Lennox - 3 years old!

How can three years have passed? I cannot and don't even want to remember my life with out the joy I get from being a mom! This boy, Lennox, is such a mess. He keeps me thinking deeper, laughing harder and loving stronger than I ever have.

My niece, Avery, was in town for Lennox's birthday so we had a little family party with the grandparents. The next day, Jay and I took the kids to the water park.

Lennox is just getting into dressing himself and dressing up. For some reason, he thinks this is his uniform: a yellow hard hat, sunglasses, the wooden stick and metal triangle stick from his Melissa & Doug band, plus 2 different shoes (preferrable 2 right shoes). He puts this get-up on all of the time and sometimes I can't help but cave and let him wear it to church or the doctor's office! ha. Why inhibit who he is? :)

He is really into puzzles. He found a jigsaw floor puzzle in his closet one day and, much to my surprise, he was able to put it together on his own! I was so proud. I guess hiding the puzzles because there are lots of pieces to make a mess with is really depriving him of brain stimulating activity! I'll have to stop that. Anyway, he's up to 20 piece jigsaws. I have definitely discovered that it is worth it to pay extra for Melissa & Doug... the cheap ones just don't fit together as nicely.

Lennox likes to wipe off my kisses but that only results in extra kisses. Gosh, when is it inappropriate to kiss your child's face off? I hope not any time soon. I don't want to be THAT mom! He likes for me to give him butterfly or butterPLY kisses. Those are the only ones he doesn't wipe off.

He is starting to describe situations but he hasn't gotten to the stage where his story gets to the point. It's more like "What did you today?" "I was in dere and I lucked (looked) at you and den I turned and I lucked at the door and it closed. Then, I lucked and I saw the floor and I turned and lucked at the box..." and on and on!! ha ha. I like to ask alot of questions just so I can hear these stories! That is, if he answers me. He is an expert ignorer. He ignores about 80% of what I ask. That's a low ball estimate too. I end up asking the same questions 5 times before I make him look at me and give me an answer. The answer usually has nothing to do with what I asked but usually is a distraction or an excuse. His answers ALWAYS begin with "because...." "Because, I need to go outside." "Because, my belly hurts." "Because, I need my daddy!"

This boy has to have the last word. Gosh, where does he get this bad behavior?? Must be his father. Last night he said, "I need some milk." I said, "you want more MILK?" "Yes, more milk." So, I gave him milk and then he argued me down that he needed "apple duce." I walked away from the table and did a few things only to come back and hear him mumbling something about "I didn't say milk. I said duce." but it was all under his breath! ha. Argumentative much?

Another 3 year old boy thing is sound effects. Everything has a sound effect. He loves to "pow. pow. shoommm. shuwsh. boom! pow." all day long. He likes to "wreck" his cars because that means there are LOTS of sound effects. He also likes to see real wrecks on the road... he says, "ooh, luck! they wrecked!" I'm trying to teach him that real wrecks are no laughing matter. Maybe year 4 will bring about empathy?

Oh, another favorite of Lennox's is traffic lights. "You had to stop on red. YOu had to stop!" I pointed out that there is also a yellow light while we were on vacation. I thought telling him yellow means slow down and get ready to stop would interest him. It did but then he cried all the way home because he "just needs a yellow light!!" Sorry man, I wish I could control the traffic lights and then you would only know green means go!

At his 3 year checkup, Lennox was 36.5" (25th percentile) and 34 lbs (75th percentile... if that's the correct weight, it is hard to recall!).

Stella - 9 Months

This post is pretty late. I actually started it on time but I couldn't finish it because all I could think about was how much Stella hates to sleep. Since she hates to sleep, I get no sleep. Therefore, I only think of sleep and dislike those who prevent me from getting any!! Ok, I don't really dislike my child but I have had a few ugly thoughts about her in the midst of a nightly battle with putting her to bed!! BUT... in the past week, night time routines have settled down so much! Going on vacation really messed her up. That wasn't her fault. Poor Girl! This is the main problem... she needs to eat dinner about 5:30 so that she can have her bottle around 7:15 and then she doesn't miss her window of drifting off to sleep between 7:22 and 7:26! That might not sound like a problem to most but when you don't get home half the time until 7, that's a problem! Thankfully (sort of), football season has started so I should be home by 5:30. What's not so great about that is that means I need to be at work by 5am. Meaning I need to get up by 3:45AM!!!?!?!?!?? BOO. So anyway, if we miss her teensy tiny window it's a battle of clawing, screaming, rubbing eyes, throwing pacifiers, head butting and Stella gets mad too! ha. Just kidding. It's all her :). Anyway, sometimes it's an hour long battle, sometimes it is 2 hours! Really, it is crazy. I do lay her down in her bed sometimes but she immediately starts howling. I can't let her do that for more than a few minutes. I just can't stand it. I'm not sure why though because she is no happier in my arms. She just fights, fights, fights.

She is so determined.... about everything, not just staying awake! If she wants something you have she WILL get her hands on it and you have to literally pry them off. She has a serious grip! In the past month, she has started really crawling, crawling really fast, pulling up on EVERYTHING, and now she thinks she can let go and stand by her lonesome! She is into everything and all over the place. Her favorite place to go is the bathroom so I'm sure she will be playing in the toilet in no time! She loves to pull up and hold on with one hand but she isn't quite sure how to let go and sit back down. Yesterday I found her under the kitchen table with one hand on the under side of the table and she was just crying, crying, crying. She didn't want to fall but she wasn't sure how to let go! so cute!

She has a few tricks. Bri showed her how to make sweet eyes and now she can do it on command! It is so stinking cute! She can give high fives and she can clap with me but not by herself. She gives sugar by leaning in and giving you a wide open mouth kiss. I hope she tones that down because she has already tried to make out with Jenson and Devin! ha. When she's on the bed, Jay taught her to fall backwards when he says "weeee!" She thinks that is so fun. She likes to play patty cake and motor boat. She also likes for me to pretend to drop her. She likes to chase balls and dump out laundry baskets or the contents of open drawers. She likes to taste each item in the laundry basket/drawer too. To watch her, you would think she was tasting to see what each item was... "yeah, that's a sock, I'll put that over here. That's a shirt, let's stack it on this side...." Anyway, because of that I try to make sure she is only emptying clean clothes baskets! Her favorite toys are whatever Lennox is playing with. I think this month we've turned the corner into sibling rivalry. Before, she wasn't much of a threat to Lennox but now that she is mobile, there has been quite a bit of kicking and pushing and slapping and stepping on toes. I watched him ever so politely squoosh her fingers under his shoe. I didn't really think he would do it, that's why I was just watching. I was wrong. He straight up stomped them into the ground!!

Stella weighed 18 lbs, 10 oz (25th) and was 28.5 inches (75th) at her 9 month checkup. Her head was 95th percentile. My kids have block heads I guess! Oh, she figured out how to put the balls in her gumball machine and push the lever to get them out. That's a whole month earlier than Lennox figured it out so she must be smart! I mean, smarter than Lennox is a near genius!! ha ha. Don't we all think that of our kids!!?!?!?!? :)

Stella loves to eat! She will eat anything you give her except avocadoes... which is cannot understand. She really likes spicy things like blackened fish and even wing sauce! I know? I hope she will continue to eat whatever I give her... unlike her big brother. She is so sweet, even when she has attitude. Even though it would be easy to lay her down and have her go to sleep, I do love that she immediately turns around and reaches for me. She does love her mama. Who can resist those chubby arms and big blue eyes? No me. She's a stinker but I'll keep her.