The Kids

DI Painting Day
Originally uploaded by Cheryl Rollman.

So much has gone on lately that I've lost focus as to the nature of this blog: The kids.

I think because the life I live seems crazy, almost reality show like, and the one constant seems to be my kids. Their lives and the changes in their lives seem a normal contrast to the weirdness that pervades life in our house each day. Between people moving in, people dating, people visiting and friendships being made, it's easy to overlook these two little wonders. I think the last time I even mentioned them was back in August at the start of the school year.

Little Miss Austin has become a girl. She's not a tomboy or a toddler or a tween yet, she's a little girl. She likes shows with girls in them, plays video games with cooking and butterflies and loves to wear pink. Her go to accessory is a hair band and she talks about her boyfriend who's not really her boyfriend. As much as I want her to watch Star Wars and play with Lego, she'd rather dress up as a fairy princess and pretend to own a story selling ceramic nicknacks. She loves jumping on the trampoline and collecting shells.

LMA is hitting a growth spurt too. Her knees hurt in the morning and it reminds me of when I was that age how coming down the stairs was a painful exercise. She's still small for her age and when her Destination Imagination group has their meetings, you can see that she's still so small compared to her classmates. But her hair is long and her eyes are big and she does quite well in school. Her latest report card was all A's and she had pulled a few of those grades up with a little hard work and some help from the adults.

G-man is just a card. He usually runs around the house in PJs and squeals a lot at every little thing that catches his eye. He's a happy child but more and more he's picking up habits from his moody big sister. When told he can't have ANOTHER piece of cheese or a bowl of cereal 20 minutes after that bowl of oatmeal, the tears shoot out of his eyes, he cries like he's been kicked and then he runs upstairs - just like his sister. But for the most part he giggles and wants attention and just loves on you like a rambunctious koala.

He's also quite fond of computer games and has taken to them rather quickly. He knows how to play most children site games and as long as we know what he's doing, he's fine to play on his own. We don't let them play all day and after a certain time all TV and games go off, but I'd rather he play some games than watch TV.

Both children play with my Lego as well and it's wonderful to see what they make and how it relates to their personalities. LMA likes to build town things; houses, buildings, small cars, etc. G-man likes to build things with wings and guns and as many people crammed on as possible. They always defy physics too and I think they're sparklingly creative.

Both are adapting well to all the changes in our house. They are well loved, well played with and well cared for. I'm not there as much as I'd like but with three parents, they get a lot of coverage. I know they'd love to go out to eat more and go to more movies and go to themed play area eateries and that's something I feel bad about denying them mainly because of how the economy has hit everyone. We try to make up for it by doing other things like fishing and going to the parks and playgrounds and playing games at home when we can. Ms. A has her hands full with all the DI meetings, but I know the kids love having people over.

We're quite lucky that we're in the neighborhood we're in now. There are a lot of people we know and a lot of them have kids. When we move (if we move) we want to stay in the place we are because the kids, despite all we've thrown at them, seem to be adapting just fine. They are great kids and I could not imagine what would make them better or make me love them more than I already do. With all their kid hang ups and tantrums and other youthful foibles, they are perfect.