Haddie: 2016 wrap up

Dear Haddie,

At almost 3 years old...

• You weigh 33 pounds and are busting out of your 2T clothes. You are still petite, but you are getting too tall for most of your pants.
• You sleep from about 8:00pm-7:00am and take a two hour nap about half the days of the week
• Your favorite foods are cheese, yogurt, pickles, bananas, pizza, carrots, chips, and anything that you can dip (you love the "white sauce" *ranch* and salsa). You recently ate a bowlful of plain spinach, which was hysterical since you generally hate vegetables.
• You sing ALLLLL the time. When you wake up in the morning, I hear you singing in you crib and that's how I know you're awake
• You like singing so much you will pretend to know the words to songs you've never heard just so you can sing along
• You want to wear princess dresses all the time and have gotten much more picky about what kind of shoes or bows you wear
• Everywhere we go you take something with us. It's never the same thing, but you always need something by your side (today it was your piggy bank)
• You give REALLY good hugs. Like, squeeze your arms and legs around me and hold on super tight, hugs
• You're favorite Christmas present was the giant dollhouse you got and your favorite birthday presents were dress up dolls
• After months of being mortal enemies, you and Titus are now inseparable. It is not unusual for the two of you to go hang out upstairs for an hour while I'm cooking or cleaning
• You LOVED the Christmas lights. Every morning as soon as you got out of bed, you would march over to the tree and ask me to turn them on. You also loved driving around and looking at lights on houses
• You love going to school and walk into your classroom like a big girl
• At church you like to go sit with me and listen to the worship before going to the nursery
• You cry big tears really fast
• If you get scolded you will immediately burst into tears and you won't calm down until you're being held
• You love doing arts and crafts at school
• You are still in your crib and you love playing in it by yourself after naptime and in the morning
• You say you would like to potty like a big girl but when I actually try to get you on the potty you refuse.
• Your favorite show is My Little Pony but you also love Blaze and the Monster Machines, which is about monster trucks. You basically love whatever Titus loves.
• You still use a paci but only for naps and night time. Pacis stay in your crib.
• You get so excited to see Zi-Zi (Zion) and Connieee (Conner) when we go to school
• You don't have nearly as much interest in letters as Titus did at your age
• Your hair is still tinted red, but it looks much more blonde now. If your eyebrows weren't still reddish I might think you were turning into a permanent blonde!
• Because you are tall and Titus is short, we get asked about 4 times a week if you are twins
• You enjoy being the class clown. You love being silly and making people laugh. Right now, that's by replacing words in your favorites songs with the word poop ("twinkle twinkle little POOP"). We can thank your brother for teaching you that trick. 
• Sometimes I feel like you're talking to me like a grown up. You say phrases in the right context I didn't even realize you knew. It makes me giggle every time. 
• When Titus apologizes for hitting you he has to say, "I'm sorry for hitting you, do you forgive me?" But you never know how to respond, so he says, "say yes" and you do. Now when you want something, you try to pull that trick on me. "I have a popsicle, mommy? Say yes."
• You like to pat my tummy and say hi to the baby. You also pulled up daddy's shirt and patted his belly and said, "you have baby, too?"

Baby Love we are just thrilled with you! I can already tell you are going to be the goofy one in the family. You love making people laugh and you love laughing. Generally speaking, you are very laid back and enjoy doing whatever is the most fun. You are incredibly social (you make friends at the park all the time) and you love playing with anything you can cuddle or nurture (stuffed animals, dolls, plastic animals...). I have loved getting to watch your personality develop because I feel like you will be a lot like me (Grandma thinks so too). We love you so much, sweet girl!

Titus: 2016 Wrap Up

Dear Titus,
at almost 5 years old...

