Travis is such a clown! He is always making the funniest faces, and he crawls around the house 90% of the time with his head on the floor, like he's a little bulldozer. He also loves to wrestle with Westley, probably Westley more than Caleb because Caleb gets way too rough. But they mostly wrestle with a blanket as a prop--they roll around with the blanket and play peek-a-boo, during the game. Peek-a-boo is Travis' favorite game, and he gets really excited, kicking out his legs and pumping his arms every time we play. The usual way that we play involves him covering his face (and only his face) with something...a blanket, towel, or toy...and then I say, "Where's Travis?" and he laughs and laughs and kicks his legs and pumps his arms. Then he reveals his face with a huge grin, laughing, and I say, "Peek-a-boo!" which just makes him laugh all the harder. It's so cute!
Travis has been waking up lately with his pajamas all over the place. One morning, he woke up with one leg in and one leg out of his pants, shirt intact. Another morning (so pictured), he woke up with his pants completely off and on the floor and his shirt pulled halfway off. Sometimes he's only in a diaper. Apparently, we are often too slow in getting him in the morning and he gets bored.
He is just starting to take steps here and there, but mostly he still crawls. He's pretty good at walking behind a walker or with someone, but he just won't let go.
I think that four-year-olds are harder than three-year-olds. They're asserting their independence, and that makes them rather difficult to deal with sometimes. Of course, you need to give them situations where they can be independent yet still make good choices to learn how it feels to make the right choice. It's hard to give them this type of freedom though, especially for your first child. Obviously, a ten-month-old isn't capable of making choices at all, so the parents must make all choices for them. But a four-year-old is capable of making quite a few choices and must be given the liberty to do so.
For example, a ten-month-old just wants to learn about everything. So instead of leaving a house full of breakable and dangerous items, we, as parents, move these items up to higher levels out of the baby's sight and put items lower that the child can play with. Then the child does not have to choose which items are okay to play with and which ones are not. But a four-year-old can decide between an item that is safe and one that is not, like whether they should play with a knife or a toy car. Tempting as the knife might be, a well-taught four-year-old chooses the toy car and knows that he/she has made a good choice when the parents do not scold. They probably have been warned before not to touch the knives in the kitchen and perhaps have even had experience being punished for trying to play with one.
Currently, our four-year-old is giving us trouble. I recognize that many of the issues that we tend to battle about are really just a quest for more independence on his part. The problem is that I don't always know where to draw the line. How far do I let him go before I tell him he can't make that choice? If he makes a bad choice, like talking back to Mom and Dad, is he really trying to be defiant and downright rude or just trying to assert some independence? I'm sure the best way to teach him not to talk back is not spanking, but sometimes, when he goes on and on and won't be quiet, I have a hard time controlling that hand. Or when he acts out because he has to leave the pool before he's ready. I can understand not wanting to leave, and that's a fine opinion to have, but how do you properly teach him that he shouldn't have a wild temper tantrum because he doesn't want to leave? How do I teach him a proper outlet for his frustration? I just don't know. It seems easier than it is. Logically, I should be able to tell him that behavior is inappropriate, of course in his terms, and reward him when he behaves appropriately even though he's angry. But often the problem lies merely in the inability to calm him down. Usually, once he's calmed down, he doesn't even care or really remember why he's so upset. And then it's worthless to try and bring it up because he sweetly smiles and says, "okay, Mom," although I can tell he doesn't even get what I'm trying to tell him.
I guess it's just a constant learning process. Lucky me, I have at least three more kids to do this with. I hear it only gets better...
Caleb is still two, I don't know how else to describe him. He's very stubborn and has an iron will. Of course, being two, he gets upset about everything. Every ten minutes I hear him crying out somewhere in the house. It gets frustrating because it sure makes it hard to get Travis down for naps and to stay asleep, with Caleb always screaming. He's still not talking very well, although I can understand him better every day. Words like, help, sandwich, juice, milk, are all words I can understand, but he really doesn't say them very well.
His favorite thing to do? Get on Westley's nerves. Push Westley's buttons. As much as possible. And he's very good at it. Yet at the same time, they are best friends. On Westley's birthday, Westley didn't come home until late, so I had to put Caleb to bed by himself. He kept pointing at Westley's bed and saying, "Westley" over and over. I had to try and explain to a two-year-old why his brother wasn't there but that he would be back later, after Caleb was asleep. He was sad that Westley wasn't there.
Travis is sure getting around now. He crawls everywhere on his hands and knees and follows me around the house, as well as his brothers. Since he's only 7 months old, he's doing this way earlier than the other boys did it. He already pulls himself up on just about anything to a stand and walks along the edge, although he's not really sturdy at that yet. I think he really wants to be walking and be able to keep up with his older brothers. When they play outside in the backyard, he stands by the back door (sliding glass) and watches them.
Westley turned 4 on Tuesday! We didn't really do much for his birthday, as far as presents or cake. Corey made pancakes for breakfast, at Westley's request. He opened one present--a set of kid card games, like Old Maid, Fish, and War. Then he went to gymnastics with Daddy. After gymnastics, he went with Daddy to get the oil changed in his car and then I drove in to Mesa with the other boys and met them as well as my mom for lunch. We had lunch and went home for naps. After naps, Corey took Westley to an In-N-Out store party at Gamestoppers, this game place by the Arizona Mills Mall. They were there until 9:30 and came home wiped out.
Westley has been so cute lately with Travis. He really is a great big brother. He's very helpful, and he includes Travis in their play. And he's very good at making sure Travis doesn't put anything in his mouth that's too small. He's always saying to me, "Travis sure is a cute baby, Mom." And everywhere we go, he tells people that Travis is "his" baby. It's very cute.
The boys decided to have a marching band of their own. After I used a belt of mine to strap on Westley's drum, I tied Caleb's keyboard on with two bathrobe ties. They marched around the house for half an hour, "playing" their music. I got it on video too, and it's so cute! The best was how they really were marching. I'm not even sure where they came up with the idea for a marching band, though!
On Valentine's Day, we hosted a Valentine's Day party for some of Westley's friends, mostly from church. We had a lot of fun making valentines, counting conversation hearts (and eating them), decorating sugar cookies and playing Giant Candyland.This is the Giant Candyland game that we had put together for the party. I just used construction paper and made the squares for them to stand on. I used the original Candyland game and copied the pictures for the "candy squares"--an ice cream cone, a gingerbread man, a lollipop, etc. They had fun playing the game. Here we are eating the heart-shaped pizzas we made for lunch. The heart shape was a hit, it's what made lunch exciting. Here we are decorating sugar cookies. Corey and I made a bunch of heart-shaped cookies and some pink and white frosting. I also had a jar of a variety of sprinkles that I bought last year and never used, so that came in handy. Most of the kids ate as they went, but a few saved their cookies for later.
We had a lot of fun, and I'm thinking of making it a tradition.
