Cute Kid Stories

Hey guys! I have a few posts here, so scroll down to catch up. I tried to download some pictures from the Daddy Daughter Dance this past weekend. Unfortunately, Cline had to work, so Uncles Chris and Cleve stepped in to have a date with their nieces. I was not invited, so I've only seen pictures, but the evening looked like lots of fun, complete with sisters dancing together and Disney princesses giving autographs!

I've been neglecting this blog in an effort to get Elizabeth's invitations and one year video ready for her birthday next month. I can not believe my baby will be ONE in a few short weeks! (However, I am savoring the great sleep schedule everyone is on, and I'm seizing this opportunity to lose some of this lingering baby weight since I am neither pregnant nor nursing anyone at the moment :). I love doing the videos of the girls - it's the only time I go back and look at the video I collect throughout the year. I'm trying to decide whether or not to do a 5 year video for Christa. Five years is A LOT more video to go through and edit, but if I don't, will I ever watch the cute things she did when she was a toddler??

Anyway, Christa said the funniest thing on Saturday night.

Christa: Mom, what are we having for dinner?
Me: I was thinking chicken nuggets and broccoli.
Christa: Well, I was thinking McDonald's.
(Guess who loaded the kids up and went to McDonald's after laughing hysterically?? That kind of cleverness deserves a treat in my opinion :).

Abby Kate is her same old spunky self. We are potty training, which doesn't seem nearly as miserable as when I potty trained Christa. That may be because I have already proven to myself that I can successfully potty train a child, and I'm mentally prepared for it to be a process that comes gradually and may last a while. (The 72-hour method was an epic FAIL with Christa - worst 3 days I've had as a parent)! We're just sort of playing around right now. She responds really well to a stamp chart, and is using the potty 2-3 times a day (on good days, anyway)!

Elizabeth is growing like a weed, and continues to move along at her laid-back pace. She's crawling everywhere, but not really getting into much that she's not supposed to. She proved her laziness (spoken with nothing but love and affection:) to me tonight. She refuses to hold her own bottle. (I do not request this often, but with 3 kids, it would be nice if she could feed herself in the car in a pinch, while I'm getting us to where we need to be). We ate dinner tonight at Olive Garden, and as I was packing up our belongings, she spied the bottle. My dad and I put her in her car seat, and handed her the bottle while I buckled the older two girls in. She lifted it slightly and began to drink a combination of formula and air. I lifted the end of the bottle a bit to show her that she could get more formula if she would tilt the bottle up. She instantly let go, with wide open palms as if to say, "Yes, that's what I've been waiting for. You didn't think *I* was going to hold it, did you?" It was yet another hilarious parenting moment, and I am quite proud of her for mastering the straw sippy cup. (If they didn't leak so much, I'd just put the formula in that and be done with it)!

I can't help but compare Elizabeth's laid back nature to Abby Kate's full-speed-ahead tendencies. As a parent, I love each of my children exactly the way they are and wouldn't change a thing about them. I can see some "pros and cons" to each of these personalities though. Abby Kate's first year was very challenging. We had nursing and sleeping issues that had much more to do with me than Abby Kate's nature, but she was a handful. She wouldn't sit still for a second, and changing her diaper (which was required often) was back-breaking. She required constant attention and supervision as soon as she was mobile, and she was never content to sit quietly on my lap or hip. She had a sweet smile and gave snuggles that melted all those hard moments away, though. And you know what? After that first year, she has been the easiest toddler to take care of! She catches onto things so quickly, and has been so coordinated with things like stairs for as long as I can remember. She and Christa go off and play by themselves, and I don't think anything about it. (They've recently started entertaining each other for long periods of time, giving me time to get things done or take a break. I've heard moms with older children describe this experience, and let me assure you that it's real)! She's been talking for as long as I can remember, too - in full sentences, making it so much easier to figure out what she wants.

Elizabeth, on the other hand, has been the easiest baby. She entertains herself very well, and doesn't demand a lot of attention. She lays perfectly still while I change her diaper and clothes, and has taken her time exploring the world. But I have to actively teach her things - like babbling, clapping, and...well... holding her own bottle. She is not nearly as motivated to just do them herself, so I am thinking it will be a long while before she's going up and down the stairs on her own and playing unattended! She, too, has the sweetest smile, although she's a bit more stingy with her snuggles. She, like Christa did, reaches for her bed when it's time to rest, instead of hugging my neck while we rock.

Anyway, it's just so funny to see the different personalities in each of my children. It's fascinating to notice how some qualities that seem challenging during one phase make another phase 10 times easier, and how some things that seem "easy" at one point, require more "work" later on.

Have a great night, and enjoy the pictures in the next couple of posts!