15 Fun Facts About My Kids

One of my favorite things about blogging (post-kids) is that it gives me a place to keep track of the sweeter (and not-so-sweet) moments of my Parenting Experience.  I've written about why I blog in the past (if you actually click that link and read that post, please disregard the funky formatting at the end of the post - user-error, to be sure), but I can't stress it enough - it's AWESOME to have so many memories in one place.  Every once in awhile I go back through the archives of this blog and reminisce about how much things have changed (we no longer live in fear of scorpions crawling into bed with us at night) - or rue over things that have not changed one bit (the kids still don't sleep, for example).  But even then, with a blog I keep up with semi-regularly, it's still a hodgepodge of information and little facts spread out over the course of many months - not the organized and orderly scrapbooks I kept pre-kids (the kind that was in chronological order and included lots of fun pictures and little notes about almost every event I ever participated in - up to the day I got pregnant, pretty much).

So, when I read The Feminist Breeder's recent post - "15 Fun Facts About My Kids" - I thought, "YES!  I totally need to do that so I will have a snapshot of this exact moment in my kids' lives that I will never forget!"  

And so, here it is (and if you're reading this, write your own and you can link up at The Feminist Breeder's post, here.).

1. Jack loves his little sister so much.  He has started calling her "Baby Ellen" (Ellen is her middle name) and he aspires to be big enough to "walk around and carry Baby Ellen."  I try to explain that she's growing up with him, but he doesn't get it - he's positive that he's going to grow up and she's going to remain a little baby that he can carry around the house!

2.  Jack wants desperately to grow up (mostly so he can carry the baby, as far as I can tell).  He tells every kid he meets that he's "growing up big" and reminds me every day that he's growing.  However...as soon as I ask him to do something like pick up his toys, take his own shirt off, or try a new food, he tells me "I'm just little, I'll pick up my room / eat onions / put my own shirt on when I'm big!"

3.  Claire is leaps and bounds ahead of Jack when it comes to meeting milestones.  Jack was generally on the late end of most milestones...he didn't crawl until he was 10 months or walk until 15 months.  Claire, at 6.5 months, is crawling (albeit, a non-traditional crawl...more of a hybrid inchworm / bunny hop move).

4.  Claire loves books!  She likes to put them in her mouth, but she's also fascinated by the pictures and words...OMG the words...she will stare at letters and words with such interest!

5.  Jack loves trains.  And anything else with wheels.  But especially trains.  He is, however, outgrowing Thomas and now asks to play with his trains "that don't have mouths."  Ha!

6. Jack also likes volcanoes.  He always asks to see volcano movies on YouTube.

7. Claire started smiling when she was just 4.5 weeks old.  She is the smiliest baby ever!  We were at a party yesterday and she was in the Ergo - she woke up smiling and pretty much won over every person in the room.

8. Claire wants to eat grown-up food.  She won't let me feed her purees.  She refuses them, and turns her head away and shuts her little mouth.  She's starting to eat a few finger foods (mostly puffs).

9. Jack's new favorite show is The Octonauts.  I am incredibly grateful for this show, because it means a break from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

10. Jack puts his own twist on a few pronunciations of some everyday words.  Pancakes = pan-a-cakes.  Christmas = Crimpsmas.  Stroller = Stro-yer.

11. Jack just started preschool earlier this month.  He goes two half-days a week.  There is serious DRAMA in this house every morning before school, and he still hasn't completely adjusted.  I felt very torn about whether or not I wanted to send him to school, but in the end we did because he desperately needed socialization with other kids.  He was turning into the playground bully.  Despite the morning drama and tears when being dropped off at school (he stops crying as soon as Charles leaves), it seems to be helping.  He has even started playing nice with random kids (rather than growling and making ugly faces and pointing and yelling "NO, Kid!" at every random child he sees out in public).

12. Both kids are terrible sleepers.  Claire wakes up as soon as I put her down.  If I am really, really, REALLLLY lucky she might sleep for 20 minutes before waking up.  If the stars are perfectly aligned, I might on a rare day get 40 minutes from her.  Most of the time, she sleeps in my lap or in the Ergo.

13. Jack dropped his nap right before he turned three.  Booo.  Occasionally he falls asleep late in the afternoon, but I try to avoid this at all costs.

14. At three years and a few months, Jack is *just now* getting his two-year molars.

15. Both of my kids have huge heads.  My friends used to joke that my future children would have giant noggins because both Charles and I have giants heads, and they were right.  Their head measurements are usually off the charts!

OK...your turn!