• You have hit a growth spurt and you have outgrown all your 3T jammies (finally!) You weight 38 pounds and are very proud of that fact.
• This growth spurt also means you have been eating A LOT. A typical day for you involves two waffles for breakfast, a full lunch, an early afternoon snack, an early dinner (tonight was two hot dogs and two PB&J sandwiches) and then usually another second dinner before you head off to bed.
• Your favorite shows are Transformers, Blaze and the Monster Machines and Sid the Science Kid
• You love all things legos right now (lego toys, lego movies, lego games)
• You and Haddie have been SO MUCH BETTER. We went through a month or two where you did nothing but fight and nitpick and scream at each other, it drove me absolutely crazy. But now, for the most part, you play so well together and are inseparable.
• Every night at bedtime you tell me, "but I'm just not sleepy! I can't sleep!" and then you fall asleep 3-5 minutes later
• You are all about the poop jokes right now. And by jokes, I mean saying things like "Is your hair made of POOP??" and then laughing at yourself. I told you that poop jokes are for boys and you can only make them with Daddy and your guy friends.
• You are finally starting to understand when we are teasing you instead of always taking everything so literal (although you are still 100% literal with everyone else besides Daddy and me).
• You are currently obsessed with "wrapping presents" which consists of taking hot wheels or marbles and wrapping them in toilet paper and taping them shut.
• Your emotional control has gotten much better although you still have multiple outbursts a day where you are redlining over small things (usually things that have a simple solution but you get upset before you think to ask for help)
• You say that Brooks is your best friend and Brooks said, "I'm basically a part of your family, we're like brothers" which is pretty darn cute
• You are asking for bunk beds so that friends can stay over. We'll have to wait and see if I'm ready for that...
• You still love school although you don't like any of the craft projects (you get very frustrated because you are such a concrete thinker. Drawing things frustrate you, I think part of this is because you are a perfectionist. So when you have to draw a person you get really upset because you think it doesn't look right)
• We say the phrase "if you don't have something kind to say, don't say anything at all" quite a bit. Your four year old attitude has kicked in ;)
• You love having Haddie follow you around. You make up all kinds of games and activities and she does almost anything you want
• Anytime you trip you yell, "I don't LIKE our new house!" even though you just fell because you lost your balance
• You are really into legos 
• Anytime a kid is doing something you don't like you yell, "NO MA'AM!" even if it's a boy
• You love watching daddy play football on the Xbox even though you don't really ever want to actually PLAY football.
• You still make a "d" sound instead of "th" (weather = wedder, another = anudder)
• You are obsessed with the weather and ask Siri for an update about a dozen times a day. 
• Every morning you wake up at 7 and are allowed to play with the iPad. Around 7:30, Haddie will start calling our, "Titus! Titus!" And you go down and crawl in her crib and play with her until I come in. 
• You ask permission all the time, even about things like taking your shoes off or jumping in a puddle. I love this about you! It's so respectful and sweet. However this does not apply when you are angry or frustrated and you could care less what I think ;)
• You say, "you know what I was thinking?" All the time, and then you pitch me an idea like getting donuts or playing gator golf. 
• We call you Captain Safety because you are ALL about everyone being safe and you keep us all in line

We love how different you and Haddie are, which also makes it really fun that you love to play together. She is girly and artistic and hates to be alone. You love building and drawing mazes and you need to have alone time during the day. But you still have the sweetest laugh and you are finding your own sense of humor and making a lot of silly jokes. I am really soaking up these days with both of you home because in eight more months you will start Kindergarten! I am so thankful for this time with you before you get so big. You were the first I ever rocked to sleep and you are still the last one I check on before going to bed every night (old habits die hard).

Titus: Fall 2016 update

Dear Titus,

• You have started wearing some 4T clothes, although the waist is still a little big and your 3T clothes still fit just fine.
• You don't nap anymore unless you are sick, but you are really good at having "rest time" where you get to play with your marble tower, writing board, or ipad.
• You said your favorite friend to play with is Brooks.
• The best part about you no longer napping is that you go to bed around 7:45 (AND ALL THE PARENTS SAID AMEN). 
• You wake up around 6:45 no matter what time you go to sleep, whether it's 7:30 or 10:30.
• You think it's funny to laugh in this really obnoxious way that you know your sister hates
• You and Haddie are both really into Paw Patrol right now and you spend a good portion of the day arguing about who gets to play with which pup. You say your favorite toys are your Rescue Bots.
• You still don't really like many artistic things, you never want to sing songs with us and drawing can frustrate you because you don't feel like you're doing it "right." You much prefer doing mazes (you even draw your own mazes and have Daddy finish them!) or something more concrete in thinking.
• Your favorite special activities are going bowling and playing putt-putt.
• You still love school very much!
• When you and Haddie play well together you are BEST friends
• You love watching YouTube videos about hamsters, marble tracks, and surprise eggs
• We started a zero tolerance policy to you yelling "NO!!!" anytime we give you a specific instruction (you would yell it even to something like, "lets put your shoes on"). It took a couple of days, but I'm glad we got over that!
• You got really into exploring bugs in the backyard this summer
• Cold weather is not your jam. You hate being cold AND you have too much energy to be inside
• You are a GREAT eater! You actually like a lot of vegetables, including salad. And when I make you try a bite of everything on your plate you usually end up liking it.
• Your favorite thing to eat is nutella. Nutella on waffles, nutella sandwiches, nutella to dip with strawberries... You are also really into hot dogs and always request "the kind on the bread!" (bun) with mustard only.
• You fell off a stool and got your first stitches this month. It was much more traumatizing for me than for you! I almost passed out after they finished stitching you up...
• We stayed Grandmother's for a few weeks while the new house was renovated and you kept asking, "are we going to live in the old house or the new house? Or Grandmother's house forever?" It was a little confusing for you and threw off your nightime sleep a little after we moved into the new house, but you eventually got used to it. Now when people come over you greet them at the door and say, "come up to my new play room, it's SO huge and fun!"
• You are always the first person to be willing to give a hug and you aren't afraid to talk to almost anyone (especially if they come over to our house)
• Speaking of hugs, you are incredibly empathetic. If you sense that any of us are upset you immediately climb in our laps and cuddle.
• You have become obsessed with Lucy, like follow her around the house all day even after she is done playing with you, kind of obsessed. She is very sweet and patient with your crazy antics, but we have to tell you to leave her alone sometimes.

