Is it birth order, or simply personality?

Children never cease to amaze me.  Especially watching them grow from teeny, tiny infants who can’t do anything but lay there and cry to giant children who have definite wants and desires.

Nathaniel and Aaron are pretty similar in their temperaments.  They are both pretty easy going kids who are fairly happy most of the time.  Of course, that there is where their similarities end, and I LOVE it.

Take Nathaniel, for example:

(Riding a camel at the zoo)

Nathaniel is timid.  He has always been timid (and that is perfectly okay).  In a new situation, he is more likely to stand off to the side and watch.  He has come quite a ways from last year however.  Last year at this time, a new situation brought Nathaniel to tears.  It wasn’t that he was fearful, he was just cautious.  He was (and still is) unafraid of attempting physical challenges, it’s just social situations that cause him to stop.  Now, he will join a group and begin playing near them if he doesn’t know them (this is HUGE!).  He will also speak to someone when he is spoken to (most of the time).

However, Aaron is a completely different child:

(At Crystal Cove Beach)

This child is completely fearless in nearly all situations.

He is the kid who waves at everyone while walking down the street and says “Hi!!” and “Bye!!!”  He climbs to the top of the playground equipment without even thinking that he could possibly fall.  He has a sense of things being “fair”, which is really hard because he is not quite 18 months old and not 4 like his brother. 

Aaron is a climber.  Today alone I had to pull him down from the top of the monkey bars at church, pull him off of the top of the kitchen table, and pull him down off of the bathroom counter.  Ugh!  Also, he knows what he wants and refuses to compromise. 

Aaron desperately wants to be big.  He sees his brother doing things, and really wants to do it too.  Every day he throws a fit when I try to diaper him.  Which is great, because if I leave his diaper off he will go in his potty.  But, he doesn’t have the words to tell me he has to go, so he can’t go diaper-less in public.  Today, however, he saw Nathaniel pee standing up and was completely enthralled.  About 20 minutes later I saw Aaron standing in front of his little potty trying to pee.  He threw a fit when I made him sit down. 

Oy.

One more cute story of Aaron’s bravado (and a comparison to how Nathaniel reacted).

This past week we took part in Cypress Church’s VBS.  It was “High Seas Adventure” which meant there were pirates involved.  One of the main actors in the skit was ‘Captain Curly Beard’.  Kellan (the guy playing the part) was completely decked out in his costume.  One morning we walked into the church and Captain Curly Beard was there with an Air Cannon.  Aaron got a blast in the face, took one look at the pirate and burst into tears.  He clung to me tighter than he ever has before and just cried and cried.  I felt bad for him, but secretly relished the fact that he still needs his mommy.  The next day I was watching Aaron during worship time.  I saw him standing on his tip toes trying to see the dancers on stage.  Then, he looked over his shoulder and came walking over to me.  It was this weird combination of hugging me and looking at the door and waving uncertainly. 

I looked over my shoulder and saw Captain Curly Beard standing by the door.  So, I asked Aaron if he wanted to go say hi to the pirate.  He gripped my arm but nodded.  So, we went over to where Kellan was standing and Aaron faced him and waved.  He still freaked when the hat was removed, but he was brave enough to wave.

By Friday he had hugs and kisses for the scary Pirate.

Nathaniel, on the other hand, would cry every morning that the pirate was scary and he wanted to stay with me.

I love my kids.  I love how different they are.  I pray that we can always encourage them to be the young men that God has created them to be.

 

Nathaniel sunbathing with his friend Kaatje.

Four Years Ago

Four years ago we were blessed with our own little "Gift of God".

After 30 hours of labor (yes, I will milk this until the day I die, for both of my giant sons) Nathaniel Lawrence Grummons entered into this world on July 14, 2006 and forever changed our lives.

Four years later, we can't imagine our lives without him.

