Developmental Update continued

This is the 800th post of Team Lovebo, over just about five years. It's been a fun way for me to keep track of milestones, record funny events or thoughts, and share photos and videos of our lives. Thank you for joining me and our family here!

More about Beckett and Theo at 4.5 years old:

Beckett is effusive, fun and enthusiastic. He is a risk-taker and runs fast and hard at all times. He loves being rough-and-tumble with his classmates and friends and brother Theo. He loves wrestling and hippo rides on mama's back and being affectionate and touching his friends and family. Beckett also loves words and letters and everything verbal. He loves to rhyme and switch the first letters of words and learn the meaning of every strange word he encounters in adult speech and books. Beckett knows more of his letters even though he's not as good at actually writing them. Even when it looks like he is not paying attention, he is watching and listening and often blows me away with what he has quietly observed and put together to make sense of a situation. He also has an incredible memory and looks for patterns to figure out what will happen next based on what has happened before. Beckett also loves imaginative play, both by himself and with Theo, and often narrates his imaginative play out loud as a book is written (“'Let's get them, guys!' Lightning said. 'On my way!' Finn yelled.”) He is very competitive and does not like losing games, even of chance, and can get bent out of shape when Theo out-runs him on the way home from school.

Theo is thoughtful, kind, and precise. He lives to draw and color, and he has a specific aesthetic that he likes. He went with Jeff to pick out the Christmas tree because I suspected that he had a particular idea of what the tree should look like. He loves to draw ninja turtles and superheros and his family, and gets better and better every day. When he wants to draw something new, he usually asks an adult to draw it first, which I resist because 1) I'm worse at drawing than he is, 2) I feel like he should try himself, to improve his skills, and 3) I feel judged by his discerning eye when my attempts inevitably do not meet his expectations. Theo is sometimes a more considerate friend, such that when we're playing a game and he's winning he'll say, “It's okay, you'll catch up too, right?” Theo is more easily entertained by himself, including in the bathtub. They've been taking more baths separately recently because Theo loves to “swim” in the bath, going underwater and holding his breath and opening his eyes while he takes strokes. Theo is precise with his letter-writing even though he's less interested in what letters mean or how they combine than Beckett is. Theo is a wonderful older brother to Reed, playing with him, singing to him, smiling at him, and delighting in Reed's sounds, turning over, and smiles. When we are busy getting out the door and I have to set Reed down to get everything together to leave, and Reed gets fussy, it is usually Theo who attends to Reed and tries to calm him down.