Wait, it's my blog, I can sing my kids' praises 24/7 if I want to, so if you're not feeling the 'oh gosh there she goes again' vibe you may want to switch over to HuffPost or something.
Anyway, a few things I'd like to brag about, mostly to keep the memories forever (as we all know, the Internet never forgets) and also because, let's face it, my kids are pretty cool.
We were out and about today around end-of-school day, so the viewing was ripe for one of Anika's favorite sights - school buses. "Mama! Look! I see school busses -- two of them!" Then, as we turned onto a busy street, she exclaimed, "Look, another one!"Thinking I could test out how much she actually knew about numbers, and not expecting too much, honestly, I asked, "How many buses is that altogether? Those two school busses plus this one right here?"
Without skipping a beat: "Um, three!"
Um, yes. And also, WOW.
I'm pretty sure that the last thing I read on BabyCenter about "your three-year-old's development" said that some kids are able to count objects together but that most just see that if you have three apples and they have one, that they are missing out on apples.
She also started dance classes a few weeks ago, as cousin Sofia (otherwise known as One of the Coolest People on the Planet) takes dance and Anika was practically in tears one night because she wasn't Angelina Ballerina in real life and we thought, what the heck, she'll probably love it. We found a tap/ballet/gymnastics combo for 3 to five-year-olds.
And love it she does. She is THE MOST ENTHUSIASTIC STUDENT EVER. She jumps up and down and claps her hands and exclaims, "It's time for class now, mama! YAY!!" and in between, as we are exchanging her tap shoes for her ballet slippers, or as we are taking off her tights so that she can tumble around in the amazing gymnastics space that gives all kids saucer-eyes, she proudly shows me what she learned and hugs me and smiles and says that she LOVES tap and she LOVES ballet and she LOVESLOVESLOVES gymnastics and can we do it again tomorrow? Her teachers smile at me (and I smile wryly back, as I'm usually wrestling with a very impatient, saucer-eyed-for-the-gym-equipment Reni) and I can tell they think she is something else. I hope she keeps that enthusiasm as long as she can, because it's really infectious and anybody with that kind of passion is a hero of mine.
Then there is little Reni, who is not so little anymore. He has decided his bestie is Anika, and when she goes to school he wants to be right there with her. When she eats, he wants to eat exactly what she's eating in exactly the same manner (has to be a big person plate and spoon and cup). When he gets dressed to go outside, he wants to wear boots just like hers and when she isn't home he spends his time mostly in her room playing with the toys she likes best (which are, of course, his favorites as well).
He is such a little monkey, copying everything we do and say. If he runs into the kitchen and grabs the little broom and dustbin I keep under the sink, it's because he has spilled something and he's going to go attempt to pick it up. He talks to me about his favorite Dora episode, or whatever game he and Anika were playing outside together, and I am starting to understand what he's saying. He is absolutely delighted that I'm FINALLY getting it. And I'm delighted that his stranger anxiety is finally starting to head for the exit. We're not there yet, but he has gotten so much better and now when we go places, he's usually off like a shot, exploring and climbing and throwing things as much as he can. He's gotten as good at working the television remotes as his sister, and is almost there on the iPad as well. We decided to sign him up for preschool starting in September (he will be in the room Anika is currently in) because every Tuesday and Thursday, when it's time to drop off and/or pick up Anika, he's in that classroom like a shot and it's really difficult to get him to come back out.
Are these kids great, or what?
(Incidentally, when I'm having one of THOSE DAYS, I may come back and read this post to remind myself that being a mom, as ridiculously exhaustingly impossibly difficult as it is, really has an upside. And that is that you get to witness the creation of people way cooler than you ever thought imaginable.)
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