Kidisms

Gosh guys,
With all this Utah excitement and summer lovin' livin' and everything in-between, my kids got HUGE! This is definitely not allowed, so I'm going to pretend none of this happened and rewind a bit. If only I could.

Even though I wish I could just make. it. stop. I am having so much fun with all these new and great milestones my kids are hitting. It's so great!

First off. Will and his talking. and talking. and TALKING. It's like he figured out how to get it to go from the back of his throat to the front, and now he is so excited about it he just goes on and on and on. Hahaaahaa! Ok, in reality, he is still much more reserved about talking than say, a certain chatterbox redhead I know that never stops for a breath, but in Will terms--it is a ton. Some of my favorites:

"LOOK!" said about five hundred times a day. Whenever he wants to show off, have me act proud, get the baby in trouble, etc., etc. This one tickles me because even though a lot of his words are still somewhat unclear, 'look' is crystal clear from the 'L' to the hard 'K' at the end. So adorable.
"Dan-dan." His term/name for Ruth. I get it. Ruth is a really hard name to pronounce. I've suspected that he had a name for her (similar to dada though, so I wasn't sure if he was just using that term as a blanket-for-all-family term or not) for awhile, but it is definitely distinct these days.
"Me too!!!!" with the 'too' escalating to really high pitches and loud volumes. Often with an emphatic finger poke to his chest. I just love it. Often lately with the added "Me do, too."
Today he said his first five word sentence. I was folding laundry (ENDLESS LAUNDRY) and he was trying to play with our ladder. I told him no, so Ruth was explaining to him that daddy used it to get up in the loft to get our 'Utah stuff', haha. Our suitcases and sleeping bags, among a bunch of other things, are up there. Then Will starts looking up into the loft and notices the sleeping bags. He slept in those for six weeks in Utah, so he exclaims "MOM! LOOK! Me bed up HIGH there! Look!" After which I sat there counting and exclaiming over his vocabulary. Haha.
It's amazing what a little jump in communication can do for realizing how much he understands around here. I just get a kick out of him and Ruthie playing together all day long. He is very emphatic. I can also give him MUCH longer instructions now and he will totally follow through. Like to pick up his pillow and take it upstairs and come back down and sit up to the table. That's quite a bit for a little guy and he is all over it!

All these photos are from my phone. Excuse the crazy blurriness. But didn't he look SOOO handsome in the shirt I picked up in Utah at Kid to Kid for .99? Oh how I miss Kid to Kid.

Also Molly. That girl thinks that learning to walk made her an honorary adult or something. No joke. The squawking that girl pulled in nursery when she didn't get a cup like everyone else even though she was sitting up to the big table all by herself just like everyone else. Oh goodness. And no, she is not old enough for nursery, but you bet she thinks she is and walks right around everyone acting as if it is her space. Also today at the pool she just started jumping in all by herself. WHAT ELEVEN MONTH OLD DOES THAT?!?!?! JUMPS in a pool?!?!? And she'd just come up laughing and smiling, knowing that that is exactly what all the other kids do, too. My heart. She toddles around endlessly and it is just the best. To see such a tiny little person (12th percentile on the charts last week at her appointment) walking around so steadily--it just never gets old.
Another hilarious thing she does lately is her snub when she doesn't want the specific food I am feeding her. If she wants a drink of milk and I am trying to give her another bite, she tosses her nose in the air and turns her head and it just makes me crack up every single time. Oh, am I ever worried about that attitude.

In actual kidisms, I have very little. I think I am losing my brain a bit. Today the kids were just on one and everything they did I thought I should write about and then thought I'd type it up tonight and then...nothing.

Ruthie hit a kick where she wants to only wear Will's clothes, with a costume change every 3-5 minutes. This has been going on non-stop for the last 48 hours and has made the seven loads of laundry I am trying to fold seem insurmountable because their drawers are also constantly unfolded.

Today they dropped my umbrella stroller in the pool. Twice. Ruth said they wanted to swim with it. Go figure.

I went through a huge effort and made a nice meal tonight, and none of my kids ate it (Sterling was studying, so I can only imagine he would have loved it.). But they thought squeezing limes over their plates was hilarious, and then when Will licked one, they thought the faces you made while licking a lime were even more hilarious. We spent the next ten minutes licking limes and making faces and laughing our heads off, so I guess all was not lost. Although, there is still cilantro all over my kitchen floor and I am hiding from mopping right now. Wish me luck.

Molly likes to put little things inside of bigger things. To Ruth and Will's extreme delight, she will even 'clean up' for them, if they put the bag in front of her and then hand her each toy to be put into the bag. I don't think they realize how much work they are doing, because they enjoy clapping and cheering so much every time she 'cleans up' a toy. Haha!

