Our Princess Leia

What will they be when they grow up?

There are people out there who think you can see the signs of who your kids will be even when they are very small. We've all heard them say, "Oh, I knew when he was two that he was going to be a performer!" Well, okay. So maybe that person liked to be the center of attention, but what two-year-old doesn't? I am not so sure I subscribe to that theory, knowing how much different experiences can change a person throughout his or her life, but just for today, let's pretend they will grow up and turn into whatever activities dominate their lives right now...

Aidan. Well, she likes a lot of different things, but if I took a little poll of what she spends more of her time on, coloring, or "doing crafts," as she likes to say, would rank right up there. Every day when I pick her up from preschool, she has about five art projects I have to wait for her to walk around the room and gather up. The painting station there is a free time option, and she paints nearly every day. Yesterday, we had a really good day, so I took her to Michael's and let her pick out some crafty stickers to make pictures with, and you would have thought I gave her
some huge prize. She literally then spent about 3 hours doing crafts yesterday afternoon.

However, Aidan really likes to sing, as well. She's only four, so it's not like she's in a choir or something, but she sings in the car, around the house, when she's supposed to be going to sleep...She actually has a knack for staying right on pitch and remembering words and tunes after only hearing them once or twice. She also makes up any words she can't remember, and that's one of the funniest things she does. Last night, we had on American Idol, and she would turn around and say, "Mommy, that girl is not singing the right notes." or..."Mommy, that girl is singing right AND she's pretty!"

Taylor. He likes to color, too. For about five minutes, and then he's on to something else, so I wouldn't say that was a huge interest for him. He likes to sing, too, but unfortunately, we're pretty sure that pitch is not his strong suit. Maybe he'll play the drums.

What he does do is put things together. He has lots of train sets down in the basement, and I'll come down the stairs and have to ask Aidan if she helped him put something together. Always no. Just over Christmas, he got a puzzle from Grandma and Grandpa for 3+. I hadn't messed with those yet because he's two and I was afraid he'd get frustrated. However, after a couple of times putting that one together with Grandpa, we came home, he found Aidan's other puzzles, and that's all he wants to do. He must put that Sesame Street puzzle in the picture together about twelve times per day.

So rather than thinking that I just know what they'll do when they get older, I tend towards the Multiple Intelligences theory. This states that we all have characteristics of all different kinds of intelligences: verbal, musical, kinesthetic (that might be Taylor using his hands to put things together), etc. However, we tend to favor certain ones more than others. This theory also claims that we can develop our weaker areas throughout life, even watching them become tendencies over the others. Both kids clearly favor certain things right now, but who really knows what they'll develop and change into over the next, oh, twenty years or so? I hope I'm here to find out!

Yes, it has been three years since I've been on here. I almost feel silly adding a new post, because is anyone left out there?

Our camera broke right before Christmas, and I'm really all about the blogs with photos to match. And I got really busy. Did you notice? But this picture was taken on Terry's beloved iphone a few days ago and I couldn't resist.

Taylor tells jokes now. They make ZERO sense, like why does the Mary Kathryn climb the tree? Why, Taylor? Because, the PIG was in the TREE!!! And then he produces this fake laugh for a few minutes. It's not funny, of course, but listening to him tell a joke is. And so I laugh, which makes him laugh harder. And encourages him. (today Aidan told a real joke, which totally caught me by surprise, but that's for a later post)

He also must dress himself each day, now, and he does an incredibly good job. Yesterday, he put a short-sleeved blue shirt with a collar on under an Abercrombie looking gray, long-sleeved shirt. He looked like a cutie little 16 yr old who the girls would like. Terry later said, "Is that one shirt or two? I want to wear that outfit!" We are still working on the potty training--he just doesn't seem to care much--but on a good day, I put his big boy underpants on, sometimes over his diaper just to get the feel for it. "Diego goes in BACK, Mom!" he says.

When we go to the store without Aidan, he does not want to ride in the cart anymore (that's a horror story with any kid under 3, isn't it?). But he holds onto the side of the cart, sticks right with me, and places the items in the cart.

He's great, and February 2, I register him for next year's preschool. I'm going to enjoy him while I can.