Discovering more of Tytus

Playing right before bed one night

It really is a gift to get to uncover things about your kids. Discovering little parts of who they are is such fun! It was Tytus' 5th birthday last week and we had planned a perfect party for him, which in his mind includes lots of people and celebrating with food and playing! Well, the beginning of the week started out really rough with him and Prim spending most of Monday night urping up their dinner. The next day Tytus was not himself at all. Not eating anything for breakfast he had low energy and sleepy eyes from not much sleep, but he remembered that he'd picked out presents for Prim and daddy the day before:
Ian had dropped us off at Target to run in and get two things, but on our way to get them Tytus stopped to eye a cute little fox sippy cup on the end of an aisle. He picked it up (specifically that animal and not any of the others sitting there) and said "Mom, Prim would LOVE this cute little foxy cup! We should wrap it up for her birthday!" It was so thoughtful and not expensive, so I went with it. We went and got our two things and headed to check out when he stopped right before the register and said "Mommy, come here! Daddy would LOVE this for his birthday! He loves Star Wars!" So once again, I went with it and added the little bag of legos to our purchase. He wanted to hide both of them under his shirt while we walked out to the car so neither of Prim or Daddy would see, but he just couldn't contain his excitement. He gave Ian two hints on the way home and Ian finally guessed what the gift was before we were turning onto our street. Tytus reminded him that we'd have to wrap it up and wait for his birthday, though. :)

So back to breakfast the morning after he was sick....I suggested that we should just lay down and read some books or maybe watch a show so his body could rest and start feeling better. He agreed, but then said, "Well, I think I'm feeling good enough to wrap those presents. Can we please?" So we went into the wrapping closet and he picked specific wrapping paper for Prim and Ian. He helped pull off pieces of tape and put them carefully in the right places after I'd folded the wrapping paper. Then we got out my big scrapbooking box and he picked out paper and stickers and different colors of my special pens to write the cards. As we were doing all this it struck me that he truly gains pleasure to give good gifts. He would rather do this than rest or watch a show or anything else right now, even though he feels (and looks) awful. We probably worked for about an hour total on wrapping and making cards and then carried them into the dining room to place them where they could be seen as we wait for the birthdays to arrive. He wrote all the words himself in Ian's card and drew and colored two light sabers to go with the theme of the gift. He also picked out specific stickers for Prim's gift knowing she loves bananas and flowers. Even though it was the week of his birthday, he was able to pick and wrap sweet gifts for others because I think God has wired him that way. Moments like this are such a gift to me. It's like unwrapping a little part of him that I was unaware of until that day. Seeing pieces of each of our little ones come out over time is one of the greatest gifts of being a mom!

On the night of his actual birthday....candles (and a lego
gummy) in ice cream to sing happy birthday!

Oh, and his birthday party turned out to be a ton of fun celebrating him and hanging out with friends. Happy 5th Birthday, bud!

5, 6, 7, 8..... 9 months old!

Little miss Prim is growin' up!

5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

We've had our hands full the past couple of months....but in lots of good ways. Prim has gone from sitting up to scooting, and now she mainly gets around by quickly crawling wherever she needs to go. She'll pull up on anything to cruise around as long as she has something to hold onto. She stood alone for a split second a few days ago, but once she was aware of it she quickly reached for mommy and took a step before falling into mommy's arms. She's miss chatty and loves to join in on any conversation that's happening especially when it's with her brothers. More often than not she'll add in a few "da da da da's" and a big smile or a loud squeal. Some new things she's just started doing that crack us up are: her priceless reaction to "Where's Baby?"....she looks around and gets super excited when she spots her baby doll, waving to herself in the mirror or to anyone that will wave at her, and her sweet giggles. Sometimes she belly laughs at us tickling or surprising her, but most recently she has tried to do funny things herself to initiate silly time and she'll kind of laugh at herself. Silly girl.