Molly will fold her arms for prayer when everyone else does and I LOVE it. Just the sweetest thing. Will 'prays' now for us, and it is this chanting/drawling/no words or emphasis type thing that is quite hilarious.

Molly is HUGE into unrolling toilet paper and sticking her hands into the toilet lately. Bless her.

Last night Ruth and Will were laughing hysterically WAY past the time I had put them to bed. Eventually I heard them calm down and started watching a tv show. Half way through my show I looked up and saw Will standing there on the stairs. Decked out in slippers, a purse, a hat, and toys. He got this horribly sad look on his face when he saw me notice him. Poor boy, he knew he was in trouble. So I couldn't help but scoop him up and play with him for awhile before rocking him to sleep. I miss that baby boy and I am much too afraid of him getting bigger.

Watching a movie with the stools upside down. Go figure. Sweet moment though, with Ruth's arms around Molly.

Proof Ruthie is wearing all of Will's clothes. Also, how did Molly get the job of pushing Ruth around?!

They are loving the Elephant and Piggie book Ruth got for her birthday. Whenever I say "Somebody is reading us. Is it a monster?" (or however that goes) Will jumps up and down in excitement, pointing to his chest, "ME! ME! ME! ME!" hahaha. He also thinks that the elephant laughing really hard is crying, and so he always makes a sad sound and strokes him softly on that page. Hahaahaa.

At night lately we've been doing a plethora of kissing before bed. Eskimo kisses. Butterfly kisses. Tickle kisses. Tonight Ruthie stopped me as I was walking away and said "WAIT! One more kind of kiss mom." So I came back and she turned her head and said "Ear kiss." and I put my ear against hers while she giggled away like the funniest thing had just happened. Haha. Which reminds me that Will is SO into saying "BIG BIG BIG" before everything. So now, instead of just asking for another hug before bed, his biggest delaying strategy, he asks for a "big, big, BIG HUG MOM!" and I laugh every time.

We were reading 10 Apples Up On Top tonight and I was counting them with Ruthie (she is getting to be a fabulous counter lately. She used to always count one thing multiple times, or keep counting even though she wasn't pointing anymore, but she is getting pretty perfect about it now.) and so Will would have to run his finger along the apples and he'd say "Aboo (apple), aboo, aboo, lot, lot, lot, lot, LOT, LOT, LOT, LO-----T!" Very effective counting. It's also funny when we read books because I am always asking him for animal names, or colors, so Ruth has started 'coaching' him as well. She'll ask him what color and then respond with this big "Good job, Will!" haha.

One of the sweetest things happened today. Molly can go upstairs, and she can go down one or two stairs, but not our full flight yet. Usually she is good about squawking at the top of the stairs for someone to come get her. But today I was reading a story to Will and some piano students (their mom got caught in Miami traffic) when I hear this horrible strangled yell come from Ruthie and she TORE up the stairs, all the while screaming/breathing hard in this frightened way. She was so fast all I could do was stand up and get to the bottom of the stairs by the time I realized she'd caught Molly on the second step from the top. Molly started crying because she was startled but was totally fine. BEST BIG SISTER EVER AWARD! Poor Ruthie cried for five minutes just because she was so worried about how Molly had almost fallen down the stairs. It was the sweetest thing in my entire life.

My kids are super awesome. Over and out.

Ruthie is FOUR

Once upon a time I had a tiny, tiny, PERFECT little, tiny soft ball of chub. Then I had two more. And I continued to tell myself I had three babies forever after.

OH MY GOSH! Was she ever just a teeny, tiny one week old?! 

Oh those eyes. I just love her.

But SOMEHOW Ruthie turned FOUR?!?!?!?!

I'm in denial.

It just can't be true. 

Somehow, four just seems much, much, much too old. 

Yet, here we are. Sob.

So here's all about Ruthie:

She LOVES pink. Which is the understatement of the year. Despite all the tomboy-ness I tried to train into her, she wants anything frilly, fluffy, pink, and sparkly with bows and flowers. Dresses only. It is better if it fulfills all of those requirements. On this same vein, she loves crowns and princesses and singing and dancing and ballet and BALLERINAS. Those are on the pedestal of everything else. 

