Tyler loved bowling on his birthday, but of course wasn't really sure what the occasion was. Kaitlyn, on the other hand, has talked about it almost every day since then. "You 'member how we did bowling on Tyler's bir-day? Tyler is five years old. And then it's going to be my bir-day. And I'm going to be THREE years old (comlete with holding up three fingers). And we're going to the jumping place."
"But first I'm two."
Well, now my baby girl is three years old. We decided on a low-key birthday party for her, though I knew that since Tyler's had included buying a cake and balloons those were a must for hers. We invited her friend Cody and his family to come with us to Jump On It, and the kids had a blast. The only problem was that I forgot to grab my SD card before we left, so no pictures! Sad. We came back to our house for presents and pizza, so at least I could rescue my camera then.
It is a wonderful age, since she is thrilled with anything she got. Cody gave her a cute little tin purse, and she put all of the "chap sticks" we gave her in there (so she would stop stealing mine). And then the next day, on her actual birthday, we brought out a little kitchen! It is horribly cheap, so we'll see how long it lasts, but the kids both love it. I do wish their birthdays were further from Christmas, given the huge influx of toys right now, but it is my own fault after all.
I did this last year for their birthdays, and love to look back on it, so I'll do another snapshot of my kids here.
Tyler:
*Much of Tyler's speech is still "scripted", meaning that he is reciting things he heard someone else say. We are working on that, but it is fun to see what lines he pulls up and where they came from. My recent favorite was when he got his Buzz Lightyear slippers on the other day. He took time to inspect the Buzz on the front of each one before poking them out one at a time so they could argue with each other. "I'm Buzz Lightyear!" "No, I'm Buzz Lightyear!" "No, I'm Buzz Lightyear!" Because what else would two Buzz Lightyears say to each other? It was so cute.
*He is doing well in his class, I think. He is one of their best kiddos with scissor time - he can cut out big long curves, and is very intent on following the line perfectly. One of the class aides said she loves having Tyler because "he actually answers my questions!" Many of them just repeat the question back ("What's your name?" "What's name?") but Tyler actually responds to the question. At least, when he feels like talking. We certainly went through that phase ourselves, but it is one thing he is much, much better at. Except the fact that his favorite answer is "no", just because it drives Kaitlyn crazy. "Tyler, we're in the car!" "NO!" "Yes we ARE!" "NO!" Yes, child, you are. But he sure loves getting her riled up.
*On the other hand, Tyler does have a long way to go. A common problem we are seeing is that he picks things up when they are new, and then a week later seems to have forgotten them entirely. He loved construction vehicles for a year or so, but now can't remember their names. He was improving a lot at the beginning of the school year, but then one day he will mix up his colors as if he never knew them.
*Most importantly, though, Tyler is our sweetie. He doesn't complain about anything, and happily goes along with whatever we throw at him in life. His favorite person in the world is his dad, and he will even run around me to get to him and hold his hand.
Kaitlyn:
*Is very, very verbal. I would honestly consider her fluent in English at this point, and she has been for a while. And I love to listen to her explain things to me all day. She is starting to shed some of her mispronunciations from earlier, and it makes me sad sometimes! She called her shoes "tip-tops" all last year, and when she pulled them out last week and called them "flip-flops" I got kinda sad. But life moves on, I guess.
*She loves her "for-puter" and "tay-vee shows" very much, especially Caillou and Elmo. I get a bit sick of how often her sentences start with "you 'member when Caillou" did or said something, but she has learned a lot from both activities. It is just hard to maintain the proper dosing of them!
*Recently, her new thing has been sign language. She watched the Signing Time videos in the car on our Vegas trip, and even two weeks later is showing me new ones she remembered from that one viewing. "Mommy! This means bike!"
*She loves playing with her baby dollies and taking care of them. In fact, we have a book that shows a Mommy bear playing with her baby bear, and she tells me that that is her taking care of her baby. (The next page is "my daddy. He's pretending to be a bear. Look! He's playing with my baby!")
*Kailtyn is still rather obsessed with feeding others. She follows cats around with their bowl of food and shoves it into them when they don't want to eat it. She pours fish food into fish tanks. When she sees a baby drinking from a bottle, she runs over to hold the bottle for them. It might be a tiring hobby, but it is sure fun to watch.
*The independant streak is in full swing now. In many cases, if I do something for her, she gets upset and takes what I did apart so she can do it herself.
*I love how sweet Kaitlyn is with Tyler, though. She makes sure she includes him in what she does, and is a great "peer model" for him. Of course there are tense moments, but they are actually very good friends, and I love that. (Of course, it helps that Tyler will go along with whatever Kaitlyn tells him to do!)
