Our Little Honey Buns: A Honeybun Snapshot

Dear Kiddos,

We haven't done anything super exciting lately, so I'm going to use this post as a quick snapshot of each of your personalities. Hailey, you are starting to show signs of favoring your left hand. When I encourage you to use your right, you will say, "but that hand is tired!" You can actually draw and write pretty well with both hands, but you are just now preferring your left.

Hailey at the Doctor's Office by Hailey

You love purple and all things rainbow. Anything that Nathan or Hannah plays with suddenly becomes an object of interest to you. Negotiating turn taking is probably one of the only things that we can't talk you out of; otherwise, you are usually a pretty reasonable toddler.

Your medication requires you to drink more water. Being dehydrated is a dangerous thing for you. One day I took you to the store and you asked for me to buy you this water bottle. This $1 bottle is the thing that kicked started your water drinking once again.

But with all this water drinking, you have somehow regressed (in a major way) as far as potty training goes. Check out Exhibit A. This is all the underwear that you have gone through in 4 days. I didn't even know we had so many pairs of underwear that fit you!

I'm trying really hard to keep my cool and not freak out when you have an accident immediately after you tell me "no" when I ask if you need to go. I definitely lost my cool when Hannah regressed and we are still dealing with the aftermaths from that. Keep calm, mommy, keep calm. But that's a lot of underwear, right?

Hailey, you are always wanting to do what the big kids are doing. This past week Nathan and Hannah had their Chinese mid-terms and you even wanted to jump in and help with the flash cards.

This week, Hannah is your favorite sibling to play with. You follow her around like a little puppy dog, but you definitely do not let her boss you around. You are good with using your words to explain what you want. Sometimes I can see you pause to think about how you want to say something (which I think is so cool) and then you'll say it with such sass and sometimes attitude.

Nathan you were super nice to also help Hannah with her Chinese studying while I was busy with Hailey. When I walked by, I just had to take a picture of how sweet your were being to her.

Another activity that got revived this week was stop motion. You both were creating Harry Potter videos that were hilarious. Nathan, you always say that you are not super creative, but I feel like this week, you have dug deep into your creative bucket and pulled out some amazing things. I've been making sure I point out all these glimmers of creative energy.

Hannah, you play with both of your siblings so well, but differently. With Nathan, you guys recreate battle scenarios and with Hailey, you two create family scenarios, often as animals. I have to remind myself to constantly encourage you to speak up for what you want and not just go with what other people want. In the past, you would just pick the other option from what Nathan picked, but these days, your answer typically is, "Oh, it doesn't matter."

The weather has been amazing lately, but I can start to feel the oak pollen start to rise. So when we go outside, we either draw with chalk, jump on the trampoline, take a walk, or ride our bikes.

I decided to have a little fun this week and I took your requests and made some chalk art myself. Hailey, you have requested lots of scary things with teeth. The other day you had me draw a lion with sharp teeth.

Today you had me draw a cute seal and then a shark next to it.

Hannah, you wanted me to draw a unicorn for you and when I asked Hailey what color hair to make it, you can probably guess what she said...

And I just had to draw Totoro. You guys hum it almost all day. That's another thing I love listening to you guys do. As you are working, you guys will hum "Totoro," "Magicarp" or some random classical song that Nathan's been playing on the piano.