Wednesday, December 31, 2014

4.5 (ish) plus Grey and a summary

I've made my own sort of tradition to take nice black and white photos of each child on their birthday and half year mark. Well, I only noticed it was Liam and Dash's half year mark the night of their half birthday, after they'd gone to bed. I had taken no pictures. SO these are a month and a half late and since it's already not how it's supposed to be, I'm including some photos of Grey. And since it's New Year's Eve (thanks 2014, it's been good), I'll just do a little summary of each kid and call it good.

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Liam is a hilarious child. He's always asking silly questions, hamming up his face, doing some goofy walk. He also has a penchant for yelling. Yes, yelling when he's mad but also just when he's feeling the need to be loud.

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The child understand things so quickly. I think it's part of his competitive spirit. He just loves to be first, first, first. It's very upsetting for him when he's planned on being first but it doesn't pan out. Both twins are very sensitive and this is one of his sensitive areas. But back to the point, he really tries to understand things and asks questions until a concept is clear. He understands it and really knows it. So impressive.

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Further, Liam loves to impress. This has been a constant in his life. He just loves to do something cool and get attention for it. He loves the praise (though don't we all?). But I thing he appreciates the achievement himself- he impresses himself.

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Liam tends to be a little bit more vocal or comfortable when in unusual circumstances. I'm talking new places and new people. He can be a little shy but no too much. He likes to take charge of our little clan but often lets others take over when there's friends involved. He's a really good playmate.

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Dash is also a hilarious child. He makes funny voices, points out funny occurrences, is ready to laugh about anything. He's happiest when everyone around him is laughing. He can also be so sweet, ready to give hugs and kisses when someone's upset, telling them soft words to help them feel better.

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Dash can be amazingly wiggly. He's wiggly when he's happy, doing funny dances all around, and he's wiggly when his upset, flailing all around the ground in a way where I just stay back for fear of impact. That little body just moves.

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The kid is smart and so dedicated to the things he sets out to learn. When he's reading, he slowly goes through the words, making sure he pronounces things just the right way. He makes these amazing spatial connections that don't even occur to me ("mommy, we just drove in a Z shape!"). What a cool guy.

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Dash has become such a singer. He makes up all sorts of songs, rehearses snippets of various primary songs and other kid songs, and loves to sing along with his parents. He's even started to add his own form of vibrato, which is ridiculously cute.

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Grey is finally talking! He still has a lot to learn, of course, but he's finally trying. For ages we couldn't even get him to repeat us. We'd ask him to say such and such, to which he'd say, "uh uh!" and cover up our mouths. In the last few weeks, that's turned around. He sometimes refuses but mostly is excited to try out words we say and has added all sorts of words to his daily repertoire. While reading scriptures, we've recently been saying one word at a time, which he repeats, and it is SO CUTE. 

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This little man has opinions. He's very adamant about his "uh uhs!" and is very perky and sweet with his "uh huhs!" In the last month, though, holy moly, he's gone mad with stubbornness. The moment something occurs to him and it's not already happening, meltdown. The moment I unzip his coat when he wanted to do it himself that time, meltdown. The moment his brother moves his book the wrong way, meltdown. His meltdowns are him standing there screaming and crying and not letting anyone do anything with him for a minutes, then wanting to cry while being held until he calms down. And it happens so very often....

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Grey is at times very adventurous and at others, very conservative. I think it just depends on where his confidence lies at the time. Usually new places, people, and things cause him to be initially cautious. Often seeing his brothers do things helps him feel like he can do it too. And he's getting to the point where he CAN do a lot of the things that hiis brothers do. He still very much likes to cuddle and prefers a lap to any other seat.

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Grey loves to join in laughter. Even more, if he realizes he's causing someone to laugh, he'll repeat that behavior over and over. He looks so pleased when that happens. In fact, whenever anything "good" happens to him, he looks very pleased. "ah, life is good." It is, Grey, it really is.

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