Expectations

Finn has recently started learning words at an increasingly fast rate. He will parrot back things you tell him to say. But he also remembers what certain things are called and will ask for them by name. He can say biscuit, cracker, juice, chip, bite, yogurt, fish, chicken and many other food words. He insists on calling some of his favorite things by the sound of which he has paired to said item. For instance, he won't say train. He will say woo-woo! He won't say truck he makes raspberries loudly and with much expectoration. He has added a y to the end of certain words too like hot(ty) or hat(ty).

He is extremely reactive to discipline as well. He has recently taken to laying flat on the floor between the ottoman and the couch or bonking his head into a wall or door or the floor. It is like he experiences everything so much that he overreacts to even the slightest offense. If you attempt to help him with something and you are doing it wrong he gets up, runs into our bedroom and goes underneath the bed. It is startling how quickly it happens and how fast he just snaps out if it and walks back to play again.

Just now he asked for crackers. So, I took the Ritz out of the cupboard and started untwisting the plastic sleeve. He shook his head and said no and then took off whimpering toward my bedroom. I called for him and told him I was getting him a cracker. He came back out, looked at the sleeve and took off crying again. Exasperated, I set the crackers on the hutch and went to find him. He was flat under the bed. I bellied down next to the bedframe and he crawled out the other side and ran into the kitchen. I followed him and watched him grab the crackers, walk into the living room and proceed to deftly untwist the plastic and start enjoying his snack. Apparently, what I was doing wrong was attempting to hand him the crackers individually and not in stacked and wrapped form.

When I found out I was pregnant with a boy I thought I was going to have to try harder than with my little girl to get him to start verbalizing words and showing emotions. I have found the exact opposite. He is extremely chatty and reacts really dramatically to even the slightest deviation from what he wanted to have happen.

It makes me think that my children are constant sources of surprise and are never what I expected them to be. They are so much better.

I never envisioned my five year old daughter begging her dad to make her multiplication tables to work on while eating breakfast on a Saturday morning. I never thought my little boy would be so taken with his Papas that nobody else matters if they are nearby. I hadn't expected that my son would dance and say hi/bye exactly like I do. And I never thought my daughter would be so independent and outdoorsy that she will remain outside after school for hours just playing, eating snow and exploring.

I am not one for surprises. But I love being caught off guard by the personalities of my little ones. It just goes to show that Horton was right. A person is a person, no matter how small. And these smalls have some mucho grande personalities.

Finn's Tantrum Spot

My Little Explorer and Snow Taster

Thick as Thieves