to stand up resulting in myself looking like an incompetent mother.

She also has decided that she cannot be bothered by wearing socks or shoes. Every time, and I mean every time, once in her car seat she will immediately remove the shoes that we just spent 3 minutes putting on before leaving the house, and then we will hear her crying in frustration as she works on pulling off the socks as well. Then once we arrive at our destination we have to discuss with her how she should just leave the shoes and socks on because she has to put them right back on. Did I mention that we are usually either right on time or late for everything? So the additional time to put the shoes back on is extremely frustrating. When I know we are going to be running late most of the time I don’t even bother putting them on her as I know they will be on the floor when we get there.

Lucy adores her big brother and sister. She always asks where they are in the morning when she wakes up and she knows that when she wakes up from her nap Liam should be home from school. She has begun copying her big sister but unfortunately that behavior so far is usually screaming. Less than ideal.

She is a big talker and always has been. For the most part her words are pretty clear but even six months ago she would try to have conversations with you which was just babbling but the look on her face was of complete seriousness as she knew exactly what she was saying to you.

So far I would say Lucy is a very driven, active, particular kind of gal. She sounds very much like her mother. Oh brother!

Caroline funnies

A recent conversation with Caroline:

C: "Mom, when I grow up I'm going to have 2 kids.  A boy and a girl."
M: "I think that sounds nice."
C: "Why do you have so many kids?"
M: "Um, I guess I just wanted to have three. Do you think that's too many or not enough."
C: "Definitely too many!"
M: "So who should we get rid of?"
C: smiles "Nevermind."

Caroline has also recently been enjoying pretending that she has a baby in her belly. This weekend she kept coming into the kitchen as I was doing the dishes, hiding a baby in her belly. Then she would tell me to look away so the baby could come out. She had 3 babies in the span of 5 minutes. When I congratulated her on triplets she corrected me by saying they were all different babies but that she didn't keep them, she liked giving them away.

A few weeks ago we met up with Ellen and Briggs at the pumpkin farm and then went to lunch with them afterwards. Ellen was encouraging conversation between Caroline and Briggs by having them discuss how their preschools were the same and different. While Briggs was trying to give an example to Caroline on how his preschool was different than hers, Caroline interrupted him by saying, "Briggs, you should really chew your food before talking. I can't even understand you!" Through my own laughter (and Ellen's) I corrected Caroline by making sure she knows that its rude to tell another person not to talk with food in their mouth unless they are the persons mommy or daddy. I know exactly where she got this table manner lesson; it's something that we say to Liam on a daily basis. Kids hear and see everything!

Piano

We are about a month into Liam learning how to play the piano. I would say he is doing extremely well so far. He has mastered where all of the white notes are, he has great rhythm and has already memorized some of his pieces. He understands the difference between forte and piano and his teacher says he is very aware of what he is doing while she is working with him. It helps to have Grandma Fink give us all sorts of tips as well so that our practicing sessions are great!

Liam practices about 5-10 minutes each day which is just perfect. He is beginning to understand that while a new piece may be difficult at first it doesn't take long for it to sound the way it should if he works hard at it. 

His teacher is just a few short blocks away so every week he and I get to take a walk together.  (without the girls!) I've discovered that these walks may be one of my favorite times of the week as Liam is usually very talkative about school or even just about anything. Last night we discussed the differences between crickets and grasshoppers and then about how the moon is getting larger every night. 

I cherish this one on one time with him. Even if it is just for 5 minutes. It helps me appreciate his personality and his thought process. I'm sure he doesn't think too much of it but he still wants to hold my hand which I know the time is ticking away for my little boy to think that that is no longer something to do in public with his mother. 

Maybe one day when he's an adult he'll look back at these walks and understand just how special they are. I already know.