Cue the Imperial March...
After Christmas, a switch just flipped for Bruce. January has been all about Star Wars.
Abby, who wants to do everything her brother does, has jumped right in. It's crazy to hear our two-year-old talk about "Dark Sidy" (Darth Sidious), "Yodu" (Yoda), and "D2-D2" (R2-D2), among others. She says her favorite character is Luke Skywalker, but she's always wanting to read about JABBA (always said with her slow, deep monster voice). She still loves to climb up on the fort outside and yell, "Ahoy! Ahoy! Ahoy, Boy!" and isn't quite ready to give up playing pirate, but is more than willing to wield a lightsaber upon request. And she makes the cutest little sound effects when she's blasting you with her hand lasers! (her idea)
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| we had some leftover Roman candles from the Fourth of July which made a perfect laser show one night! No, Abby was not firing them from her bare hands... |
It's been quite the adjustment for Charlie and me, but it's been fun. For the past year, our world has revolved around life as a pirate family. It was silly, and quirky, and who we were. And as dramatic as it might sound, I do feel like part of me has been grieving the loss of Blackbeard this month. It was all so abrupt, and unexpected. BUT, I have to admit, switching gears to this galaxy far, far away has been exciting, too.
A month ago, I could have named a handful of Star Wars characters and pretty much only knew they fought with lightsabers and used the Force. I had seen the original movies as a kid, and the first "new" episode years ago, but never the other two. And had zero plans of seeing that latest one that just came out in the theater. And I was totally fine with that. It's amazing how interests can change though, especially when Charlie and I want to love the things our kids love.
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| I'm working on making an Emperor's cloak, but for now, he's making do with this |
Charlie and I celebrated our twelfth wedding anniversary this month, and to spend some quality time together, we marathon-watched all six Star Wars movies that we borrowed from a friend, and then got a baby-sitter so we could go see the new one together. We hadn't been to the movie theater in over a year I think! I now am officially well-versed in all things Star Wars and can talk shop with the best of nerds. Overall, I really did enjoy the series, and not just because I can now have conversations with Bruce about Star Wars stuff. Episodes IV-VI were my favorites, and were a lot more humorous than I remembered them being. Maybe because all the acting is so theatrical compared to modern day movies. And what's the deal with Yoda going feral on Dagobah? Episode II was by far my least favorite, and although I realize its importance in filling in story lines, I felt like the entire movie could have been told in twenty minutes... I won't say anything about the new movie, in case some haven't seen it yet, but thought it was really good, and am looking forward to the next ones. I think Chewbacca is still my favorite character, and wish I could just groan about everything like he does. It really is the perfect moan that words just cannot express sometimes, but I feel wanting to explode out of my mouth most days. However, I feel like I identify most with C-3PO. Always overly worried about everything, and annoyingly pointing out the problems with everything. I'm not planning on attending any conventions in the near future, but there's no denying the fact that I'm a fan now.
Twelve years going strong!
Bruce is still Bruce, just focused on Star Wars now. He's like my padawan, and such a little fact-absorber. He wants to know all the details, and can retain them all. He's never even seen the movies, but still probably knows more than most people about the different characters and the storyline. And he still wants to dress up all the time and "be" someone. I even had to change his school's car pick up tag to read "Qui-Gon Jinn" because that's who he wanted to be referred to as last week. His fascination with Qui-Gon this week has come as a surprise to me because his character is a good guy, and Bruce never thinks twice about the good guys - but I'm not complaining. Most of the time though, he switches back and forth between Darth Vader, The Emperor, and Darth Maul. And now that Charlie and I can tell him about the newest movie, Kylo Ren (the new bad guy) has of course become one of his new favorites. I find it really interesting that Bruce really only seems to care about the Lego Star Wars stuff. When I've pointed out the other Star Wars toys at the store (which are typically less expensive and he wouldn't have to save up his money for as long), he'll hardly even glance at them before wanting to go back to the Lego aisle. I can't blame him though - Legos are so fun!
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| Thanks to Craig's List and knock-offs from China, Bruce has quite the Lego Star Wars stash now |
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| Having a birthday party with some of Abby's Legos... |
Other Highlights and Kidbits of the month:
We had some surprise snow at the beginning of the month!
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| Bruce is a snow ball pro now |
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| Charlie was out of town, so I got the brunt of the attacks this go around! |
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| It was great snow for building a snow Darth Vader |
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| Abby even helped with rolling |
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| But this was as far as we got... |
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| then it was time to go inside... |
And we had some surprise Spring weather at the end of the month!
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| we opened up the sand box! |
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| and spent some time at the park! |
But had a whole lot of blah days in between. Winter is our hardest season...
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| thank goodness for Chick-fil-a! |
We spent New Years at Charlie's parents' house!
Charlie has had to do some traveling this month, and stays pretty swamped with work while home. He still manages to find time to chase the ewoks around the backyard though!
I've been spending a great amount of effort trying to get our house under control this month. We're not quite candidates for those hoarders reality TV shows, but neither Charlie nor I are great housekeepers, and things have just really started to pile up everywhere. I've made some pretty good progress so far, but I'm thinking next month will be more of the same. Maybe I'll be brave enough to actually post some before and after pictures next month... It's been such a relief to not have junk all over the place, but it's been discouraging to think about how impossible it will be to keep up with - how do people with kids keep their houses clean???
