The kiddos recently

My babies are growing up so much! Amelia Jayne will be 3 in only 2 short months and I still find it hard to believe that my Xander-boo will be starting kindergarten two weeks from today. Here are some things about them recently -

I don't think I've mentioned it yet, but Amelia Jayne moved into her big girl bed this summer! It's so funny how spontaneous this was. With Xander I had it all planned out, but with Amelia Jayne it was just something we did one day. I looked at David and said, "We really should get her big girl bed ready soon. Wanna take down the rails on her crib this afternoon?" And he did. So she slept in her bed that night. She's done so well. She only had one night (about two weeks after her first night in the new bed) where I asked her to go back to bed three times before 10pm. But she did and we've all done fine since. She's my late sleeper who is often not out of bed until 9 or later, so she's not bounding into my room at 5am...for which I'm thankful. I'm sure those days are coming.

Just when I think AJ is getting the hang of potty training, she has an accident. It's somewhat slow-going, but we're making it. She rarely has a poop accident, so at least I can be thankful for that, right?Her biggest problem is telling me if she needs to go. She's not interested in stopping her activity, so she just doesn't. She does tend to control her bladder all night and has even slept in panties a few nights with no accidents. I'm not pushing it, though. :) Slow-going is just fine with me.

Amelia Jayne is working on dressing herself these days. She's getting the hang of taking her bottoms off and on, but still struggles with shirts. Half the time Xander helps her get dressed. :) He's such a sweet big brother. I think her newfound interest in dressing herself has come from her love of dress-up. She has amassed quite a collection of dress-up clothes and absolutely LOVES it!
Xander's at the stage of independence that I've started to incorporate some new chores for him - he puts the recycle materials in the can in the garage, brings his plate and silverware to the sink after meals, brings the empty trashcans back to the garage after pick-up, and generally helps out with simple cleaning.

Xander is still into flags and countries. We got him a huge map of the world that takes up almost one whole wall in his room. That map came with a map of America that he has on the opposite wall. He still sits and stares at these maps, not quite as much as he did at first, but he still mentions certain countries and asks about different facts. The other day he asked me where Jesus lived when he was on earth. We talked about how city and country names have changed over the years, but I showed him Israel on the map.

Amelia Jayne is my concerned and compassionate child. She gets a look of consternation if someone is sad, hurt, gets a boo-boo or seems upset. She is extremely sensitive to facial expressions and tone of voice. She notices facial expression in books and comments on them. She always wants to know and talk about why Xander's upset or crying. And she seems to notice everything - when I get a haircut, fix my hair differently, wear different earrings, when David grows or cuts his facial hair...she's so observant!

Amelia Jayne loves to twirl and dance.
Xander loves organized sports.
I've signed Amelia Jayne up for a short, 6 week long dance class starting in September.
Xander will be playing competitive soccer (his all-time favorite sport) this fall at the Y.
Such big steps for both of them! I'm so excited!

David and I were just talking the other day about how good these two are for each other.
Amelia Jayne is so imaginative and loves to pretend, dress-up, act out scenes…
Xander loves to play with his toys, the "right" way.
Amelia Jayne is teaching him to lighten up and pretend. (Her imagination is limitless!!)
Xander is teaching her how to have rules and order in her games and playing.
This causes some friction, but most of the time they're really good for each other and enjoy trying out each other's ideas. They really play so well together and have come to enjoy and appreciate each other a lot this summer. More than once I've heard this kind of dialogue floating down the stairs -
"Cinderella, I'm going to Princess Sophia's house. Wanna come?"
"Sure, Spiderman. Let me go get my purse."

They hug and kiss each other at random. And have now started tackling each other before bed - I call it tackling, they call it hugging, either way someone (or both of them) always ends up on the floor!
They're into this new thing they call a family hug or family kiss. All four (or three if Daddy's at work) of us have to put our arms around each other simultaneously in a hug, or all four faces get smooshed together in a sloppy wet kiss. It's pretty fun, actually. :)