Our prayer for him every night is that he will continue to grow in his knowledge of Jesus and that he will always make good decisions and choose to serve the Lord his whole life. We know that there is only so much that we as parents can do, and pray that we do those things and that Nathaniel will listen and find his own way as well.

Thank you God, for our son.


Today I asked him what he liked to be called, Nathaniel or Nathan. He said, "both!" and smiled. Which is good, because I call him Nathaniel and Sam calls him Nathan (and all of his little preschool friends call him Mathaniel, except for the Indian family in our complex, they call him Ethan). Whatever, we just know that we love him.

Help, someone replaced the baby with a little boy!

It has happened.  Our cute, roly poly Baby has been replaced with a rambunctious toddler.  It’s so sad, but exciting at the same time.

Showing off his belly to be “gotten”

Pretty proud to be standing on the stump while camping.

Aaron has gone from not saying much, to speaking the strangest of words.  When asked to say “Daddy” he says “Mama” with a grin on his face.  He says, “teeth” “cheese” “ball” and “Steve!” (from Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, the monkey’s name is Steve and he says it a lot).  He nods yes and no in answer to our questions and does a lot of pointing as well.

But, the most exciting thing in “Aaron’s world” is his use of the potty.  About a month ago we started putting him on the potty when we noticed he was about to poop.  That went on pretty regularly for about a week but then we quit because he didn’t seem too interested.  This week he walked over to his toilet and pulled at his pants.  I took his diaper and pants off and he sat down and actually went.  This has happened about four times since then, even with dry diapers  as well (instead of a full diaper and then pee in the toilet).  I’m super excited about this because he actually seems ready to train.  I’m ready.  We’ve been buying diapers for four years!

So, our little baby is now on his way to becoming a big boy.  I’m sad.  I miss my baby!!

What do you do when you see a bear?

You take a picture, of course!!

This bear was digging through the garbage of our camping neighbors on Friday morning. We were relaxing after a morning hike when we heard someone yell, "Bear!" I looked up from my knitting and, sure enough, there was a bear! Vanessa called for the kids while I yelled to Sam to get the camera. We then all ran after the bear. Both to chase it away, and also to get a better look.

Nathaniel was super excited to see a bear in the wild and we all learned a good lesson. Put away our food because the bears will come after it during the day.

Vocabulary

Nathaniel has started playing more online games lately. While Sam was in school he had a lot of afternoons where he was either grading papers or working on school work while Aaron was napping. That left Nathaniel to play by himself so often times Sam would let him play for a bit on the pbs kids website. While online Nathaniel would watch Martha Speaks (a show about a talking dog that has a ton of new vocabulary words) and Sesame Street's "Word on the Street". He learned words such as amazing, dangerous, excited, and exhausted. This has made for some interesting (which is also a word he's learned) conversations with the three year old.

"Mommy! That is amazing!"

While watching UP yesterday, "Mommy, this movie is too dangerous."

When talking about my brother coming to visit, "Mommy! I'm so ee-sited about Uncle Ian coming out!"

And whenever he doesn't want to do something that we've told him to do (like clean up his toys), *giant, dramatic sigh* "I can't, I'm ee-sausted!"

On the other hand, Aaron stilll communicates mainly with tribal yells and pointing. He says, "Mama" "Daddy" "Hi" "bye" and everything else is either "oh!" or "AHHH!".

He'll get it eventually. :)

(Yes, we have a lot of other stuff to update on including our trip to Catalina, Sam's graduation and other fun stuff that has been going on, but I haven't uploaded pictures yet and the kids are currently taking turns punching each other and screaming so...that's for another time.)

Milestones

It's a busy month for us. Sam graduates next week and his family is coming in starting on Sunday. Add that to the school year winding down for Nathaniel and my junior high students and you have one busy family. But, I still thought I needed to jot down some thoughts about what's going on with the family because this is kind of my "my children are growing up and hitting new milestones" journal as well as a way to keep people updated with our lives.