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| throwing out lots of paperwork with sensitive info = bonfire!!! |
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| and s'mores! |
Bruce has grown up so much this month! Something finally clicked for him and he is starting to show so much more interest in being independent. I've especially noticed this in the personal care and hygiene department. He still gets incredibly frustrated when it's not easy for him, but he wants to try to put his own clothes on, his shoes, jacket, etc. And he's doing almost all of his potty-business entirely by himself now! He'll also fill his own water cup and help himself to snacks when he can reach them in the cabinet, and can put his own seatbelt on! This all may seem like normal stuff for a four year old, but it's been so challenging for us to motivate Bruce to want to do anything for himself without him turning into a big, frustrated fuss-puddle on the floor. So believe me when I say I'm incredibly excited about this leap in maturity and his willingness to try.
And he's doing so well at entertaining himself while playing, too. Of course he still prefers to have company, but when he wakes up before the crack of dawn in the mornings, most of the time he'll choose to stay and play with his Legos in his room rather than join Abby and I on the couch in front of the television.
As much as I personally miss the Playmobil toys, the Legos have been so good for Bruce. And the whole family loves them, too, which makes for some nice playtime fun. Bruce still mainly plays with the mini-figures, taking them all apart and putting them back together as different characters, (which is interesting, because that's exactly how he played with his Playmobil pirates, too) but he's also getting really good at building things. The few real "sets" we've bought are still too complex for him to put together entirely by himself, but he's really good at finding the piece you need next, and is getting really skilled at reading the technical drawings in the manual to determine where each piece is supposed to go. But using random pieces from the tub, he's come up with some pretty fantastic creations on his own, which is so fun. It's crazy how quickly he's caught on how to use to special Lego pieces (they're a lot more complex than the ones I remember having as a kid!) to make things pivot, spin, hinge, etc and to change the orientation of how the bricks connect together. It can get incredibly complex, but his brain is learning how to sort it all out! How we spend most of our time though, is looking through his Lego Star Wars visual dictionary book, or Lego Star Wars books from the library, and picking out things that we want to try to build. We've made a lot of really cool things, but we always have to start off by saying, "We don't have all of the pieces to make this look exactly like how it looks in the book, but I'm going to try my best. Are you going to be okay with my best?" Because sometimes, Bruce gets really disappointed when things aren't exactly how he expects them to be... Most of the time, he's okay with how things turn out though. And if he's especially feeling lazy, he's more than okay with using the yellow piece instead of scavenging through the bins looking for a gray one... Charlie or I will usually work on building the general framework of things while Bruce helps finds parts, and then he'll finish things off with some awesome details. It's been great.
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| a droid he invented |
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| Craig's List Mega-score!!! |
We got Bruce's second report card of the year a couple of weeks ago. His one "Needs Improvement" (pencil grasp) has improved to "Progressing" and all the other motor development skills are also in that category. It's not surprising, his little fingers don't always cooperate for him, and I'm okay with that. He's trying. Under the social skills categories, all of his "Progressing" marks from the last report card have moved up to "Successful" with the exception of "keeping hands and feet to themselves and respects other's personal space." Haha... again, no surprises there. It still wasn't "Needs Improvement" so I'm okay with that, too. And so far, he's "Successful" with all of the academic things they've tested him on. Wahoo!
And then there's Abby. It's been so fun to watch Abby really start to become her own person over the past few months. Abby has always had her own personality, but she has always just kind of come along for the ride. Each day that passes though, I'm noticing more and more things that are uniquely different about Abby compared to Bruce.
And she is such a singer! I'm amazed at how quickly she picks up songs, and will sing them to herself all the time. She'll also make up songs that narrate what she's doing or wanting - like her "want to get down from the table" song... A few of her latest favorites include Jesus Loves Me, Away in a Manger, the Friendly Beasts, the finger family song, and of course, Old McDonald's farm, which I'm including a clip of - enjoy!
Her language and vocabulary continue to develop, and people comment all the time, "Oh! She's really talking now!" It's really fun that non-family can understand what she's trying to say most of the time. One of her new cute things she says is "my" instead of "I" - as in, "my can do it!"
She's such an independent little girl. I still am shocked because Bruce was never this way when he was her age. Even when she's not reading, she's perfectly content playing in the backyard by herself or playing with her toys by herself. It's been so nice because while Bruce is at school, I can get some serious work done around the house. Especially now that she's getting older too, and I'm not so worried about her harming herself if I'm not constantly supervising her. I feel guilty sometimes though that I'm not interacting enough with her, but I try not to worry too much. She comes and gets me when she needs some attention, and I'm more than happy to supply her with it!
She loves taking care of her dolls and animals, but does not like it when you tell her she's a "good mama" - she'll remind you that "I Abby" not the mama. She also is always concerned about others when we're out in public and some kid is crying. I'm sure those other mamas *really appreciate* Abby incessantly pointing out their child's fit, but I'm sure they know she's just curious and unsettled by it, not judgmental. (Like most of the other people in the store...)
It's been a great start to the new year!
