Birthdays

Birthday season is upon us! Lydia turned seven on Saturday and Charlie turned three today. Audrey will turn five in June. I feel like we have moved beyond the baby stage and into the solid childhood years. The years where they will go from diapers to training bras in a blink of an eye. I'm not ready for it. Jayson has started to try to get Charlie to stop sucking her thumb, and I will have no part in it. The way her thumb migrates to her mouth and her fingers migrate to her earlobe, which she holds when she's tired, just melts me. At the same time, I don't want to deal with the stress of a newborn. I love the freedom and independence this new stage is bringing. I'm looking forward to our first summer without daily naps, so we can go on afternoon excursions whenever we like.

Lydia is such a girl now and it scares the shit out of me. I want to do everything I can to protect her. My heart beats extra fast thinking of her going somewhere without me. At the same time, I don't want to shelter her. I want her to have new experiences and be able to do things on her own and develop her own ideas and thoughts and know what it feels like to miss me, but also to be able to have fun without me. I try to ask about her feelings, her friends, her thoughts, without making it obvious that we are going to sit down and have a conversation. She has had a very interesting social experience so far. She has had few close friends and the relationships have been complicated. She has many friends, but has yet to find that one or two true best friends. She gets invited to parties, is well-like in her class, and plays nice with other kids, but I think she is very unique in the way she approaches relationships and it's interesting for me to watch. She especially seems to get along with kids who are younger than her and kind of takes them under her wing. She also responds well to kids who are several years older than her.

Audrey is the kind of kid who everybody loves, but she doesn't seem to realize that. She's smart and funny and just constantly happy. Other parents of kids in her class have commented to Jayson and I how much they love Audrey or how much their kids love Audrey. She loves school too. She can't wait to tell us about her day. She loves to eat and would eat all day long if we let her. Her favorite food is brussel sprouts. When we brought a dish to pass to a football party, she insisted on brussel sprouts, so we brought microwavable steamer bags and she ate most of them. Don't worry, we brought other food too. She refused to wear jeans. She picked out the perfect birthday gifts for her sisters without any help from us and watched with joy as they opened them. She's also very sensitive. Any time we raise our voice or her sisters leave her out, she gets very upset. When she's crying the "don't you laugh!" trick doesn't work for her like it does for most kids. She will even at times tell me, "I just need some alone time," and will disappear into her room and talk to her stuffed animals.

Charlie is incredibly goofy. She imitates her sisters and tries to repeat her jokes but usually gets mixed up. She loves to snuggle. Most kids her age want to walk everywhere by themselves. She wants us to pick her up and carry her. Since she's my baby, I usually do. She has a belly laugh that fills a room. She laughs when she farts. She picked yogurt with blueberries for her birthday dinner. She likes to sing songs and dance, but if you catch her and ask her to do it again, she won't. She loves the water. She can count to 30 and knows all her letters. She can spell her name and a few other words. Her favorite song is "The Wheels on the Bus," and she loves Yo Gabba Gabba and America's Funniest Videos, which she will tell you is AFV.

As we move towards summer, I'm planning on writing more. Before the time is gone and I wonder what the hell happened.