We raked up 2 huge piles of leaves all around Prim while she just sat and watched them getting taller and taller

The boys have gotten more and more into helping her. They'll give her drinks of water while she's eating, come to her rescue when she's upset and mommy's busy making a meal or trying to get something else done, and they excel at entertaining her. Lately Tytus has gone into her room after her nap to put toys in her bed (and climb in himself). I'll hear talking soon turn into loud squealing and laughing as I'm waking up from my nap or finishing up a project I've been working on during their quiet time. It's nice to wrap up what I'm doing while he's in there having a blast with her. Tytus has also starting picking up Prim to carry her somewhere else in the house. Yikes! The first time he did it I was super nervous because she's a pretty heavy little girl. He attempted to set her down carefully, but it didn't end too great. A hug and snuggle made a little bump all better, though. The next time he tried it he set her down on her feet and was yelling "Prim's standing! Mom, Prim's standing!" as I ran in to see. Sure enough she was just standing there (not holding on to anything) looking out the back door at Mia and Tytus was standing right next to her watching so proudly.

Witten had a blast running full speed and jumping into the piles! And watching the "big trucks" pave our street.

Witten is a great protector and will come save/check on Prim during our walks. He'll be speeding ahead on his bike and then quickly stop and run back to us to say "Prim, are you all right?" He'll carefully bend down to look her in the eye and stroke her cheek as if she was actually upset or hurt. She usually tries to project herself out of her stroller or squeals really loudly at him in excitement. He also really enjoys being her leader and having some authority over her. He'll mimic us saying "no no" to her when she's putting rocks in her mouth outside or dropping her spoon on the floor during a meal. He'll look at her very seriously and say "Prim. Spoon down is a no no." It's great fun for him to lead her into a room and practice reading books to her by turning the pages. He really does love showing her around and being the big brother!

On a big brother note, the boys have hit a stage of playing, playing, playing together. From first thing in the morning until the door shuts for bedtime they practically do everything together. They initiate long periods of play where they pretend different scenarios, attempt to create a project together, or build something together. I remember playing with my siblings was so easy and fun because we just "got" each other. It's almost like you have unwritten rules to how you play and what things you usually pretend. It's great fun to see them run around together! Right now we have a tiny little tree in our backyard that has toys hanging all over it. They were "decorating for Christmas" one day and were using rope to hang all sorts of toys from this poor little tree. Tytus was mainly doing the hanging while Witten was going back and forth from the tree to the playhouse delivering "supplies" and making meals. He would scoop up rocks and mix them up, then serve them onto "plates" which were pieces of a broken pot. This morning they were playing trucks in their room, then rushed down stairs to do some washing. They filled up the sink downstairs and were creating soapy water to wash various toys and things until it was time to help with breakfast. Of course, their taking initiative sometimes doesn't end up so great and Ian and I have to step in and remind them of certain rules in the house. Like don't get water all over the bathroom. Then it's time for them to help each other clean it up.
Since they've both gotten great at riding their bikes, Tytus on his pedal bike and Witten on his balance bike, they'll often ask to ride around out in the front or go on a bike ride all together. Our walks are so much quicker to where I'm jogging or running most of the time and get a pretty good work out! So far we've ventured to H-E-B on our bikes to pick up some ingredients for dinner, and we took an afternoon ride to our library to check out some new books. They think it's great when I get the bike lock out to secure our bikes while we're gone. :) Another fun thing that has come about is playing games outside together. Last week they wanted to get out the baseball tee and bat. I quickly showed them how to set up the bases and shared just a few ground rules. We had a blast playing together in the backyard. They'd take turns hitting, running, getting the ball to tag others out, and all the while Prim was intently watching and cheering us on. It's become one of the regular fun things we do together now, and they even got in a quick game one morning with daddy before he took them to school. Witten's teachers said he was SO chatty that day.....and it all had to do with playing baseball with Daddy that morning.

Prim watching and playing while the boys ride bikes and Daddy works on projects.