Kidlets

My kids are getting WAY WAY WAY too big! I thought I'd do some updates since Ruth turned 3 and Will turned 18 months the week before Molly was born. 

Coordinating outfits. Totally unplanned. I happened to wear red that day too.

We'll start with Will. He's hilarious and frustrating and adorable and crazy. Everything an 18 month old should be. 

Ruth likes to do his hair when I'm doing her hair in the morning. Don't tell Sterling.

Will is starting to communicate. Kind of. In his own grunting/demanding sort of way. He makes very throaty/guttural sounds that are uncannily like an actual word. If you know his grunting noises you can make out "sorry" "thank you" "ok" and a few other ones. He can actually say "momma" "amen" "uh-oh" "cheese" and I know there's more but I can't think of any. He can sign "please" and after that he definitely has his own little language going on. Sometimes I think I should take him to an African tribe that has a clicking language and see if he fits in better there! Haha! He also communicates by pulling us to where/what he wants. He's gone from our silent boy to a much more animated and noisy kid. I love it. I think its fun to hear his noises and, except for the times he's screaming cause I can't figure out what he wants, so fun to decipher them. It is also hilarious to me (and frequently annoying) that he does this deep belly yell of "MOMMA!" when he wants my attention. Oh, it makes me love him all the more every time, even when it's frustrating. He also loves to mimic--especially all the things I do with Molly. His most recent is that he will pull out a diaper and try to put it on a doll when I've changed Molly. Then once the diaper is on he picks up the baby and pats it on the back looking all concerned. So adorable. Oh, the other thing I love about him is his toddler belly. I've noticed it more now that Ruth is so tall she doesn't have one and then I see him standing there with that little belly poking out. It makes me so sad Ruth's is gone and makes me love his all the more!

He is starting to 'play' a lot more too, thank goodness cause Ruthie needs a friend! She still asks to play with Devaney and Olivia on a fairly regular basis and I get a little sad that she has no friends her age/older here like she had in Utah! But Will is becoming her best friend and although they have LOTS of moments, they spend a lot of time playing together. Ruth also likes to dress Will up and since he doesn't mind it's fun for everyone!

On to Ruthie.

Ruthie loves to be the big sister/mother. She mother hens Will WAY too much and she constantly wants to be touching or helping with Molly. She wants to push the cart. She wants to put the cup of flour in. She wants to dress Molly. She wants to open the mailbox. It can be really tough to take the time to let her 'help' me, but I really enjoy seeing her excitement and happiness when I do. The above picture she was watching Dragon Tales and holding Molly while Will napped. How did she get that big? Ruth's communication has also rocketed off the charts lately. She is singing verses upon verses of songs, making up her own songs (she is the greatest in horrible Miami traffic cause she just sings away the entire time), memorizing verses, saying prayers, and has starting using words that just surprise me that she can understand and put into a sentence! She says things all the time that just make me laugh and  I should write more of them down. Yesterday I was feeding Molly and she wanted a snack so I told her when Molly was finished. She says "Mom, when you're finished eating Molly, then we'll get a snack?" Haha. She's also big into when this happens, then this will happen statements. When we finish lunch THEN we can go swimming? She is also starting to understand babies and growing up. When you were a baby, THEN you wore that dress? When Molly is big, THEN she can walk? I think it's fun to hear her puzzle things out.

Some more funny things:
Instead of swimsuit Ruth says "swim soup"
Mosquitoes are "skeetos" to pretty much everyone in the house now. Will claps his hands whenever we mention one--he's trying to catch it!
Instead of popsicle Ruth says "poxible"
Ruth sings "You are my sun-sine...you make me happy when skies are GREAT!"

Now for a bunch of pictures of these two crazies (I took some of Ruth because I braided her hair the other day, but not french braids like I normally do, and they stuck out JUST LIKE Pippi Longstocking. I laughed the entire morning. Every single time I looked at her. So then I had to take some of Will just for good measure):

 Apparently he doesn't display his craziness like his sisters do.

But he sure is the handsomest little man there ever was!

Plus, he's wearing a red Puma shirt. My favorite color. My favorite athletic brand. It just looks so perfectly boyish. I love it every time he wears it!

I gave him a ball to coax him to continue smiling. Then I showed him the pictures to coax him some more. Every time he saw the pictures below he would start grinning like a wack-o...but of course as soon as I whipped the camera around, he stopped. He loves balls and all things throw-able, that's for sure!

And to continue this insanely long post, a story.

A while ago we got a new fridge. It was delivered by two black guys, one older and heavier set and one young and skinny. Due to the horrendous state of everything in our apartment upon our arrival, I wanted to clean behind and beneath the fridge when they took it out and before they put the new one in. The older guy was happy to oblige. I had the kids locked in their high chairs so they wouldn't bother the moving guys and he struck up a conversation with Ruthie. At first I was a little annoyed because he kept talking to her about school, going to school, didn't she want to leave her mom and go to school? And in my head I'm thinking "of course not! She wants to stay home with me for a LONG time! She's only TWO thank you very much!" but then he asked Ruth if she knew her alphabet or numbers, which....is sketchy. On both counts. She has 123456...mostly. But THEN (and there is a reason I'm telling this story) she pointed to a picture on the wall and said "That's Jesus." and the old black guy just lit up "You know about Jesus?! Your parents ARE teaching you right! Can you sing me a song about Jesus?" and then he jumps into this child/Jesus/black song that was awesome. Really awesome. Ruth started singing Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam but she kind of faded out. So there I was scrubbing tile while an old black guy sang Jesus songs with my daughter in the kitchen. It was awesome.

*Just as a disclaimer, Ruthie now can sing most of the alphabet and has her numbers 1-11(with several after, just not always in correct order, haha). I'm not a terrible mother, I promise.