Kids Spotlight: January 2021

It’s time for a family update! We’ve had a lot going on this past month including Jeremy starting grad school (AH?!) and the daily adventures of young children. I love them each so much, and would like to remember some of these details of them individually below.

Social Butterfly

She has been so brave this month with all of the changes, not only with getting braces but also going back to at-school learning after being on remote/distance learning for half of 4th grade. She has finished her 2 things of loop yarn by making a blanket that can also be a table runner, giant scarf, and anything else her beautiful imagination deems. Her little stuffed elephant Ellie has been her constant companion, and she outfits her in bows and dresses to match what she’s wearing—it’s super cute when we have church! Her compassion knows no bounds, she came home upset because she saw a real stuffed cougar (her school’s mascot) in her school’s foyer. “It had a life, it had a family,” she said sadly. I love how much she loves the people and living things in our world.

Animal Lover

F can tell you all about the different creatures he loves. He’s asked for another stuffed animal (a crocodile) so he can play zoo at home with Sister. He also asked for a Charmeleon pokémon figure for his birthday so he can properly evolve Charmander to Charizard (hahaha! Is that the cutest, or what?). That “intriguing animals” book we got him for Christmas has been a huge hit, as he reads a different passage every day and often shows us his favorites that he wants to learn more about. Our most requested animals have been the Parrotfish, bats, frogs, baleen (sperm) whales, vultures (oddly his favorite bird!), and anteaters (aardvarks).

His favorite show is Wild Kratts, and he totally wants a “creature power suit” of his latest favorite animal, the infamous platypus! After telling me all about the spikes on its tail (only the males), its ability to lay eggs yet feed its young milk, spend its life both in water and on land, and its sixth sense in its beak to find food… my little Animal Lover showed me the pages from his book and asked me if we could go see one at the zoo. Turns out the only platypus in the whole world we can visit outside of Australia is the (temporarily closed) San Diego Zoo in California. Thankfully they have a “platypus camera” so you can still view it live on their website during COVID. Perhaps we will be able to see these amazing creatures with our own eyes when we go to San Diego someday!

F tells me how much he loves super heroes. He’s also been wearing his Iron Man PJs that he got for Christmas every day, especially since he found the Iron Man mask in the costume bin. I even had to put his church clothes on top of them so that he’d agree to be dressed for church! He also looks forward to playing video games with Dad immediately after he arrives home from work. F can tell me all about the different levels of Mario Brothers haha! His favorite song right now is the Pac Man theme song (remix), probably from spending time at Grandma and Grandpa’s house last summer with the pinball machine.

Pirate Baby

Our youngest, W, loves all things scary—like bad guys, monsters, and spiders haha. He is obsessed with pirates. He’s often found building pirate ships out of the Nugget couch, pillows, magnet tiles, LEGO’s, and asking his big sister to make him treasure maps. Trips to the library have included every picture book we can find about pirates, which he loves to read together. His Christmas present of the wind-up pirate ship book has been his favorite to play with, especially the Sea Monster page! He also loves the Story book that includes all his favorite things—pirates, monster crocodiles, and spiders! Jeremy made up a version of this story that had us rolling on the floor laughing starring “W the Spider Pirate”! W has enjoyed watching even the old films about pirates like the original Treasure Island. I finally watched a Muppets Movie for the first time with him (the pirate one)! He lives in the old Jake pirate costume we inherited from his cousins.

Amazon’s Alexa is asked every day to play the following songs which are his favorite: I’m a Gummy Bear, Pirates of the Caribbean (wherein he climbs to the highest point like the couch and freezes into poses of swashbuckling or sword-fighting), and This is Halloween. Most of his tantrums of late are about one of these songs not being on the radio on demand as we’re running errands. That, and not having gummy bears on hand at the moment they’re desired.

He’s now switched to Daddy being his favorite person in the whole world. I can see why! Daddy brings him treats and feeds him snacks constantly, never turns down sharing cuddles, plays with him outside, and builds LEGO pirate ships for him. Total buds <3 He’s been getting along better with his brother F since they’ve started to play more together, especially when they have matching outfits or want to go on the same adventure. He’s still my baby with his perfectly kissable cheeks and wanting to sleep in our bed every night.