These two of mine are the absolute best. They make me crazy happy and also crazy crazy depending on the hour.
Rowan: Is probably the best three-year-old that has ever lived. He is so obedient, kind, and sweet. His current favorite things are GAMES. Board games, video games, mind games, pretend fight games. He is a gamer through and through. Most mornings, he comes downstairs to find me and will ask to read the scriptures with me. I think this is partially because he knows I will let him play games after it, but also because I do think they bring a special spirit into our home. The other day he was pretty tired and I asked him why he was so grumpy and he said "Cause I haven't read the scriptures today Mommy!"
He is going to start a mini-preschool the end of March which he is NOT wanting to do. It will only be three days a week for 90 minutes which I think he will actually love once he gets going. Rowan is now a SUNBEAM! Nursery was impossible and terrible near the end, but he really loves going to primary. His one thing he struggles a little with his is overpowering desire to be picked to do things. If he does not get selected, the world borders on an early destruction.
Winning is all that Rowan wants from life. This will serve him very well (hopefully) as he gets older, but it makes from some soul-shattering days of gaming. He's learning a little bit everyday how to be less upset and just enjoy the event of playing.
Rowan seemed to struggle a little with numbers but after some Pinterest practicing ideas, he now has number recognition up to ten and we are working on our teens.
Rowan can be a littttle dramatic at times. As I said before, he really is one of the best behaved little three-year-olds I've met. He listens really well and much like his father, has a natural instinct toward goodness. When he does have his moments, he has some pretty hysterical ones. Lyra can be a little rough and think it's a game. If she pushes him with all her 20-month-old strength, Rowan will throw himself across the room or into a wall and say "She PUSHED me! She needs to go in timeout!"
I've noticed him seeking attention from strangers that Lyra is getting. If someone is talking to her or commenting about her, he will step in and try and copy Lyra. The other day at the dollar store, Lyra put a bucket on her head and ran straight into the wall. An older woman was laughing at her so Rowan grabbed a bucket and mimicked Lyra. I really appreciated that the woman turned her attention to him and said "You're really cute too!" It breaks my heart a little to notice the attention breaking from Rowan simply because he is getting older. He handles it well for the most part, but it's still sad. I'm hoping I can help him realize he can get attention in different, equally fulfilling ways by doing things that showcase how great he is as his sweet 3-year-old self.
He wakes up consistently from 7:00-7:34am no matter what time he goes to bed. It's not an awful time at all, but I wish the nights we got him in bed late he would sleep in purely because he can be so tired and grumpy the next day. He does a good job taking quiet time now that it's become a pattern, but he never sleeps during it.
We are going to Disneyworld in ten days and Rowan (and all of us!) are so incredibly excited. Rowan prays that "It will be March in two days and we can go to Disneyworld" pretty much everyday. Speaking of prayers, he will remember people to pray with forever. He consistently prays for Sel's grandparents who were in a car accident a few weeks ago, my dad, Baby Grace, Baby Kaio and some other people who come up.
Lyra: Is still an animal. She has SO much personality.
Lyra has some small little abnormalities we've noticed. She's missing a spinous process or something in her back that I can never stop thinking about. The pediatrician thought we should wait to do an x-ray because it would only expose her to radiation and it isn't currently bothering her. She'll say ouchie if I rub my hands down her back sometimes, but never a sharp yelp of pain or anything. She also has a ladybit adhesion which is extra sad. They gave me an estrogen cream to put down there and I don't know if its coincidental that she turns horrendously grumpy and horrible the next day or not. I have not been doing it because I cannot handle the PMS baby that happens the days I remember to do it.
Lyra can talk really well and has an expansive vocabulary. Both Rowan and Lyra have been such good speakers and I don't really know why. I know we aren't doing anything special to really foster that and the only thing I can ever really think of is baby signing time. Either way, it is incredibly helpful to tempering tantrums and connecting with my kiddos.
Lyra is still nursing. We tried a weaning night where Sel helped. It was three hours of tragedy. I will continue to wake up in the night for the next five years or so most likely. She sometimes will do really great and not wake up until the early morning hours 5/6am then go back to sleep until 8/9am. It's those random 1-3am night wakings that kill me. Lyra's also been really peppy when I go in there during the night. She'll be crying her eyes out and as soon as I walk in, the tears stop and she'll whisper "Hi mommy!" Eye roll. She gets her legs stuck in her crib a lot lately and the other day I was trying to maneuver her knee caps from their prison and she so sweetly said through her tears "Thank you mommy!" It was so tender
Lyra loves running from people. Chase is still her fave game, but she also has the drop coping mechanism. It's SO funny. If you scare her when she's coming around a corner or she starts to get really scared of Sel chasing her, she'll drop to the floor in a splay of baby arms and legs. She drops all four limbs at the same time like some sort of chipmunk. I wish I had a video of it.
She loves her dollhouse. I love watching my kids imaginative play. She'll have her mommy doll come in and out the front door and put everyone to bed. Lyra's favorite thing is to put people to bed and pretend to go to bed herself. She's always been pretty good and going to bed on her own, but we discovered she HAPPILY goes to bed if we put 4-5 stuffed animals in her crib for her. She consistently needs to hold multiple everything- toys, dolls, animals. She is destined to have twins.
We need a leash for her. She runs away so fast and is far too friendly. She'll go up to strangers, raise her arms up to be held and say "Hi friend!" It's terrifying. Luckily, most people are good people, but I always worry about it.
She fears nothing. She loves dogs and all animals. When she heard my friend's dog whining behind the door the other day, she dropped down on her knees and reached her tiny fingers under the door saying "He sad. He crying".
She is so blessedly easy when it comes to dropping her off at nursery or friends houses. She goes without looking back. Rowan STILL struggles way more with this. He would live at the house all day everyday if I let him. His desire to be around people is as strong as mine. It isn't that he dislikes them, it's the actual forced change that causes stress for him.
Both Rowan and Lyra finally have a really solid friend base. They have friends that they get really excited to see and consistently interact with.
I had TONS of photos that all got deleted from my phone. Here are just the ones I have since I fixed it.
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| She's mostly an animal herself |
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| Lyra will jump onto things like this all the time. The other day at Aldi, Sel was with us and I couldn't find Lyra. I thought she was with him, he thought she was with me. It turns out she was with both of us. She had crawled under the cart to that bottom rack and was laughing SO hard while we looked around for her. YIKES! What is TWO going to look like on this girl?! |
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| Swim lessons. He loved going to them and hopefully I can figure out ways to get Lyra from trying to ruin his happiness by drowning herself. |
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| Valentines day pancakes that Rowan made ALL by himself. He LOOOOVES to cook and is actually pretty fantastic at it. Between the two of us cooks, he makes less mess and less mistakes than I do. He is also the cutest chef in our house |
