And baby makes 5: A little good, and a little bad!

No matter how good my day goes, or how awesome my kids act, there is always that reminder that nothing is perfect. Whether it is the spilled orange juice on the carpet after a fun day at the zoo, or a fighting match over a sippy cup after a drama free day. Reality is, there is no perfect, and often the imperfect is what keeps my day interesting (and often exhausting).

The Good's and Bad's of my children right now:

ASHLYN is a smart girl, too smart sometimes. She has a strong desire to learn, and gather information. For a 3 1/2 year old, her vocabulary is incredible, and she carries on very adult like conversations. She will throw out phrases like.... "mommy this honeysuckle is lovely", or "this dinner is humongously spicy, and tingling my lips". I quickly see she is quite advanced in her communication and speech patterns after spending time with other children her age.

She is showing great interest in writing words, and I am starting to work on simple words for reading. She still loves to sing all the time, colors in the lines really well, writes her name extremely well, recognizes all of the alphabet by site. Visual, if not photographic, memory! She is a smart smart little girl.

With all this energy to learn, comes energy to burn. When given too much down town, she quickly turns to negative behavior to keep entertained. 3's have turned out to be WAY more challenging for me than 2's for sure. There is this sense of anger in her that I really can't pinpoint. In the last 2 months my sweet sweet Ashlyn often disappears at times. She will talk back, get angry when reprimanded, cries when doesn't get her way, tries to hit or push when I tell her to do something, and is downright mean to Austin (pushing, hitting, yelling). Am hoping this is the TRYING THREE's phase, and nothing else, but is has been a big challenge for me. I work hard to stick with positive positive positive reinforcement, but it's easy to lose my cool after a long day.

When i worked with preschoolers at the park district, the 3 and 4 year olds were always my favorite age. They are little adults, with little high pitch voices, and no grasp on sarcasm. I am striving to cherish our sweet conversations, her adorable voice when she sings, and her good moments of tender love.

Tub Learning

Smiling with a sucker, a BIG bribe reward these days

Singing the loudest and proudest at her school performance!

Super proud of her sailboat jello snack for preschool

Our left handed batter. She hits better than most of the boys

Mother's Day!

Ashlyn LOVES Miss Carla and Miss Paula

Excited for the pool to open, posing in her swimsuit

No naps often leads to impromptu naps on the couch

AUSTIN is a ball of energy! He is talking up a storm. Will repeat most anything you ask him too. It is the cutest when he says...... "bye bye daddy, yuv you daddy", in his sweet baby voice. The kid is obsessed with anything sports. He will point out a Ba-Be-Ball (basketball) from a million miles away. And if any sport comes on TV, he will yell it out. He loves to make a cheesy smile face, and scrunch up his nose.

He calls Ashlyn, Ah-Eee! If she jumps, he jumps....if she sings a song, he sings that song. The little guy wants to do anything and everything his sister is doing. Unfortunately, that brings a lot of frustration on her end, and she usually ends up just pushing him around. And Austin has the most hilarious walk. EVERYWHERE I go people are always commenting on his "strut". He walks with style, and it's adorable!

I get why people say little boys are more lovey than girls, Austin is such a momma's boy. He wants to snuggle, cuddle, hug, hold me, play with my hair, be close, ect. A very very attached little boy. I love it though, and will enjoy it as long as these moments last. I'm guessing at 15 he will NOT be sticking my ponytail in his ear, and wanting to sleep in my bed at 5:30 every morning.

He is a kid that can fall asleep anywhere, but unfortunately his crib is not one of them lately. He goes down easily at night, but wants nothing to do with it for naps. So I end up running errands during the afternoon, take walks, or put him down in my bed. And most every night, he wakes up between 5:00-6:30 and wants to come lay in bed next to me.

We are creeping up on the 2's and I am seeing more signs of that. While his temper tantrums are short lived, as Ashlyn's always were, he is definitely starting to express himself more. Unfortunately it often involves throwing something across the room, writing on walls, or hitting his sister....or me! Luckily, he responds to "No" (whereas Ashlyn laughed at me) and seems to be more sensitive with his feelings.

He is SO attached to my hair.... His security blanket