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.