Time Capsule, Newsletter, What-Have-You

Sometime in the past few months, the preschooler and the toddler became these two: cohorts, troublemakers, partners in crime, and straight up kids.



Their game list is limited, but Eden and Judah can chase each other around "the circuit" running through our first floor, jump on mom and dad's bed together, and are quickly learning and often implement the quickest methods to piss each other off. Ah, siblings. They're also old enough to enjoy a family picnic-movie night:

Eden Johanna is 3 years and 9 months old. The phrases she comes up with on a daily basis challenge us to keep a straight face, as even the hint of laughing at her offends her delicate ego. She is very much the "big kid," but I treasure the few relics from her baby speak that she's held onto, especially saying "seesee" instead of "excuse me" for bodily indiscretions. This week, she has decided on a favorite Christmas song: "Feyees Mommy-Dod," which cues wild dancing and shrieking and singing along. She maintains her sophisticated color sense and shuns black, white and gray (this week.) She requests that we read to her out of the Little House books and Charlotte's Web. Her baby doll's name is Fuschia, a name she first suggested for mommy's baby along with "Easter." Eden enjoys counting and spelling and rhyming and tries very hard to read. On the flipside though, to be honest, we're finding this age to be a challenge with our firstborn, as we've been faced with drama and tantrums and whining the likes of which we've NEVER seen before. We're getting better at handling the storms as they pop up, but we're uncertain at this juncture how much of our struggle is because of Eden's particular personality, how much is because it's the first time we've encountered these struggles, and how much is just because she's THREE and A GIRL. I guess time will tell. Maybe by the time Judah is three we'll be so accustomed to handling meltdowns that we'll brush off his hysterics with an unimpressed shrug. We're getting there. In the meantime, Eden has a nice new room! I somehow neglected to post the before picture, showing the day-glow pink walls of her bedroom as they looked when we moved in, but I snapped a few the other day to show how it's looking now. We're not quite done yet as I have to find or make some are for between the windows, and I have a feeling Santa is bringing a nice gauzy mosquito net for over the bed, but it's a start, and the color no longer causes retinal bleed. So that's nice.

Eden is a big kid!

Judah Justin is 1 year and 8 months old. Where his sister personifies the delicate feminine sensibilities, he is ALL BOY.


(Once again, the number of photos seems to show a favortism toward the second-born; I'm hoping that once Eden phases out of the oppositional, uncooperative stage she's working through, we'll have more photos of her, well... cooperating. Judah still looks at the lens the way he looks at me, so I take full advantage.)





In addition to their uncanny physical resemblance, Judah has inherited many aspects of his Uncle Christian's personality; namely, the ability to charm the pants off adults at his whim. At the age he's at, I find myself working hard not to show preferential treatment, as Judah is EASY. I know his time is coming and that he, too, will turn on me soon, so I'm soaking up the time left with my baby while he still has that title.

Judah has just begun using words rather than grunts to convey his wants, needs, and preferences, and his word list is getting longer and longer. My favorites include the following:

buss: Bless You (said when someone sneezes)
bups: burp (said with a smile while he covers his mouth after a surprise burp)
buot: (said with a smile while he covers his butt after a surprise fart)
goo-g'woo: Kangaroo
mahmo: Elmo
baa/voof/nyaow: Sheep/Dog/Cat
guck: duck (just like his sister :)
yeh: yes
book: (multi-purpose) could refer to a book, a cup, or "Brooke," the name by which he refers to all of his cousins.

He's fighting diaper changes with vigor, sneaking his guggie when we're not looking, eating apples whole, (apart from the tiny dried bits of skin we find discarded around the house afterward) and taunting his sister. Judah is getting big.

What on earth could number three have in store? :)