Will is a total blankie boy. I've tried to give him a stuffed animal as a sleeping buddy (Ruth's sleeping buddy is the Homba and Fox that she's slept with since she was 4 months old and adores). But he just hasn't taken to the cute moose we got him while in Coer d'Alene. But I realized the other day that he loves his blankie. He totally cuddles up to it and clutches it in his little hands. As Brad said, he's our little Linus!
In other Will news, he now does "the Mowglie" aka the bear walk. I think that is my favorite thing babies do, and Ruth never did it much so I'm totally loving this stage with Will.
In Ruth news: she's learned her ABC's, she can sing the song and loves to sing it while dancing. She's been counting to 11 for a couple weeks. She used to skip 9, but after drilling in her head that it's 8, 9, 10 she finally caught on. She loves to "count them" with anything around. I'm pretty sure she got the idea of counting things from Dora the Explorer which along with Pingu, Bugs Bunny, and Phineas and Ferb are her favorite shows.
Ruth is becoming super independent. Each day she usually spends about 30 minutes in her room alone. When I go to check on her she usually just smiles at me and says, "No mom" then closes the door on me!
Will is still totally a mama's boy and prefers my attention to anyone else's, unless Ruth is feeling silly and then he can't get enough of her silliness. It's the best when she's being goofy and making him laugh. (She's learning, slowly, to be nice to him. Now that he's more mobile she's become very defensive of her stuff and her space.)
I really can't believe how fast this year has gone. My 25th birthday is this Tuesday and I really can't believe it. Growing up I had this year planned as the year I would get married...not have a one year old and a 2 1/2 year old and be married for 5 years already. But I love my little family. And I can't believe how big Will is, tonight as I was putting him to bed I just couldn't believe that he's 11 months old. Sometimes I think I want to rip my hair out, that I'd love to be left alone for 10 minutes (well make that like 5 hours, but 10 minutes is more realistic) but kids are just always crying or needing something or just wanting to be held. Sometimes I feel so overwhelmed just by the "activities planner" part of being a stay-at-home mom; I just can't think of activities to keep Ruth and Will busy and happy other than going to the park (thank goodness it's finally getting warm again). And then there's the "laundry service," "head chef/nutrition expert," "maid," "stylist" and "teacher." I mean all of these things are jobs in and of themselves and I just don't do that good of a job juggling it all. No wonder mom's forget normal stuff, we have to remember shoe sizes, shirt sizes, diaper sizes, doctor and dentist appointments, when immunizations take place, what and when a kid can eat certain foods, if hubby has clean underwear, if the wet laundry got put into the dryer (the answer is usually no), the last time the carpet was vacuumed, the last time sheets were washed, teach the kids to read and then figure out what's for dinner. And when things get really crazy it's hard not to yell. But I've been working hard on improving that and it's amazing how good it feels when you stay in control and keep an eternal perspective. Does it really matter that yogurt was dropped on the kitchen floor that you just mopped? No. So I'm learning to keep my cool and help my kids know that I love them. Cause if I yell about yogurt they'll never want to tell me about their problems when they're teens.
It's hard to think that one day my kids are going to make their own food choices. Right now I make all of their food choices for them. Well, I make pretty much all of their choices for them. It's weird to think that I will have to give that up and trust that they'll make good choices, about food and everything else. I guess that's where we're lucky that we have the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives. I think this would be way more overwhelming if we didn't have a solid place to help us teach morals and the idea of choices and consequences.