You are a very unique kid, Titus James! You can still be incredibly short-tempered and have loud, tearful, angry meltdowns, but you can also be very gentle and thoughtful and kind. You get very upset if we don't leave the house every day, saying once it is dark outside, "but we didn't even go any places today!" Your favorite places to go are McDonald's Play Place, the gym, school and to Brooks' house (where you build legos and car tracks in his room for hours). I think you are ready to be in kindergarten full-time (you definitely get bored with us at the house), but I'm not sure how I feel about you being gone every day! We love you so much, every sassy, dramatic, aggressive, silly part of you.

Haddie: Fall 2016 update

Dear Haddie,

• You wear 2T clothes and are about to be 3T in some things
• You are only an inch or two shy of Titus' four year old height mark, even at 2.5. You're not necessarily tall for your age, but you're definitely growing faster than Titus has!
• You say your best friends are Conner and Rynn.
• You are still a very picky eater. Right now the only guarantees are french fries, pickles, cereal and peanut butter. Your favorites are probably "pinana" (banana) and "see-yull" (cereal), and you are mostly living on milk.
• You have started making up songs and when you're done singing you'll say, "dat's a good song." You love singing in general, we hear you singing in your crib ALL the time. Your favorite songs are Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Let It Go & Itsy Bitsy Spider.
• You hated being dropped off at school when we first went back in September (even though you enjoyed being there once I left). But the last few weeks you haven't cried at drop off and marched right in like a big girl!
• You go to bed around 7:30/8 and wake up around 7/7:30 with a 2 hour nap around 1pm.
• About that nap... You have really been fighting it lately, and bedtime for that matter. It is not unusual for you to throw a fit for 15-30 minutes after being put down.
• Everyone is saying "I can't believe how much she has started talking since I saw her last!"
• Your favorite toys are barbies, your Elsa doll and anything that comes in a Happy Meal.
• You almost always take something wherever we go (a Paw Patrol dog, a tiny pig, your pull-along puppy) and then INSIST on taking it inside wherever we go.
• You wear a princess dress almost every single day.
• You. Are. Stubborn. If you aren't getting what you want you will throw things and yell "no!" while sobbing BIG angry tears.
• You have started handing me your pacis in the car or after naps, sometimes without me even asking! I think we're getting close to retiring the pacis...
• You love sitting in your crib or high chair alone with your favorite toys and just playing. I secretly think it's because it's the only place Titus can't get to you and mess up your toys :)
• Your favorite shows are Paw Patrol, Blaze and the Monster Machines, and Team Umi-Zoomi. Which are also Titus' favorite shows, so I think you mostly like them because he does.
• Everything needs to kiss and hug, followed by, "awwww!" Pacis, animals, shoes...
• The thing you say most is, "what dat?" about every noise you hear or unidentified object you see.
• You get SO excited when friends come over, like cheering and jumping and hugging when they walk in the door.
• You are incredibly loving, you give hugs to almost everyone and ask Daddy and I if we can snuggle all the time.

Haddie girl, you are so much fun. You and Titus look different and definitely act different, and I am loving getting to know your little personality. You are definitely passionate about having fun, animals, cartoons and being able to do everything Brother can do. You are pretty fearless and adventurous and can get equally as dirty as you can girly and princessy. At school you love to do crafts and socialize and your teacher says you love music time and sing and dance along to every song. We think you are so sweet, spunky and fun, Baby Love!