It's Official: She's Growing Up

Sometimes I look at little Bailey and marvel at how quickly time has passed. While I tend to think everything about her is the same as when she was a toddler, that simply isn't the case and we are seeing so many evidences of her growing up.

1. She now has two big teeth and recently lost 2 more baby teeth. All of these are on the bottom, so she's not "toothless" just yet, but that day is coming soon. Notice Nolan trying to pull his tooth along with Bailey!

2. She is showing interest in more "teenybopper" things.....like Justin Bieber. I didn't realize she knew about this kid singer, but she has started pointing him out on magazine covers and whatnot. Every time she says he's "cute," I cringe. Nonetheless, my boss got concert tickets, so Bailey and momma are going to get some "Bieber Fever" in November.

3. She is starting to develop a sense of compassion and getting in touch with her emotions. I do believe she is going to be a chip off the old block. Not too long ago, she said the following to me with a sense of disbelief about what was happening to her: "Momma, sometimes when I see a cute baby or a little animal, my eyes start to water just a little bit." Recently at bedtime as we were preparing to pray, I was telling her about a family who lost their one year old baby. She wanted to include this family in her prayers, but she first asked me what happened to the baby. Now, the background here is that we've had similar conversations a million times and Bailey has always been fairly matter-of-fact about life and death. So, I told her that the baby had experienced a seizure and died in his crib during the night. Well, that was a big mistake. Bailey started to sob uncontrollably and shared that she couldn't stand the thought of something like this happening to her baby brother (who was in his crib sleeping). This was really the first time that I could see her processing other people's experiences through her own lens. It was sad, of course, but it was also pretty special to see this part of her personality and character seemingly developing right before my eyes. (My teary eyes, at that!)

4. She is right at 4 feet tall and weighs 56 lbs. No wonder everyone thinks she's about 7 years old!!

5. She is about to start FIRST GRADE!!!!! Not cool, hands of time, not cool.

6. Similar to the emotions story, she has started to process her anger differently. She still has a hard time with outbursts, so she gets sent to her room quite a bit. However, she's started to "journal" while she's in there. At first, she started writing little manipulative notes on random pieces of paper....things like "You hate me." or "I'm the worst kid in the world." My spelling, not hers! :-) Then, she received a prayer journal at VBS, so she has started to write in there. A few nights ago, she got sent to her room for hurting Nolan somehow. It's always hard because he may have instigated it, but he always ends up hurt and crying in the end. So, fast forward to her release, I went into her room to see what she'd written. The page read, "Did I really think Nolan would cry. No I didn't." For whatever reason, this is hilarious to me. I don't know if this was her justifying her action as something not intended to be hurtful, or if she was irritated that he ruined their good time by crying. Either way, it counts as self reflection! :-)

That's all for now. I can't believe she's about to turn 6 years old and start "real" school. She is becoming such a helper and I'm really thankful to have her around. She's a beautiful, smart, witty and gregarious personality. I can't imagine my life without our little Bailey!!

VBS 2010

This week has been Vacation Bible School at our church. Bailey LOVES any group activity of this nature so was eager for the week to begin. This was Nolan's first time, however. Even though he and a few other young ones are in their own group and do more age-appropriate activities, I'm definitely getting a kick out of watching my two kiddos during song time. Here they are singing one of my favorites, "Ancient Words."

Nolan at 2 1/2 - Can you believe it?

I've been waiting to add that 1/2 on to his age, and now it's official! We've had a lot going on, so I may post a couple of shorter posts instead of one big one. For now, I'd like to fill you in on a few milestones for Mr. Nolan.

1. No more binky. I may have mentioned this already, but we have successfully ditched the pacifier (or pacifiers, I guess I should say!). Thankfully, he started biting through the ends of his binkies, so I had to start throwing them away. I simply told him as they were dwindling, "When big boys bite their binkies, that means they go in the trash. Once they're all in the trash, you'll be too big of a boy for binkies!" He bought it, and had no trouble dealing with their absence. As you'll see below, he did have to find a substitute that first night (this is a little turtle toy). Of course, he's asked for one a few times, but he usually faces the reality of "no more binky" pretty well.


2. Fewer naps. I believe this development is directly related to #1. He used to complain about napping, but would still go when lured with his trusted binky. Without this enticing device, what else is appealing about a nap? I would say his naps are hit or miss now. When Bailey was still in school, he was in a routine...."when Bailey goes to school, Nolan takes a nap".....but it's been a little more difficult on the weekends and with Bailey hanging around at Jeanne's all day.

3. Mean boy. While he's always been an active kid, despite his cheerful likeness in these pictures, Nolan has started demonstrating some aggression. Usually this is nothing significant, but we get kind of nervous when he starts gritting his teeth and shaking....usually in play, but I don't want that to turn into his way of coping with things. I have to tell him to be gentle quite a bit. He is always wanting to play fight and regularly hits his sister when he doesn't get his way. We've started sending him to his room quite a bit when he gets in trouble, and that has worked well.

4. Potty training. Nolan goes days where he doesn't want to use the potty, and then he'll go a few days where it seems really important to him. We always encourage him to do so even if he's already gone in his pull-up, just to get him used to the idea. He is very proud of himself when he goes in the potty, and is equally as interested in the clean-up process. He won't leave the bathroom until he's personally dried all the water (after washing it out) with a towel.

5. Big boy bed. Jason has been commenting for quite some time that if we only took down Nolan's crib, he would have some space in his room to play. Right now, it's just too cramped. However, Nolan hasn't tried to crawl out of his bed (at the lowered position...he did awhile back when it was in the middle position), so there's really no need to move him out of it. However, he's been doing all of this "big boy" stuff that we decided to present to him the option of sleeping in the single bed instead of the crib. He went for it and seemed genuinely excited. We're on day #2 of the big boy bed (with lots of pillows on the ground in case he falls!), so we'll see how it goes.

6. Pool crazy. We took the kids to the pool for the first time on Memorial Day and then have gone a couple times since then. Unlike last year when he was the king of the cannonball, Nolan seemed very reluctant to get in the water. He kept saying, "I don't want it." Then, when we'd dip him in, he acted like his wet trunks were incredibly bothersome. But, after spending some time just watching the other kids and us in the pool, he decided to try it out. And, the rest is history....he LOVES going swimming. He particularly likes one pool in the older area of our neighborhood that has a baby pool. It's not that he likes the baby pool so much as he likes to go from one area to the other about 422 times while we're there.....keeping momma and grandma running around. He also likes to take his floaties on and off and gave me one scare where he took off running for the diving board when he didn't have them on. Whew....crazy boy. We actually got quite sunburned the last time we went, so we're on a pool hiatus right now.

Here are some other recent pics of our cute boy:

Our friends cooked us some ribs and my little carnivores went to town.

Nolan is an excellent lawn boy.

Cuddling with daddy watching a movie.