Developmental Update: Almost 6 and almost 2

With Reed's birthday next week and Theo and Beckett's birthday in another three, I have a few thoughts to share about my boys and what they are like at this stage.

Reed: Wakes us up in the morning, usually at a polite hour of 6:45 or later, with some number of the following relatively polite requests: "momEEE! dadEEE! where are you, mommy? where are you, daddy? can I please have nummies? come ON MOMMee!" He rarely cries from bed for any reason; if he does, it's usually because something hurts. When he wakes up from his afternoon nap he often finds a paci in his bed and either rolls around for a while in his crib or lays down and puts his feet up on the sides while he hums to himself. Speaks in full sentences, with past and conditional tense. A favorite question when told we are not going to do a particular thing is to ask "why not?" ad nauseum until I give up. For a few months now I have been surprised many times by how companionable Reed is. On days when we are home alone together, we talk to each other all day, make little jokes with each other, and generally I forget that he is not a much older child because of how he can communicate with me. One of his little jokes is to come around the corner from where I am, say "where are you mommy?" Then when I say "In here, Reed!", he peeks in at me and giggles, then goes out again and says again "Where are you, mommy?". Each time he does it, he has a harder and harder time not cracking up before he "finds" me again. He's got jokes! The baby has jokes.

Theo and Beckett are both reading to an incredible degree. At the beginning of the year they did not try to read words, though when asked they sounded things out to some extent. But in the last month or two their reading has accelerated so much that they are reading signs out the car window and reading us books. I am trying to catch up to their rapidly-evolving language skills by getting books at the library that they can read. We are still reading to them for a while every night, and just finished Matilda. We are moving through the Roald Dahl collection and will probably return to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory again for the third time as our next book.

Since the time Reed was a new baby, Theo has always been gentle and thoughtful with Reed. He's always been a great helper to me, bringing me things for Reed that I need and entertaining Reed with funny faces and silly voices. He's also been Reed's protector, holding his hand while he's on the sidewalk near the street and letting me know when Beckett has been rough with him. But I always said that I thought Reed and Beckett would end up having more similar personalities and getting along, and I'm starting to see that borne out. Many times recently Beckett and Reed have fallen into games involving chasing each other, playing hide and seek, wrestling or tackling each other, and other very physical play. It has been wonderful to see them laughing together, doing something they both love, AND giving Theo a chance to play by himself. One of the hardest things about the twins to me is that they have different energy and connection needs, and while Theo is happy to be by himself a lot, Beckett would really rather be engaged in play or reading or some activity with either a parent or preferably Theo almost all the time. I think Theo gets exhausted sometimes because he likes more alone time, but if he says that to Beckett, it hurts Beckett's feelings and usually backfires because then Beckett has to try all the more hard to make Theo play with him. So this Beckett-Reed physical play partnership is really wonderful for all three of them.

Beckett has friends from school and friends from his old school and friends from our neighborhood, but no one person is really his favorite. Theo sometimes takes offense easily, or thinks people don't like him based on some small slight, but Beckett has a little bit of a thicker skin and seems to float easily between different groups of people. Theo on the other hand, has his BFF Johnny, his buddy from the first few weeks of pre-k 4 at Roberts. Even though they don't go to the same school any more we usually try to see Johnny about once a month. The boys love getting together and seem super-compatible in so many ways. Johnny was over last week during school break and drew a picture for Theo that said "You are my best friend in the whole entire world." It is just incredibly sweet. They both love drawing and writing and can play together quietly in their own world for a very long time.

The boys and I have all been sick to some degree for a couple of weeks, so we are hoping that the beautiful weather clears us up so we can get out to enjoy it.

Sciencenter

The boys had a blast building with these great foam blocks on our sciencenter trip.

Easter bunnies

We had an unseasonably warm and sunny day to hide and find eggs in Grandma Joanie and Grandpa Stu's front yard. Reed was totally in the hunt and was doing an admirable job finding eggs until he realized there was candy in the eggs and quit finding to stuff his face.

Reed with Mama Sara, who was willing to pick him up when Mama Bryn was too tired on a playdate at Van Duyn Elementary.

Fun times at the zoo with Auntie Tara, Zoey, Ellery and Lach (none of them pictured because it just got too crazy).

"Mom, take a picture! I look like George Washington!"

Trip to the Museum of Play

On what we hope will be one of the last cold days this spring we visited the Rochester Museum of Play. A big chunk of the museum was shut down for renovations but we still had a great time shopping at the lil Wegmans and enjoying all the awesome toys.

Reed loved this secret fireplace corridor at the Reading Adventureland play area. He went in through a bookcase, and out the fireplace. I loved the giant grin every time he came through the fireplace, followed by "AGAIN!"

Happy to be home

We've had a good couple of weeks since we've been back from Florida. The weather has been pretty nice so we've been getting out to playgrounds and the backyard a lot.

The first day we got home Reed took a long bath by himself. He and Milo have a special relationship so I think Milo wanted to spend some time with Reed while he was in the bath.

We have had some chilly days, so Reed's been getting some use out of his strawberry hat.

Our friend and neighbor Kyle bought our neighborhood taco truck (hereafter known as Sassy Taco) and let the boys climb all inside and around it. Thankfully Reed liked the driver's seat the best, since the rest of the truck is a smelly, greasy, nail and propane tank filled child hazard.

Last photo dregs

The last of the Sanibel photos. Building a trench. Grandpa Stu helped a lot with the digging, for some reason that Mama and Daddy (who were relaxing in beach chairs reading or watching the ocean) could not understand.

Mama and Daddy Lovebo enjoyed a lovely night out on Captiva the last night of our trip. We watched dolphins in the gulf as the sun went down and then stuffed our faces with queso and fish tacos and enchiladas.

Theo showing off our trail-a-bike. This is right after his first attempt, when he knocked both the bikes down, domino-style.

Reed wrestling Theo. Reed tends to be a little more physical than Theo which makes Reed a good match for Beckett, but Theo will usually play along with Reed when Reed tackles him and sits on him.