2009 in Review: Part 1

Is it really bad that I can't remember the first few months of 2009?  I wasn't blogging yet, so I didn't have daily or almost daily chronicles of my life and I can't remember what happened. 

I know that little man was just starting to talk - he took a long time to talk.  I know that the boys were in the first grade and played baseball in the spring.  But the details - I don't remember any details.  The details that I want to remember and keep a history of - those are the things you don't get to keep when you don't blog.  It's the whole reason I started blogging.  I had tried various ways of writing down things that happened in our lives, little things that the boys did or said, but I wasn't good at keeping up with it. 

Blogosphere has brought me a way of keeping the memories.  Of course I had no idea that it would bring me a whole community of friends and that I would be able to piece bake some of the memories of when the boys were younger.

So while I don't remember much of the beginning of 2009 I do have a few memories from the first six months and a few from before 2009 that I was able to capture and preserve.

T1 learned that mommy was scared of dead lizards.

We played a lot of baseball

and little man taught us all the Toddler's Creed!
I remembered about the Toothless Tooth Fairy

Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose. ~From the television show The Wonder Years

Stop! Don't! Don't Stop!

We'll little man has hit the 2 year old stage full force.  I keep telling hubby that 1 at age 2  is better than 2 at age 2, but I'm beginning to wonder myself.

All children hit age 2 and want to be independent and do everything themselves, but they are fighting all the boundaries that we put in place to keep them safe - hence the temper tantrums.  Twins are no different, except...

Well,  twins learn early on they have to share (or fight it out), they learn they are not individually the center of attention from birth and so acknowledge that the world around them only sometimes revolves around them.  I was lucky enough to stay at home with the twins for 3 1/2 years (before I craved adult conversation so bad I went back to work).  They were my world, but they knew they weren't the world.

Five years after they were born, Bradley entered our world.  He was (is) the center of the universe.  Just ask him.

The twins have doted on him, due to the economy he stays at home with Daddy all day, and is the center of Daddy's world.  I come in juggling and try to spend individual time with all of them, but little man expects time of his own.  All of these things together have made him very outspoken about "his world."  If he is busy and anyone tries to talk around him, he gets angry at the distraction from his world and says yells "STOP!"  (on a good day he says hush).  Try to talk around him, and he yells louder. 

This happens in the car, while he's watching his movie, and even at the dinner table when we are trying to learn about the twins day at school.

We are working to teach him that the world doesn't actually revolve around him, but have you tried to explain that to a 2 yr old?  So here is my theory - just teach him a new word.  I am working on "don't"  then he can yell DON'T! STOP!  DON'T STOP! and we'll all be able to carry on with our conversation.

If you want to learn to argue with a brick wall, practice on a 2 year first. ~ me

have 2 year old, have tantrums

Can we skip to 4 now? Please? Pretty Please with a Cherry on Top?
I hate this stage, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it.

Two year olds are for people with more patience than I. Two year olds turn into three year olds and it gets worse.

Bradley has got the 2 year old bit down.

• flailing on the floor CHECK
• screaming at top of lungs CHECK
• throwing things CHECK
• ignoring parents CHECK
• telling everyone "no" CHECK
• telling everyone what to do (in very short words) CHECK
• answering to his name with "what?" CHECK
• chasing Daddy through the house because we are mad at him and want him to see the stomping of the feet while saying "no" DOUBLE CHECK

It kills you to see them grow up. But I guess it would kill you quicker if they didn't. ~Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams

Little Man's Creed

About a week ago, Little man was playing with a car. I know, nothing special. When he was done, he left it on the floor and walked away. T2 came by and picked up the car.

From the other end of the house, around the corner, through a wall – Little man KNEW. Someone had his toy. Immediately he walks out into the living room and begins to look for suspects. Within seconds T2 is spotted and a SQUEAL erupts from little man’s mouth. He sprints (ok runs like a duck) for T2 and tries to take it from him, all the while screaming “MINE.” I, as the most level headed, fair, Mommy yell over Little man’s screams, “GIVE IT TO HIM!”

Like a good son, T2 does as he is told and then comes over to ask why can’t Little Man share? I laugh, and then I bring out the scrapbook from when he and T1 turned two. On the very first page is the toddler’s creed with a picture of the twins innocently sitting beneath it. I had him read the creed and we talked about what it meant. Then I explained, while Little man is learning to express himself and share, there will be LOTS of tantrums. We will not let him hit or fight for what he wants, but sometimes, when the toys was Little man’s to begin with, it is easier to just give it to him. T2said he understood and then asked if he acted like that when he was two. I laughed.

A few days later my hubby and I were discussing Little man’s tantrums. He said he didn’t know if he was going to make through them. I told him it could be worse. He looked at me with a blank stare and asked how.
I smirked and said, “he could’ve been a twin.”

THE TODDLER'S CREED

If I want it, it's mine.

If I give it to you and change my mind later, it's mine.

If I can take it away from you, it's mine.

If I had it a little while ago, it's mine.

If it's mine, it will never belong to anybody else, no matter what.

If we are building something together, all the pieces are mine.

If it looks just like mine, it is mine.