Oh gosh, she just knows so much. She knows everyone's favorite color. She knows where everyone's clothes are and picks out everyone's outfit each morning. She knows how to pick out a movie and start it by herself when I'm putting the other kids down for a nap. She knows how to put the key into the mailbox and turn it out. She knows how to push the stroller on the way to the pool. She knows how to make Molly and Will happy. She knows where everything is in the house. She knows songs. She remembers books. She understands games. She is my BIGGEST helper. The other day she emptied all the garbages into the kitchen garbage for me. Then put them all back and put a new bag in them. She carried everyone's Sunday shoes upstairs. She folded a batch of laundry (and she is GOOD! minus the articles of clothing that are too big for her to hold onto). She helped set the table. She carries all the condiments and drinks from the fridge to the table. She even begs to do the dishes all of the time (I'm just mean and only let her help occasionally.) She knows how to put on her own seatbelt as well as Will's, which is such a huge help. She knows how to color inside the lines (and is getting pretty great at it, too!). She knows how to go potty all by herself and wash her hands afterwards. She can eat without a bib on now, and I only regret it once in a great while. She knows which feet her shoes should go on, and generally what direction her panties go. She knows how to brush her hair and brush her teeth (although I help...kids don't have the right amount of dexterity until age seven...haha!). She knows SOOOO much that she obviously is not my baby anymore. Sniff, sniff, sniff, sniff. I just can't quite believe how fast she learns and how much she knows! 

More about Ruthie. She DANCES everywhere. It's elegant and beautiful and with incredible grace. She SINGS constantly. Her own compositions. They are the greatest. She is generally so happy and so much fun. She does have an independent streak a mile long, which can turn sassy real quick, but she wouldn't be our Ruthie without it!

Oh, I just love her SOOOO much! She will be my baby forever. And I am forever grateful. Happy 4th Ruthie!

We were lucky enough to party all day long on her birthday. I think she had a pretty great day.

We saw a peacock in the parking lot!

 We also some five or six big iguanas while walking from the parking lot to the beach. It was pretty sweet. We went to Crandon Beach (specifically for the carousel) and we have never been there before. But it is on the same island, Key Biscayne, as the light house beach we went to when we first moved here. The water was really murky, but there was a MASSIVE storm all last night, so I think that made a lot more waves and kicked up all the seaweed. By the time we were leaving the water was already clearing and looking much, much prettier. The beach itself was quieter than I expected (it was overcast, maybe it was a down day for them?) and therefore, AWESOME for us!

Gorgeous. When we get a day at the beach, I always wonder why we don't make it happen more frequently.

Four years old! 

Tractors come and clear up all the big beaches around here. We saw the tractor leave and Will was SO excited!

Mornings in the ocean. Nothing better.

 I was actually really happy that the storm last night cooled everything down. It was only hitting 80 when we got there, and barely touching 90 when we left. A perfect day at the beach.

Molly thought she could just walk all over the place. Including straight into the waves. It was hilarious!

Sterling thought this contraption was pretty cool. It seemed self-created.

We have new friends! Jeff and Diana just moved here for Jeff to start the MD/MPH program (the same as Sterling's) so we have been very excited to feel like veteran 2nd years and have some new friends! They really are the greatest--they play DOMINION like no one's business (they added four expansions to the sets we have) and they spent all morning digging in the sand with our kids. Welcome to Miami!

This trench was serious.

Grave digging. 

Look at Ruth's face! She got SUCH a kick out of it! 

It took a bit of coaxing, but she thought it was great!

This handsome husband spent a good portion of the time holding a sleeping baby. I love it when he does that.

Mermaid fins.

I wanted Sterling to take a picture of me with Will. Will resisted. 

This is how the struggle ended. Sigh.

Will wanted to join in!

He was a dinosaur with wings.

After we played until our kids were ready to drop (nap time) we headed over to the sand showers and then to the carousel. It was restored a few years back and it was absolutely enchanting. I love carousels. Ruth was so excited she got to ride one for her birthday! She hopped right on and of course picked the pink horse right off!

 

 

Then we headed home for some homemade pizza (that, after some rough mishaps, turned out surprisingly delicious and now I am wondering if I can recreate the mess, haha), per Ruthie's request, and 'white cake with pink icing'. Mom fail on the candles. Oops. But Ruthie didn't mind one bit, she blew that candle out and loved every bit of that cake!

Watching the gift-opening excitement. 

I am especially pleased with this purchase. We read it three times tonight and Ruth laughed out loud every single time. We have checked out several Mo Willems books from the library, but I thought Ruthie would like this one, I'm so glad she does! 

Thank you Grandma Cindy! She is in LOVE!

Thanks Grandma Rasmussen!

  We got her an art set from Ikea, which she promptly put in her pack-pack. I think she was a tad bit disappointed it wasn't a princess/sparkly/pink thing, but she LOVES painting, so as soon as we get a chance to use it, I'm sure she will love it.

I still can't believe she is four. I feel like this makes me a mom-mom. Instead of a young mom, or a mom of babies. Crazy stuff. But I wouldn't change it at all. We just love her so much! I love her eskimo kisses and her big hugs and how much she loves to show me that she can do things. I love her gorgeous smile and her fetish for shoes and how happy she is. We love you Ruthie!