Birthday Season

I had good intentions to create separate slideshows for Jude and Ada, since they both recently celebrated birthdays. But alas, each time I've sat down to start making them, I end up bogged down in emails or researching story assignments or looking at photos of Jessica Simpson's baby or something, and I've realized its not going to happen right now!

So I will paraphrase the last year of their little lives.

Jude turned 4. What a big guy! He learned to do so many new things this past year physically (I saw him ride a bike without training wheels this week!) but what impresses me most is what he's learned emotionally. He is seriously one of my best friends. Being home with the kids all day, I've become so grateful for another "person" in the house, one that talks WITH me and makes me laugh and think and answer questions. He is sensitive and intuitive; he picks up extremely quickly on others' moods and responds accordingly. He is increasingly mechanical and can do puzzles and take apart/put together toys and machines better than I can, and seems to take a lot of pleasure in struggling through making something fit together or function and then triumphantly announcing, "And that's how it works!" He is a good friend and is extremely loyal, and prefers to play in a group of 2 or 3 kids rather than a huge crowd. He reasons well, and often asks me about things and then accepts the answer and never asks me again, and I'll catch him explaining it to Ada later. He takes really well to discipline, and earns our trust more every day. We entrust him with a lot, and tell him so, and he really rises to responsibility when we give him the chance. Recently, I've been letting him cross the street alone to go to our neighbor's house when he wants to go play or I need to borrow a lemon or something. It's not a busy street, but nevertheless its a street he could get smushed on, and even though I stand inside the storm door and watch him, his adorable exaggerated left-and-right checks for cars and the pride on his sweet face when he takes off across the street...its priceless. He helps out a ton with Ada. I hear him telling her how things work, and telling her that if she screams again it will make mom mad and hurt our ears, and reassuring her she's not in trouble if we correct her and she cries, and ordering her back into timeout when she sneaks out, and popping grapes into his mouth when she's refusing her lunch and saying, "See? It's yummy and good for your body! Don't you want to grow big and strong?" He tells her she's special and he tells her God loves her, and he says he'll pray out loud before lunch on Ada's behalf until she can talk and pray herself. He has an uncanny ability to interpret her needs for me. He will still snuggle Ted and I until he's blue in the face. His bedtime routine involves back scratches and me singing his favorite lineup of songs: Daisy Daisy, I've Been Working on the Railroad, and Amazing Grace. (When Ted puts him to bed, his routine involves being made into a human burrito and devoured--different styles:) He's just the best. Sure, he's a kid and he has his moments of insanity, but that boy is pure joy to us. He is so much like Ted.

Ada turned 2. And that apple falls a little closer to this tree, in terms of her personality! We used to think she was just like Jude, but here lately she has become her own little person and its hilarious. She is sweet and spunky and FUNNY! She also takes well to correction (she will RUN to timeout if you say the word and freezes when she hears the word "no") and she loves to make us laugh. And loves TO laugh. She's a big, big fan of slapstick humor. If you really get her going, I've seen her laugh so hard she's had tears in her eyes and can hardly breathe. She vacillates between being extremely gentle and extremely rough (lovingly pat-pats her baby doll to sleep and then violently flings it against the wall) and LOVES TV. The  girl can watch movies all.day.long. Her nose is in a book for hours each day while she narrates loudly in her own little half English, half Toddler language. She sings songs with us and dances with great abandon around the house! She's starting to string 3 or 4 word sentences together and its lovely to know what she's thinking or wants. She wakes up in the best mood, practically chirping and smiling and jumping in her bed when I come in (we'll see how that mood jives with Jude's morning mood once they share a room!) She's getting girly...there's been lots more digging in my makeup bag, purse-weilding, and accessorizing here lately. She's also developed a sassy temper lately too, so we shall see what 2 holds in store for her! Luckily, its normally short-lived. We started potty training, then stopped. We had a pink chart on the wall, and stickers, and some excited wiggling on the potty seat, and the whole 9, and then nothing. She cries when I  ask if she wants to go potty, big heaving sobs in my lap screaming "Nooo Mommy!" So, whatever that means. Overall, Silly Goose is just the term that pops into my head most often to describe her. I just love her. I love who she is. She's ours, and she's laughter and light in our house.

Happy Birthday to my babies.