Mya and Winter brought home some spring photos from school last week. Some school photographers are doing a sneaky thing these days by taking pictures of your kids weather you order them or not and sending them home to you and making you send them back or pay an arm and a leg. Kind of wrong in my opinion because most parents probably buy them once they see a picture of their pride and joy with a fun springy background. But hey, that's the idea. Whatevs.
I looked at the pictures and the fake smiles and thought, man those are not my kids at all. But what does that photographer know? He doesn't even know them.
So I decided I'd better send the photos back to the school (after taking a pic with my phone of course) and dust off the ol' Cannon and shoot some pics that actually show what they're real natural everyday expressions are. And while I'm at it, may as well document their 2018 personalities. They are ever growing and ever changing awesome little people.
Angus (almost 3) talks A LOT. All day long. If he's awake he's talking about something. His immediate family members are the only ones who can understand him a lot of the time. He follows me around frequently and asks me what I'm doing, even when I'm on the toilet. When he's upset, he asks to watch truck videos in my bed. That always makes him feel better. Frequently, he'll have a meltdown, then suddenly stand up and say, "I'm otay" and walk away.
Common Angus phrases include:
Who Dat?!
Ooooo niiiice pant! (plant)
Ayeeee YIME OW!! (Addie timeout)
I wuuuuuv chruxxx! (trucks) He says that when I put him to bed.
He likes to sleep with random things including a lime, a mail key, plastic easter eggs, a tiny minion figurine and a basket of trucks of course. These days he is loud and full of emotion and expression. He insists on doing everything himself including many things he cannot do but he has to try before I take over. His hobbies include riding his balance bike, playing with trucks, playing with playdough, stealing Addie's toys and running away as fast as he can, drawing on walls, drawing on Addie and sometimes drawing on paper.
Addie (4.5) lives life at a 10. If she's happy, she's ecstatic. If she's mad, she's fuming. If she's talking, she's yelling. If she's pouting, she's giving you 10 reasons why she's upset. She has a giant personality in a teeny package. Addie is a sponge. She remembers everything I say and can repeat it back to me weeks later. She says everything she's thinking. Her favorite person in the world is Winter. And her favorite activity is still playing Barbies with Winter.
She often tells me my food looks "DEEESGUSTING." She asks me the name of every song she hears in the car. She's the biggest hugger of all my kids and hugs as tight as she possibly can. When I am frustrated and make an irritated grunt, she says, Oh mom you're so funny. And yesterday she told me a story that lasted all the way from our house, to the girls' school and back to the house again. (25 mins) She wasn't even done but I had to cut her off. Like Angus, Addie is also loud and full of emotion and expression. Her hobbies include playing with little figurines and acting out very elaborate stories, playing barbies with Winter, chasing Angus around the house, talking, singing and eating snacks.
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Winter (7) is a lover of life. She is a free spirit that goes where the wind takes her. Things are different in Winter's world than the world we actually live in. Rules are suggestions and anything is acceptable as long as it makes sense to Winter. Here are a few examples that have taken place in the last month or so.
Our neighbor Gabe had just finished blowing all the leaves nearby into a nice big pile with a leaf blower. He put it down and went to get something to put the leaves in. Winter came by and saw the leaf blower unattended, turned it on and blew that nice big pile of leaves all over the neighborhood. I came outside and saw Winter down the street blowing the leaves around. I could see her giant smile 8 houses down. I thought, Awe how nice of someone to let her have a turn with their leaf blower. Gabe came out and just shook his head. And then he smiled because he's known Winter since she was 3 and of course she would do that.
Winter is a lover of all animals, even bugs. If she could have 100 pets, she totally would. And she would probably even keep them alive. One day Mari went out in her backyard to see Winter pushing her desert tortoise in the baby swing. She quickly rescued the poor thing as I'm sure it was having a tortoise heart attack. Winter thought it was having so much fun. What animal wouldn't jump at the chance to take a ride in a swing?
And just last week, Winter was walking our dog Otter and decided to visit a neighbor she'd met a few days prior who had a little dog named pearl. She knocked on the door, the lady answered and pearl escaped and bolted down the street. Winter ran after the dog with our black lab running beside her. Thankfully Mari came home and sent one of her daughters to grab Otter while Winter retrieved Pearl. Winter came home and said sorry sorry sorry! She knew that was probably not the best idea in hindsight.
Winter is happy, playful and full of emotion and expression like her little siblings. She's not loud like the littles thankfully. I'm not sure I could handle one more loud kid. Her heart is giant and she feels things deeply. You will often see her eyes fill up with tears when watching a sad movie. Winter's hobbies include doing anything with animals like walking the dogs or feeding Mari's parakeets. She also enjoys chasing boys, eating meat, cooking, baking, dance parties and playing barbies with Addie.
Mya (8.5) has just discovered the word 'hangry.' I figured it out the other day that when she is hungry she is a different person. It took a while for me to realize that food (and a hug) could cure her bad mood. Mya is a sweetheart, most of the time. I just thought it was part of her personality. Poor thing was just starving.
Mya is the type of gal to have just a few close friends and she loves those friends with her whole heart. She had a playdate the other day. Her bestie came over to play after school and she was the happiest girl ever. They had a blast painting their nails, riding scooters, eating snacks and watching Tangled (Mya's hair inspiration).
Mya is attached to Dan these days. They share lots of common interests like puzzles, ACDC songs, computer games and gnawing on lamb bones. She admittedly loves her dad more than me right now. But I'm totally okay with that. I love that they have a great relationship. She loves it when I go to the store so they can crank up ACDC until I come home and roll my eyes and they both smile and Dan turns it off. Mya does not like being a kid. She wants to grow up so she can curl her hair, wear makeup, go shopping, have her own phone and hang out with grownups.
She is sweet, caring, loyal, sensitive, inquisitive and helpful. Her hobbies include helping me fold laundry, playing computer games with Dan, making crafts, cooking, singing and fake tap dancing (ever since she watched Shirley Temple). She also LOVES going to the thrift store with her mama. =)