Aaron is growing like a weed. He had his 15 month check up last week and has hit 28 pounds and 31 inches. Luckily his car seat is large enough for him to still face backwards until he hits 34 inches (apparently the new guidelines want kids sitting backwards until they are 2). He got a vaccination at the doctor's office and it was pretty cute. He cried for about 2 seconds and then, as the nurse exited the room he smiled and waved and said, "byeeeee!" in his sweet little voice.

He doesn't say much. He can say "Hi" and "bye" but he doesn't say much else. He signs A LOT but his verbal skills consist mostly of pointing and giving a tribal yell. We're working on getting him to be more verbal. He does shake his head yes and no a lot, so I know he is completely understanding everything we say. He is also really good at following simple instructions, I just think that Nathaniel speaks for him most of the time.

Nathaniel is winding down in school. His one day a week preschool co-op ended a few weeks ago and Cubbies ends next week. I'm not sure when his school year ends since his preschool is more daycare and goes year round. We also haven't decided whether or not to keep him in the program through the summer. It all depends on Sam's job situation.

The other day Sam and I were talking about my job and some of the difficulties I've been facing. Nathaniel was sitting at the table with us and he turned to me and said, "Mom, why is it hard for you?" I was taken aback because this was his first question where he actually showed empathy and interest in someone else. I almost cried, but then I answered his question. He really is an empathetic child, which I love. I love his heart for others and the sensitivity he has towards others. Whenever something sad happens in a movie that he's watching he cries, even if it's the 15th time he's seen it. I hope that he can continue to have empathy towards others. Although, yesterday he was talking about different friends at preschool and he said that he played with "J" this past week. Then he looked at me and whispered, "Mom, I thought that 'J' was a girl because of his curly hair, but he's actually a boy!" I think it was his first encounter where he wasn't sure of someones gender. I thought it was cute.

That's it here. We went camping last weekend with the junior high students and had a blast. Sam graduates next weekend and after everything I will be able to blog a bit more and post pictures.

Quick updates, list style

Well, Sam is finishing up his final semester here in Talbot land. That means a lot of us sitting in the living room on our laptops in the evening rather than watching movies or hanging out. I can't wait for him to be finished!

Here is a recap of some of the stuff I've mentioned in the past few weeks on this blog.

• Nathaniel was continuing to not tell the truth, so last night Sam gave him a teaspoon of vinegar. He cried (Nathaniel, not Sam) and said it tasted yucky. So, we explained that lying was yucky and that he needed to tell the truth and that if he told the truth he would get into less trouble than if he lied. Today was good. He started to lie about a few things (mainly, hitting his brother or flushing the toilet or washing his hands, little stuff like that) but I gave him a look and asked him if he was sure that he wanted to lie and he thought for a second and told the truth. *whew* Hoping that it worked.

• Aaron used the toilet for about three days, and now he'll go to the bathroom to use the toilet, but usually he's just peed. He's more interested in playing than going. But, at least he's connecting it!

• Work is cranking up for me. I've got a camping trip in two weeks (woot!!) and eighth grade promotion is coming up as well. I'm co-teaching a sex respect class at the Academy for 7th graders which is amazingly awesome. It's funny how it's not awkward when you're in the teacher's shoes! It's fun to make the kids squirm. I'm terrible. But, it's going well overall.

• We made it to Disneyland two nights ago. It was great and we managed to ride on 5 rides in two hours. We basically walked on every single ride and, for the first time, Nathaniel did not cry when he got wet. He laughed and said, "Oh man, my pants are wet!!" Silly boy.

• That's about it here. Just finishing up May (even though it just started). We went over budget so I'm trying to be creative with the food we have in the house (we have a lot of frozen meat, but not a lot of other food so I'm figuring out what we do have so I can use it up before going grocery shopping). I figure we can always eat pancakes. We have two kinds of pancake mix so we're good.

Hope people are well. I'm going to bed!